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my-writings-and-musings · 4 years

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Hello! I absolutely loved the feelings for the young liaison team kids, may I request some more of those please? With Megs, Roddy and Drift? (Maybe Cyclonus, if you don't mind as well?) thank you very much!

I love how so many asks want the bots to more or less adopt children who adopt them in turn, because that kind of softness is what our bots DESERVE. Rodimus, Drift (and Rung!) have their post here, the original is here, and below I'll have dear Megs and Cyclonus getting their dad vibes.

Megatron

·When the liaison program was decided upon, his presence on the ship had required some... additional precautions be taken, in order to convince the humans that any visitors to the Lost Light would be safe. Said measures had consisted mostly of him being warned repeatedly, both in and out of official correspondence, that he was to never be alone with the humans. Doing so or taking any other actions that made the humans feel even moderately unsafe would result in swift punishment. He'd understood every bit of the security measures, annoying as they were repetitive, and endeavored to follow them. Seeing young members of a species he'd attempted to exterminate wasn't something he wanted to seek out anyway. Thus, he'd been quite purposefully unavailable when the group came onboard.

·Massive as the ship is, however, he'd been unable to elude the liaisons forever. On one fateful day he'd encountered all of them by chance, and thankfully there had been other bots around to ensure Ultra Magnus wouldn't throw him in the brig for breaking any promises. The humans had looked just as surprised as he had to see the former Decepticon leader staring down at them. To their credit though, and his shock, they hadn't fled screaming in an instant. Rather, they'd cautiously approached him as a unit. The boldness had been so unexpected he'd actually felt quite like fleeing himself once they'd started asking questions. With the other Autobots around he'd been forced to stand his ground, and thankfully the humans hadn't been nearly as aggressive as he'd been expecting, keeping most of their questions in the realm of polite but naive curiosity. Perhaps the Fools Energon was simply getting in his head, but he'd walked away from the encounter believing it to have been... pleasant.

·At the next chance meeting, made possible by everyone on the ship relaxing his restrictions, he's admittedly a little happy to see the liaisons. It happens in Swerve's bar, and they're actually able to converse with minimal oversight. The opportunity to get to know humans in depth is one he explores with caution though. Despite his current goal of righting past wrongs, he can't simply undo what he attempted to carry out on this species, as friendly as the young humans are to him. Knowing that fact is what makes him ache despite the pleasant conversation. They talk of their dreams, and ask him about innocent things in return, with particular fascination for his size and strength. Such bright and vivid souls, that he was once utterly indifferent to... How many brilliant lives like them did he snuff out without a care?

·Yet he keeps talking to the little ones whenever the opportunity presents itself. They might be some of the first beings to speak so casually to him in eons, and once they start asking about politics... Well, he can't resist sharing the beliefs he'd once thought too optimistic. As always, each liaison proves a spirited debate expert, despite being small enough to fit comfortably in his palm. Ignoring the rules, they often end up doing just that, though it's more for convenience as he doesn't want them to strain themselves shouting to be heard. Inevitably the restrictions on him loosen to the point he actually begins sitting with them gathered across his massive frame like birds on an oversized but comfortable tree, and through them he gets little samples of earth life in the form of stories and videos on their communication devices.

·It's the happiest he's ever been, and that's probably why he inevitably caves to his self loathing, the joy these little ones bring him forcing back memories of his many crimes against their kind. Even seeing them is a right he shouldn't feel so entitled to. For their sake, he decides to avoid them going forward, to protect them from himself and his legacy in addition to the weight of his conscience. Of course, the liaisons very quickly notice that they aren't seeing him around and one day decide to seek out answers. To his surprise, he fails to simply explain himself through a gentle lie when they eventually find him, as if their faces compel him to speak truthfully. He breaks and reminds them of what he is and what he's done, and that staying away is for their own good, especially considering he can hardly be trusted. As always, they surprise him.

·In total agreement, they all reassure him of a few things. First is that they're all well aware of who he is and what he's done. Second is that they knew that when they decided to approach him, and that his efforts to redeem himself have not gone unnoticed, which is why they've bonded with him as they have. They made the choice to get to know him, and while they can't speak for the many factors of the Cybertronian conflict beyond their understanding, they are allowed to decide they like who he is here and now. Had he a less hardened spark, their words would have made him weep. Instead, he quietly thanks them and promises to think on what they've said. In the end, he honors their decision by returning to the locations they expect him, and they continue as they did before. This time, however, he's more than just gentle while they clamber over him. He's protective as only a bot of his size can be to beings he truly appreciates as his found family.

Cyclonus

·The emotion he felt upon learning of the incoming liaisons was best summarized as "mild curiosity" at best. Not that he looked down upon the incoming crewmembers, but he just didn't think them worthy of much fuss, and only intended to learn enough to effectively avoid them going forward. A not so subtle warning not to intimidate them with his appearance cemented the emotion. On the day of their arrival, he met the whole group quite by chance during their introductory tour, and to his chagrin each one was fascinated by him in particular. Unable to even tell them apart at first, he'd been somewhat placated by their curiosity for things his own kind often overlooks. For the sake of cultural preservation, he decides that answering their questions won't be too much of a burden if done from time to time.

·Now reasonably well settled amongst the crew, he doesn't find it too hard to handle the socialization with multiple humans at once, though admittedly he's a little concerned when he learns of their age. Allowing what are essentially slow developing protoforms to explore on an alien vessel seems... irresponsible. Yet their youth does explain their energy, especially as they ask him many questions about topics he enjoys speaking of, starting with his accent leading to a grand recounting of Tetrahexian history. Unlike so many bots, they gladly listen to him go on about the glory days. Their little eyes go wide as he recounts technological wonders long gone. Had he less control it would have brought a smile to his face, especially when he lets slip his knowledge of the Old Cybertronian language and soon has a whole group begging to learn it.

·While he's hardly gone soft, he does allow the humans a touch more... freedom, in how they interact with him compared to others. They even enjoy the privilege of resting atop his shoulders or in his arms, though that's purely to save his back the strain of constantly bending down to their height. Any bot that says otherwise is swiftly reminded of his combat prowess. He begins to learn each human's unique personality and quirks in time, especially how some are better with history and others excelled at language. Learning bits about their own culture was surprisingly interesting as well, with pictures and videos of long gone human civilizations proving that some of Earth's occupants had decent aesthetic taste.

·Without knowing it, he more or less avoided discussing his own past with the little group, gently steering the conversation each time it ventured too close to the personal. The reason became blindly apparent when they learned of his former affiliation and the crimes he'd committed while sworn to it. Though not present for the revelation, he's certain of their reaction being one of fear and disgust, and immediately withdraws from the crew to hole himself up. Emotions too powerful to stifle force him to isolate for the sake of what remains of his pride. Not even knowing how exactly the humans found out, he's not particularly inclined to discover the manner, as the damage has been done. Admittedly, he was foolish to assume it wouldn't happen sooner.... Regardless, he knows he can never face them again.

·Unbeknownst to him, the revelation was a mistake, and one not met with any particular judgement. The liaisons were only concerned when he failed to appear at standard places of meeting, and as a unit agreed to check up on the bot they'd all come to admire. It had taken all of them knocking to get a coherent response through the door, and Cyclonus had cursed himself for being unable to simply tell them to leave, his spark indeed proving too soft at the sight of them all together. When he'd allowed the group inside, the last thing he'd been expecting was a coordinated embrace between the lot of them, but that had proven to be their tactic straight away. It had proven cunning and effective. A plurality of reasons for his shame had melted in the face of open hearted acceptance, with the entire group promising that who he had been mattered little compared to who he was now. To prevent a humiliating display of tears he'd accepted their assurance without fuss, but had indeed been convinced by the sheer strength of their conviction to continue meeting them for their little talks. Despite himself, he'd actually smiled the first time reuniting with them afterwards, his demeanor growing warmer in their presence from then on as he promised to himself no harm would ever befall them. They had accepted him, and he would do the same in return. Nothing in his past had ever compared to the treasure of simply knowing them.

#transformers #maccadam #mtmte #more than meets the eye #lostlight #lost light #ll #idw #tf #my writing #my asks #anon #requests #liaisons #human reader #self insert #megatron #cyclonus

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maybedefinitely404 · 4 years

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Day 21: Prinxiety (pt 2)

@tsshipmonth2020

Day 21: Combine two soulmate prompts. (This will make sense soon, I promise.)

It’s the sequel you’ve all been waiting for! This is the second part to day 16 (read that first!!!!!), and y’all finally get to see what happened to Virgil! Please heed the trigger warnings below.

TRIGGER/content WARNINGS!! Anxiety, food mention, crappy foster system/group homes, implied past abuse, religious guilt/negative view of religion, homophobia, conversion therapy/abuse, starvation, sneaking medication (antipsychotics/side effects), electrocution, seizure, ambulance. I’m sorry.

Word count: 3.8k

Unlike most kids in the foster system, Virgil didn’t know his birthday. He knew it was sometime in December, but that didn’t do much. Technically, birthdays weren’t really a huge thing anyways, not when the group home he rarely left was awfully underfunded, and a party came second to little things like working sinks and clothes without holes. Even still, all the other kids at least got a little cupcake and a half hearted birthday song on their special day, and his festivities were pushed onto Christmas. He didn’t get a weak excuse for a celebration, because the other kids ‘found it unfair’ that he got that and Christmas in the same month. To prevent an upheaval, the workers told him that he’d just have to be happy with what he got.

But it wasn’t fair, because some kids got Easter and a birthday, or Halloween and a birthday, or New Years and a birthday, and poor Virgil didn’t. The fact of the matter was, they plain didn’t like him. The other kids didn’t like that he got extra free time because of his anxiety, or was allowed to leave the table when they weren’t, and they especially didn’t like he was the youngest of the bunch. The youngest had the highest chance of getting adopted, it was just facts, so they had seemingly decided that if his stay here would be the shortest, it would be the most tortured.

It wasn’t the shortest stay, though. With his barrage of anxiety related issues and group-home-toughened demeanor, no foster home wanted to deal with him. He was snarky, ran away, regularly got in fights with the biological children of the parents, and was promptly labeled a problem child. Eventually, it was deemed easier for him to just stay in a group home until he outgrew the system, since he seemed set to escape every other place. Virgil tried to pretend it didn’t hurt as much as it did; it was his fault, after all. As he watched all his older tormentors grow out of a crooked system, he resigned himself to the same fate. After all, he was almost sixteen now, and he knew his chances were out. So he stayed stuck in his group home, lashing out at his caretakers and therapists, refusing to eat unless it was alone in his room (technically, three kids slept in there, but he so rarely left it, and they wanted to avoid him, it was unofficially deemed his room), and listening to music on his phone.

He’d been given the phone on his fifteenth birthday, a gift from one of his caretakers. It was the cheapest piece of crap he’d ever seen, glitched out every other minute and needed to be charged at least three times a day, but it was a phone nonetheless. Granted, he had no one to text. But he had access to a computer, a totally one hundred percent legal music downloading website, and a strong sense of determination, so he’d soon filled the phone’s entire measly storage with all the music he could cram on the thing.

That’s what he was doing on the night of December 18th, listening to his “Emo Playlist” on a pair of $4 Dollar Store earbuds, laying on his bed and finding shapes in his popcorn ceiling as the moon shone through the window. In the bunk beds across the room from him, his two other roommates were fast asleep, but he couldn’t follow suit. It was sadly normal for Virgil to have sleepless nights where no matter what, his anxious brain just wouldn’t shut off, and it just felt like one of those nights. His hands shook and his eyelids flinched every few seconds for no reason, so he turned the music just a little bit louder and tried to calm his breathing.

It was just past 1 am when his life changed forever.

He was on the fourth cycle of his playlist, eyes no more heavy than hours before and just as flinchy. It was just entering the “existential crisis” time of the night where he started questioning reality, and he was about to give in and start letting his mind drift to darker places, when a song distinctly not his began to play in the midst of a song switch.

How can you miss someone you’ve never met?

Because I need you now but I don’t know you yet,

But can you find me soon, because I’m in my head,

Yeah, I need you now but I don’t know you yet.

He froze, eyes suddenly wide open, and yanked the earbuds out of his ears. The song continued; not in his headphones, but in his head. It didn’t take an idiot to realize that it was his soulmate, responding, and as an afterthought, Virgil suddenly identified that today was probably his birthday. Both amazing revelations, but one was slightly more time sensitive.

Desperately scrolling through his playlists as the song stopped after the chorus, he tried to find a song that would be an adequate introduction to this new person. When his eyes landed on a song from his Adele phase (he didn’t talk about that time) that he hadn’t had the energy to delete yet, he simultaneously groaned and grinned. Subtly meme-y, heartfelt like the song his soulmate had played, a decent greeting. He tapped play.

Hello,

It’s me.

He hoped his soulmate had the same sense of humor of him and had actually given a laugh, since he was trying to stifle laughter behind his sleeve to avoid waking the sleeping kids. He paused after the first verse, since he didn’t really want to remember that phase of his life more than he had to, and waited for the other to play the next song. Hopefully they could work out some sort of rhythm, play songs back and forth. He for sure wouldn’t be able to sleep now.

(The next song his soulmate played was an almost atrocious obviously-musical-theatre song that almost made Virgil hit his head against the wall, so he retaliated with a favorite of his, the most ear assaulting screamo he could find on his playlist.)

The clock had just passed four in the morning when there was a small pause in the routine, before his soulmate played a children’s lullaby. It definitely wasn’t something you’d listen to in everyday life, so Virgil could only assume it was the other’s way of indicating that they had to sleep. As if I’m going to let you go that easily, Virgil smirked, opening YouTube and begging that the video he’d chosen would play without an ad.

It did, filling his crackling, cheap earbuds with the opening chorus of Baby Shark. Fight fire with fire, he decided, chuckling to himself as he turned off the song just before the ‘mommy shark’ verse. Silence filled his head and he mentally wished the other a good night, turning onto his stomach and screaming into his pillow, grinning madly.

Eight months later, their new way of life was deeply imbedded into him; getting woken up at asscrack o’clock in the morning by a worker who wanted to be there as much as he did, and either playing his morning playlist to get himself slightly more ready to face another monotonous day or waiting in silence until his soulmate woke up and played their own music. He’d begrudgingly started to even enjoy the showtunes. Everyone around the home had noticed his gradual shift in attitude, and he couldn’t help the natural smiles that pulled at his cheeks when a new song played out of nowhere. It got to the point where his therapist noticed his lifted mood, and the other kids stopped avoiding him and, unknown to Virgil, his social workers decided that he was ready to try another foster home.

That’s why, eight months later, there was a knock on his bedroom door and his main worker poked in her head, asking him to come downstairs. He’d been playing music for his soulmate, so he silently apologized and joined her at the dining room table, giving her a half hearted smile.

“Virgil, we’ve found a new home for you. A foster home that specializes in… harder to place cases. They’ve opened their doors to you, and we’re hoping to get you into a trial period there within the next week.”

At first, Virgil vehemently refused. No. He didn’t want to go back to foster homes, not after… everything he went to in the first few. The ones that hurt him, the ones that were more densely crowded than group homes, the ones that turned him into the angry shell he was before he had met a sign of a possibly happy future. He didn’t want to lose the progress he’d made.

But Bev looked so hopeful, so pleadingly at him, that he gave in after three days of denying. He said goodbye to the kids he’d unfortunately grown attached to, threw his few belongings into a black garbage bag, and got into his worker’s car for the first time in years. Just rebuckling that seatbelt caused a shudder to run up his spine.

------1 month later------

“Virgil, what are you doing? Do you have earbuds in? We’ve made it abundantly clear that you are not to have technology at the table.”

Virgil fought every urge in his body to roll his eyes, flicking his hair behind his ears to show they were empty. It had gotten long and shaggy, just reaching his jaw in the back. “No earbuds. My soulmate’s listening to music, and it’s catchy.” Frankly, he was surprised he hadn’t been caught bopping along to silence before by the stiflers.

They were nice enough, a woman and a man and their two biological children, but they were too religious for Virgil’s liking. He’d never had qualms with religion before, but he had grown tired of spending Saturdays and Sundays (his only days off from their homeschool regime) in a church, surrounded by older people singing repetitive songs and being yelled at by a guy on the pulpit. Faking being sick only worked so many times before they refused to listen to his excuses. They also insisted he go to a specialized youth group on Tuesdays, but that was easy enough to escape. He just waved by and booked it to the closest 7/11 when they left, making sure he was back at the church by the time it was over and made up some bullshit about the gathering. Jameson, the attendant at the gas station, was becoming the closest friend he’d ever had.

“Your soulmate?” One of the children asked around a bite of toast, spitting a decent amount onto Virgil’s sleeve.

“Like daddy and I, Mariam.” The woman explained briefly, not bothering to chastise her about speaking with her mouth full.

“Yeah.” Unlike most of the kids at his old group home, he wasn’t warming up to theirs. They were too spoiled, too bratty. One had even bit him in his first week here and he was still bitter about it.

“When did you connect with yours, Virgil?” The question wasn’t asked kindly, more for the sake of being polite, and he assumed if he didn’t answer in an equally polite tone, they’d probably make him paint a fence or something.

He knew they cared about his bond about as much as he did about theirs. Which was approximately none. The mom took her children’s empty plates and placed them in the sink, Virgil quickly following suit. No use losing more computer time because he didn’t clean his plate.

“Last December. I didn’t even know it was my birthday, and they started playing music out of nowhere. It was pretty cool.” He finished rinsing off his plate and was confused at the sudden stillness in the room.

“‘They’?” The mom asked, giving her husband what she must have believed to be a subtle glance.

“Uhm… yeah?” Virgil said slowly, “I’m bisexual. So I’m not sure if my partner’s a guy or a girl or… something in between. So… they?”

He stared with rising anxiety as the two parents had a silent interaction over the kitchen island, before the dad stood up. “Kids, plates in the sink and then go get ready for church. Virgil, you too.”

There was minimal whining as the younger ones did as they were asked, racing each other up the stairs. Virgil followed, slower, listening to hushed beginnings of a conversation, unable to fight the feeling that he’d just royally fucked up.

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

“Virgil, may we speak with you for a moment?”

He froze, slowly turning from where he’d been half way up the stairs. They’d just wrapped up lessons for the day (Virgil never thought he’d miss an actual school building before, but alas) and the kids had been excused, leaving just him and the parents behind. It had been almost a week since the incident, and a part of him had been hoping they’d just drop it. There wasn’t much they could do, anyways; if their religion conflicted so badly with his sexuality, the worst they would do is send him back to the home anyways. In all honesty, he kind of hoped they would. He was sick of being here, and it was better for his record if he didn’t run.

Not that it mattered much anymore. He was almost aged out of the system anyways.

He took a cautious seat back at the dining room table, which they had just cleared from classes. The mom sat back in her chair, eyeing him carefully, as the dad began to speak.

“We spoke with our pastor the other day, and we think it would be best if we put you in therapy.”

“I don’t…” He’d stopped regular therapy at the group home almost a month before coming here, and he couldn’t imagine why he’d need to go back. He definitely wasn’t happy here, but he didn’t figure a grumpy mood was enough to warrant counseling. “I don’t understand.”

“After… what you told us? About your… urges-”

“Urges.” He couldn’t help his own disgusted tone. Of course they were homophobic.

“Yes. Our pastor suggested we try conversion therapy.”

Virgil scoffed, but he couldn’t ignore the way his heart started pounding, “Right. As if you could ever get my social workers to approve that. Ward of the state, remember?” He tapped his chest a couple times.

“Fortunately, we already talked to your social worker, Virgil. We had it approved just this morning.” The man finally stopped, as if waiting for a response.

Virgil’s eyes grew wide as he looked frantically between the two of them, the woman quickly avoiding eye contact. That wasn’t normal.

“There’s no way in hell that you-”

“Profanity, Virgil!” The man barked and Virgil shrank back in his chair, impulsively ducking to avoid a fist that didn’t come. They hadn’t hit him so far, but old habits die hard. “We’ve already signed you up. Your first session is tomorrow. First thing’s first-” He stood up, reaching a hand out to a still-shaking Virgil, “Hand over your phone.”

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

His hair was short now. Shorter than he could ever remember it being. He missed his bangs, he missed the tiny boosts of confidence it gave him when the rest of his appearance disgusted him. Now there was nothing for his hands to run through. There was no style to it, just an electric razor in the hands of his silent foster mother. He should have fought it, he really should have, but he was shaking far too much to try to move.

He didn’t like hands so near his throat.

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

Surely, his social worker didn’t approve of this. The only explanation Virgil could possibly rationalize was they’d lied about the purpose of the therapy, or the method, or something. But any type of change in a foster kid's life had to go through about a million different levels to get approved, so how the hell were they getting away with this?

It wasn’t too bad. A lot of it was using religious guilt, something Virgil did not have much of, saying he was immoral and inhumane. The rest of it was just his new therapist trying to dig into his supposed ‘trauma’ that made him ‘this way’, as if there was something that caused it. They talked a lot about his old foster homes, and his therapist seemed positive something there had to be the root to everything. It made his blood boil.

It didn’t help that they still hadn’t given his phone back, and they confined him to his room when he wasn’t doing school work at the kitchen table. He could hear the way his soulmate was losing morale, the longer he didn’t respond. The songs were darker, and were few and far between. They still refused to play songs on what he’d called ‘his days’.

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

His ‘therapy’ had ended hours ago, and yet he couldn’t stop twitching. Every time he closed his eyes in a vain attempt to sleep, it was like the electrodes were attached to him again. The images they’d shown him flashed before his eyes, of men kissing, holding hands, and were quickly followed by the sharp sting of electric shocks. He couldn’t close his eyes without flinching violently, no music to calm his nerves.

Virgil didn’t sleep that night.

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

He held to the music like an anchor, soaking in every rare song his soulmate played like a sponge. It was his only relief from the hunger pangs in his stomach, reminding him that he hadn’t been allowed to eat at all in the day leading up to another therapy session. Apparently they wanted to put him on some kind of medication, try to increase the intensity of his sessions. It was getting to the point where Virgil was tempted to pretend it was working just to make them stop.

He missed his soulmate.

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

No. He’d said no to the drugs. They wanted to put him on anti-psychotics, claiming he was severely mentally ill, and he’d downright refused. There was no way in hell he was going on anti-psychotics. Finally, after days of their demanding being met with stubbornness, they’d given in.

That had been a month ago. Maybe. Time had gotten kind of funny, like in that limbo between Christmas and New Years, or in the depths of summer break. It had been a while, for sure. They still fed him so rarely a growling stomach was more common than a full one, claiming it was part of his new therapy. He couldn’t help wonder why he was gaining weight, though. He’d been underweight for a majority of his life, thanks to a constantly overworking metabolism and genetics, along with the nasty food they served at group homes that he gladly avoided, but he was starting to fill out slightly. His ribs were barely showing.

That would be a symptom of being on antipsychotics, he knew from previous research. But he wasn’t on them, so why…?

He took another sip of his apple juice his foster mom had brought him, trying to focus on his homework. Had apple juice always tasted that bitter?

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

They’d gone too far this time, Virgil knew that much. Curse his stubbornness, his inability to just lie and go along with it. He could have just claimed the conversion therapy was working, ‘oh golly, I’m healed!’, and go on with his life, finally talk to his fucking social worker, but no. He wasn’t capable of that.

They’d shown him more pictures, shocking him more frequently, refusing to stop the session even as tears streamed down his face. It just hurt so bad. Then he remembered a shout (maybe his own?), blinding pain, and the next thing he knew, he was in his foster dad’s car. He said he’d had a seizure, but he was okay now, so they were heading home. A cup of water was forced down his throat and he was laid down in bed, commanded to rest. He was so confused, but also so tired, so he let his eyes drift shut.

Just before he lost consciousness for the second time that day, he heard a soft melody drift through his mind as his soulmate played another song. It had been so long since the last time he’d heard them play music… despite his exhaustion, he fell asleep with a smile on his face.

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

The days had been a bit of a blur since his seizure. It was probably because his brain had done the human equivalent to ‘Have you tried turning it off and back on again?’, but even that was hazy in his mind. All he wanted to do was sleep, to rest, to not have to do the school work that they were still shoving down his throat. From where he was laying motionless in his bed, he watched the slowly setting sun dip below the horizon.

There was a knock at the door downstairs. Virgil flinched from the noise, triggering a series of twitches down his spine and into his limbs. People were talking downstairs. He could distinctly hear the voice of his foster parents, but the others were unfamiliar. They were getting louder, near shouting, and there were pounding footsteps echoing up the stairs and down his hallway.

He couldn’t even find the energy to be scared as his door was thrown open and a man’s voice shouted, “He’s in here!”. A flurry of people stormed into the room, the ones in the lead dressed in blue.

Clambering, people shifting to make space, a woman holding his hand. She was asking him questions as they loaded him into a stretcher and he tried his best to answer, but he was just so tired. His name was said multiple times, as well as the names of his foster parents, but it was hazy, so hazy…

“We were just trying to help, I didn’t want this to happen, I don’t-”

“Quiet, woman!”

She raised her voice but it was growing farther away. Virgil realized with a start that he was looking at the sky, bumping along on the gravel path, the bright lights of an ambulance flashing across his vision.

The husband shouted again, trying to silence his wife. That was the last thing Virgil heard as the doors slammed shut, and he finally allowed his eyes to close.

Part 3 HERE

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#lywrites #tsshipmonth2020 #prinxiety #roman sanders #virgil sanders #abuse tw #conversion therapy tw #ts soulmate au #sanders sides fanfiction #sanderssides #sanderssidesfanfiction #sanderssidesau #sanders sides au #sanders sides

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jentlemahae · 3 years

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(Album Review) Sticker by NCT 127 – Did It Really Stick?

Just last week, South Korean group NCT 127 – numbers referring to the longitude coordinate of Seoul – released their long-awaited, third full-length album, Sticker, which immediately caused an uproar among their fans. Some really loved it, while some really hated it (and were not silent about it). It’s the so-called ‘third album syndrome’, where artists create a record that is so new even for them, that it ends up being polarizing for the fanbase. Sticker might have been just that for 127, as fans are either calling it a masterpiece or a huge disappointment – no in-between.

(Those who are already familiar with NCT 127 may skip the following section. Those who are not – buckle up!)

A beginner’s guide to NCT

For those who may not know, NCT (short for “Neo Culture Technology”) is a boy-group under SM Entertainment. The band has been able to stand out from the KPOP landscape since its very debut, and not only because of their music and talents, but also thanks to their distinctive concept. In a nutshell, the idea is that the group can have an unlimited (or infinite) number of members, as fresh new boys can be added to the lineup at any given time. So far, they have accumulated 23 members, divided into four different subunits – NCT 127, NCT DREAM, WayV (fixed units), and NCT U (rotational unit).

Each subgroup has its own characteristic sound and/or concept, but there is one thing they have in common – they are all known for going against the current, be it musically or style-wise. In fact, they are considered the pioneers of the takeover on KPOP by ‘noise music’. But what is noise music? Sometimes affectionately called ‘pots and pans’, it is a genre characterized by an expressive use of sound that is not bound to traditional music rules, and encapsulates different chords and types of notes within a song. Nowadays, it has become the main style of the 4th Generation, and NCT were the ones who truly popularized it to the current audience (despite being 3rd Gen).

NCT 127’s approach to noise music is particularly fascinating. Fans describe their sound as ‘NEO’, which is confusing and vague unless you are familiar with their discography – then it makes perfect sense! The group always takes noise music to the next level, yet manages to not make it sound completely nonsensical and (too) migraine-inducing.

Now that you are all up to speed, we can proceed with the actual review!

Sticker – peeling the songs off

After weeks of teasers and hints, NCT 127 finally unveiled to their eager, hungry fans their new single and album, Sticker. This record perfectly encapsulates the cornucopia of sounds that the band is known for, as the songs go from EDM to hip-hop to heart-warming ballads. And of course, the group’s signature sound – the pots and pans are here, louder and stronger than ever. But enough chit-chat for now – let’s go through the album together.

Sticker (8.5/10)

NCT 127 made the bold choice to open the record with the title track, Sticker. Why ‘bold choice’? Well, let’s just say the song is not exactly easily digestible… The melody is a plethora of sounds, yet feels almost empty and subdued to the vocals at the same time. It is a bacchanal of frenzied beats and a dirty bass line accompanied by a shrill flute and piano, with cut-throat raps and beautiful harmonies that are disjointed from the overall melody. Sticker is chaos, but an intentional one, thus its instability manages to captivate you whilst disarming you.

Truth be told, I was a bit taken aback by the song when I first listened to it. Nothing appeared to make sense to my ears, as they seem to be fighting with the beat (and losing) throughout the entire track. But that’s exactly the point. The disconnection between the instrumentals and the singing is clearly done on purpose, perhaps in order to further highlight the members’ impressive vocals, which overpower and outbalance the otherwise empty beat. Or maybe the purpose was just to render the song more impactful, which sure as hell worked – you may not like Sticker, but the song is likely to remain stuck in your head one way or another.

Lemonade (8.3/10)

The second track was teased by the group prior to the official release of the album with a track video, and was immediately loved by fans. This catchy B-side includes an addictive deep bass which makes the perfect beat for both powerful raps and hefty vocals, a signature cocktail in NCT music.

The song is so good that a puzzling question immediately erupted following the release of the record, and spread like wildfire within 127’s fanbase – why wasn’t ‘Lemonade’ the title track? After all, everyone likes it, both fans and non-fans, and it could easily be something you’d expect to find at the top of the charts. In contrast to Sticker, on which everybody seems to be divided. So, wouldn’t it make sense for it to be the title track, given its striking popular appeal?

The answer is no. What some fans don’t seem to understand is that when it comes down to KPOP title tracks (especially nowadays), the issue is not whether it is the best or the catchiest song on the record. The real question is, does it make an impact? Given how new KPOP groups are popping up left and right, managing to leave enough of an impression on the listeners can make or break a career. The title track needs to be instantly stuck in your mind, and for that Sticker fits the bill, as Lemonade sounds just like any other song you could hear in the first 30 minutes of Inkigayo. It’s good, but ordinary. It just doesn’t cut it, and NCT 127 clearly know that.

Breakfast (8/10)

Third song on the record, Breakfast feels reminiscent of past SM boy groups’ releases, namely SHINee’s song Prism from the album 1 and 1. The song encompasses bright melodies and retro beats with a modernized twist, which serve as a perfect mix with the members’ voices. The song’s main stars are the vocalists (particularly HAECHAN, whose tone works wonders with the genre), while the raps are tamer for the group’s standard.

Focus (9/10)

The fourth track is a mid-tempo R&B romantic song, a genre that is characteristic of 127’s B-sides and displays the group’s more soulful edge. Focus flawlessly showcases the members’ honeyed and warm vocals (especially JAEHYUN’s), and the slow lazy-like raps remind of early 2000’s sultry slow jams. This track was an immediate fan-favorite (as attested by yours truly).

The Rainy Night (9.5/10)

The Rainy Night is an R&B-tinged ballad reminiscent of boybands in the 90’s, and is the perfect follow-up to Focus, as vocals appear to be the true protagonists of both songs. In the track, TAEIL manages to stand out in particular by showing off his impressive range, with his beautiful adlibs on the suit-and-tie beat.

Far (6.2/10)

Next up is Far, characterized by a boom-clap drumline and a chanted chorus. Despite being rather forgettable, it is a good song after all – something straight out of a superhero movie soundtrack. It just sounds like something we’ve heard before at least a million times from about any KPOP boy group out there.

Bring The Noize (6.6/10)

Bring The Noize is about as NEO as it can get, with loud and thunderous beats, growling raps and sounds mimicking a car engine, which together make you feel as if your head were in a blender. Just like Sticker, this song is pure chaos, but of an overwhelming and impetuous kind because of its packed production. Yet, I think that’s where it all goes sideways – Bring The Noize is just too overwhelming, because it’s too crowded. On top of the production overflowing with sounds and effects, the vocal aspect of the song is simply too much. All members sing or rap on the track, but the variety of vocal colors is disarming and confusing to the ears in the worst way. Simply put, some members could have stayed silent in that recording booth…

Magic Carpet Ride (6.4/10)

Doing a full 180 from the previous track, Magic Carpet Ride is a ballad with pop elements, and a melodic beat that particularly shows off DOYOUNG and JAEHYUN’s vocals. Despite being a lovely song, it’s nothing particularly exceptional – it’s good for what it is, but it falls slightly flat and forgettable. Nevertheless, it does a wonderful job in proving that not every KPOP song needs a rap part…

Road Trip (7.3/10)

Road Trip shows off 127’s more boyish and bright side, with nice layers of guitar, drums and delicate vocals, proving once again how the band’s is not just a loud gimmick. The song is enjoyable – however, it’s not something we haven’t heard before from NCT. It’s sweet and lovely, but it’s definitely nothing to write home about.

Dreamer (7.4/10)

This upbeat song gives yet another sweet and poppy feel to the tracklist, with retro beats, trumpet riffs and a happy-go-lucky melody. Dreamer kinda sounds like something out of an Old Navy commercial, but I mean it in a good way – its funky, childlike charm combined with the uplifting lyrics is likely to put a smile on your face!

Promise You (7.2/10)

127 chose to end the album with a letter dedicated to their fanbase, NCTzens. Due to the ongoing pandemic, groups have not been able to meet fans in a long time as they normally would. In Promise You they sing about being separated from a loved one and then being reunited again, which is likely a nod towards their fans. Musically, the song intertwines retro-inspired beats with atmospheric synths, that give it a dreamy-like appeal. The track is sweet and serves as a great album closer, as wrapping up the record with DOYOUNG singing “So stay” in a longing yet reassuring tone, feels like the perfect goodbye.

So, did it stick?

Overall, Sticker is a very well-made album – it has ballads, upbeat tracks, addictive songs, and a decent dose of the good ol’ pots and pans. Does it sound like something we have never heard before in KPOP? No! Does it sound like something we’ve never heard before from NCT? Also… No… But whilst the record follows a similar algorithm to 127’s past albums, it is still incredibly enjoyable without sounding boring or too déjà vu. It has a good 50/50 mix of experimental songs to ballads and R&B-influenced tracks, and it leaves room for both rappers and vocalists to shine.

The album truly screams ‘NCT 127’ – it’s experimental, not sonically cohesive, confusing, and a little weird. Plus, just like all of the group’s music, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Or better yet, it’s not at first listen. Sticker might be odd and disarming, but it will get to you eventually – you just gotta let it stick.

8/10

#i had MANY things to say <3 #i hope someone liked it ^_^#btw this has not been through the editor yet <3 hope it's good :D #soph.txt

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forestwater87 · 4 years

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How did you become a university Librarian? Did you do an English degree? Sorry if this is a weird question it just really interests me as I’m not sure what to do when I’m older

Eeee I got really excited about this question!

Okay, the fun thing about librarianship is that all roads can lead to it: as long as you get an ALA-approved (assuming you’re American; if you aren’t I cannot help you) graduate degree you can do just about anything for undergrad. English majors are extremely common, just by the nature of who’s into the job, but literally it doesn’t matter; in fact, weirder and more specialized degrees can actually help in certain jobs, because they give you a ton of background info and qualifications than most of your contemporaries have.

I fell into it because I worked at a library in high school and fell in love with the environment, and when I realized I’d rather die than work in publishing (my previous life’s goal) I gravitated toward library school. I knew from the beginning that I’d need a Master’s -- and a very specific one at that -- so mostly my undergrad was just “grab a foundational degree and have fun with it.” That was really freeing, honestly. I had a ton of fun in undergrad.

Now, if you, Anon, were interested in getting into librarianship I’d have a handful of recommendations. These are all based on my very American experience, and there are probably smarter people than me with better advice but I’m the only one on this blog so heeeeerrreeeee we goooooooooo!

Undergrad

You need a 4-year degree. Full-stop. It doesn’t matter what kind, but you gotta have one to get into grad school.

Like I said, you can do just about anything for an undergraduate degree. Most of the time English is the BA of choice, because librarians love them some books, but some far less common ones that I think would be hugely helpful to a hopeful librarian would be:

Computer Science: Oh my god you need at least a baseline competency in computers/technology please you don’t have to code but you need to be able to turn a computer on and navigate just about any website/office application on just about any device at the very least you need to know how to Google

Business/Marketing: Particularly if you want to work in public libraries, where a bunch of your funding comes from begging politicians and convincing taxpayers to donate/vote to give you money

Law: If you want to be a law librarian

Medical . . . whatever, I don’t know what fields of medicine there are: If you want to work in a hospital or other medical library

History or Art History: If you’re interested in archives or museum librarianship

Education: School librarians in my state require you to be a certified teacher, and no matter what kind of library you end up in, you’ll end up teaching someone something a decent amount of the time

Communications: You’ll be doing a lot of it. Public speaking, too

Spanish/ASL/any not-the-common language: Hey, you never know what your patrons speak

Literally fucking anything I promise it doesn’t matter what you major in you will use it in a library at some point

Just be aware that you will need more than an undergrad degree. You’ll need probably 2 years of postsecondary schooling (more for certain types of librarianship), so get yourself comfortable with the idea of college.

If you’re like me (please don’t be like me), you might toy with the idea of getting a minor or two/double majoring to round out your skill set. Honestly I’d encourage it if you’re comfortable with the workload and have the time or money; like I said, there are no skills or educational background that won’t come in handy at some point. I promise. We see it all.

Along those lines, a wide expanse of hobbies can be hugely helpful too! You never know when your encyclopedic knowledge of Minecraft will be useful to a patron, but it absolutely will be.

Graduate School

All right, you’ve got your lovely little Bachelor’s Degree, maybe in something weird and esoteric for the fun of it . . . now you’re off to do more school!

It’s a bit complicated, because there are a handful of different titles an appropriate degree could have; my school called it “a Master of Science in Information Science” (MSIS), but other schools might just go with “Master’s of Information Science” (MIS), “Master’s of Library Science” (MLS), “Master’s of Library and Information Science” (MLIS) . . . it’s a mess.

What you need to do is make sure the degree is approved by the American Library Association, who decides if a program is good enough to make you a librarian in the States. (Again, if you’re not American, good luck.)

Here’s a list of ALA-accredited programs and the schools that offer them.

The nice thing is accreditation has to be renewed at least every few years, so that means your program is always updated to make sure it’s in line with national standards. I’m not promising you’ll learn everything you need to be a librarian in grad school (oh my god you so won’t not even close hahahaha), but at least in theory you’ll be learning the most up-to-date information and methods.

(I’m curious to see how things have changed; when I was in school from 2015-17, the hot topics in library science were makerspaces (especially 3D printing), turning the library into the community’s “third space,” and learning how to incorporate video games into library cataloging and programming. No idea if those are still the main hot-button issues or if we’ve moved on to something else; I imagine information literacy and fake news are a pretty big one for current library students.)

Anyway! You pick a school, you might have to take a test or two to get in -- I had to take the GRE, which is like the SATs but longer -- almost certainly have to do all that annoying stuff like references and cover letters and all that, but assuming you’re in: now what?

There are a couple options depending on the school and the program, but I’m going to base my discussion around the way my school organized their program at the time, because that’s what I know dammit and I will share my outdated information because I want to.

My school broke the degree down into 5 specializations, which you chose upon application to the program:

Archives & Records Administration: For working in archives! I took some classes here when I was flirting with the idea, and it’s a lot of book preservation, organizing and caring for old documents and non-book media, and digitization. Dovetails nicely into museum work. It’s a very specific skillset, which means there will be jobs that absolutely need what you specifically can do but also means there aren’t as many of them. It makes you whatever the opposite of a “jack of all trades” is. You’re likely to be pretty isolated, so if you want to spend all your time with books this might be a good call; it’s actually one of the few library-related options that doesn’t require a significant amount of public-facing work.

Library & Information Services: For preparation to work in public or academic (college) libraries. Lots of focus on reference services, some cataloging, and general interacting-with-the-public. You have to like people to go into library services in general, heads up.

Information Management & Technology: Essentially meaningless, but you could in theory work as like a business consultant or otherwise do information-related things with corporations or other organizations.

Information Storage & Retrieval: Data analytics, database . . . stuff. I don’t really know. Computers or something. Numbers 3 and 4 really have nothing to do with libraries, but our school was attempting to branch out into more tech-friendly directions. That being said, both this and #3 could definitely be useful in a library! Libraries have a lot of tech, and in some ways business acumen could be helpful. All roads lead to libraries; remember that.

Library & Information Services / School Library Media Specialist: This was the big kahuna. To be a school librarian -- at least in my state -- you need to be both a certified librarian and a certified teacher, which means Master’s degrees in both fields. What our school did was basically smushed them together into a combined degree; you took a slightly expanded, insanely rigorous 2-2.5 years (instead of the traditional 1.5-2) and you came out of it with two degrees and two certifications, ready to throw your butt into an elementary, middle/junior high, or high school library. Lots of focus on education. I started here before realizing I don’t like kids at all, then panicked and left. Back in 2017 this was the best one for job security, because our state had just passed a law requiring all school librarians to be certified with a MSIS/MLS/whatever degree. So lots of people already in school libraries were desperately flinging themselves at this program, and every school was looking for someone that was qualified. No idea if that’s changed in time.

No matter what concentration you went in with, you automatically graduated with a state certification to be a librarian, which was neat. You didn’t automatically get civil service status, though; for some public libraries you need to be put on a civil service list, which means . . . something, I’m not entirely sure. It involves taking exams that are only available at certain times of the year and I gave up on it because it looked hard.

No one did more than 1 concentration, which is dumb because I wanted to do them all, but it takes a lot of time and money to take all the classes associated with all of them so I personally did #2, which was on the upper end of mid-tier popularity. School library and database services were far and away the most popular, and literally no one did the business one because it was basically useless, so library and archives were the middle children of which the library one was prettier.

THAT BEING SAID! Some forms of librarianship require a lot more education. A few of those are:

Law librarians: At least in my state, you gotta be a certified librarian and have a J.D. This is where the “big bucks” are -- though let’s be real, if you want to be a librarian you have zero interest in big bucks; reconcile yourself to being solidly middle-class and living paycheck-to-paycheck for the rest of your life or marrying rich -- which I guess is why it requires the most work.

School librarians: Like I mentioned, depending on the state you might need two degrees, and not all schools smush them into one. You might need to get a separate Master’s in education.

College librarians: Now, this depends on the college and the job; some colleges just need an all-access librarian, like mine. I didn’t need to specialize in anything, I just showed up with my degree and they took me. (Note: these sorts of entry-level positions tend to pay piss. Like, even more piss than most library gigs. Just a heads-up.) However, if you’re looking to get into a library of a higher-end university, you might be asked to have a second Master’s-level or higher degree just to prove you’re academic enough to party at their school. (Let’s be real, Harvard is almost certainly gonna want someone with a Ph.D. at the very least. That’s just how they roll.) Alternatively, the position might be for a specialty librarian, someone in charge of a field-specific library or field-specific reference services; if you’re being asked to head up the Science & Engineering Library at Masshole University, it’s reasonable to expect that you’ll be bringing a degree in engineering or some sort of science to the table. Colleges have so many different needs that predicting what kind of experience/education you should get is a bit of a challenge. Good luck. Some schools will help you out a bit with this; my grad school had dual degree programs where you could share credits between the MSIS and either an English or History Master’s so you could graduate with both in less time. I . . . started this, and then panicked at the thought of more school/writing a thesis and bailed, but it’s great if you’re into that idea!

What’s the point of the Information/Library Science degree?

You have to have the degree. If you don’t have the degree, you don’t get the job and you don’t make-a the money. Resign yourself to getting a Master’s degree or you’re gonna be bummed out and unemployed.

In terms of what you learn? Well, obviously it depends on the program, but I found that a lot of what I learned was only theoretically related to what I do on a daily basis. My instructors were lovely (well, the adjuncts anyway; the full-timers really didn’t want to be there and wanted to be off doing research and shit), but every library is so idiosyncratic and there’s such a massive umbrella of jobs you could get in one -- god, I didn’t even get into things like metadata services, which I learned basically nothing about in grad school but are super important to some positions -- that it’s hard to learn anything practical in a classroom.

However, besides the piece of paper that lets you make-a the money, there are two important things you should get from your grad school education:

Research skills: My god, you’re going to be doing so much research. If you’re a public librarian, you need to know how to Google just about anything. And if you’re a college librarian, being able to navigate a library database and find, evaluate, and cite sources . . . I mean, you’re going to be doing so much of that, showing students how to do that. Like a ridiculous amount of my day is showing students how to find articles in the virtual library. Get good at finding things, because much like Hufflepuffs, librarians need to be great finders.

Internship(s): Just about every library program will require an internship -- usually but not always in replacement of a thesis -- and if the one you’re looking at doesn’t, dump it like James Marsden in a romantic comedy. Internships are hugely important not only because they look good on a resume and give you some of those delicious, delicious references, but they are a snapshot of what your job is going to look like on a day-in, day-out basis; if nothing else, you’ll learn really fast what does and doesn’t appeal to you. As I mentioned, I wanted to be a school librarian for about half a semester. You know what changed my mind? My class required like 40 hours of interning at schools of each level. Being plopped into that environment like a play you’re suddenly acting in? Super helpful in determining whether or not this shit is for you.

What else should I learn, then?

Besides how to research basically anything? Here are some useful skills in just about any library:

Copyright law. Holy shit, do yourself a favor and learn about publishing/distribution laws in your state. Do you wanna show a movie as a fun program? You need to buy a license and follow super specific rules or it’s illegal! Does an instructor want to make copies of their textbook to give to the students? Make sure you know how much they can copy before it’s no longer fair use! Everything in my life would be easier if I’d taken the time to learn anything about copyright. I did not, and now I’m sad. (I lost out on a job opportunity because they wanted the librarian to be particularly knowledgeable in that kinda thing, and I was very not.)

Metadata and cataloging. In theory, you should learn this in grad school, but I was only given the bare basics and it wasn’t enough. Dublin Core, MARC-21, RDF -- there are so many different kinds of metadata schema, and I took a 6-week class in this and still don’t understand any of the words I just used in this sentence. But basically, to add items to a library catalog you often need to know how to input them into your library’s system; to an extent that’ll be idiosyncratic to your library’s software, but some of it will be based on a larger cataloging framework, so familiarity with those is very useful.

Public speaking and education. You’re gonna do a lot of it. Learn how to deal.

General tech savviness. Again, we’re not talking about coding but if you can navigate a WordPress website? If you know how to troubleshoot just about any issue with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, etc.? If you can unjam printers and install software and use social media you’re going to be a much happier person. At the very least, know how to google tutorials and fake your way through; your IT person can only do so much, and a lot of it is probably going to fall on you.

Social work, diplomacy, general human relations kinda stuff. You’re going to be dealing with all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds, with every political view, personal problem, and life experience under the sun. You need to get very good at being respectful of diversity -- even diversity you don’t like* -- and besides separating your own personal views and biases from your work, you’ll be much better equipped to roll with the punches if you have, for example, conflict resolution training. Shit’s gonna get weird sometimes, I promise. (Once a student came in swinging around butterfly knives and making ninja noises. You know who knew how to deal with that? Not me!)

Standard English writing and mechanics. It’s not fair, but in general librarians are expected to have a competent grasp on the Standard English dialect, and others are less likely to be appreciated by the general populace. Obviously this differs based on your community and environment, and colloquialisms are sometimes useful or even necessary, but as a rule of thumb it’s a good call to be able to write “properly,” even if that concept is imperialist bullshit.

*I don’t mean Nazis. Obviously I don’t mean Nazis. Though there is a robust debate in the library community about whether Nazis or TERFs or whatever should be allowed to like, use library facilities for their own group meetings or whatever. I tend to fall on the “I don’t think so” side of the conversation, but there’s a valid argument to be made about not impeding people’s access to information -- even wrong or harmful information.

Any other advice?

Of course! I love to talk. Let’s see . . .

Get really passionate about freedom of information and access: A library’s main reason for existing is to help people get ahold of information (including fiction) that they couldn’t otherwise access. If you’re a public librarian, you have to care a lot about making sure people can access information you probably hate. (If you’re an academic librarian it’s a little more tricky, because the resources should meet a certain scholarly threshold, and if you’re a school librarian there are issues of appropriateness to deal with, but in general more info to more people is always the direction to push.) Get ready to defend your library purchases to angry patrons or even coworkers; get ready to defend your refusal to purchase something, if that’s necessary. Get ready to hold your nose and cringe while you add American Sniper to your library collection, because damn it, your patrons deserve access to the damn stupid book. Get really excited about finding new perspectives and minority representation, because that’s also something your patrons deserve access to. Get really excited about how technology can make access easier for certain patrons, and figure out how to make it happen in your library. Care about this; it’s essential that you’re passionate about information -- helping your patrons find it, making sure they can access it, evaluating it, citing it . . . all of it. Get ranty about it. Just do it.

Be prepared to move if necessary: One of my professors told us that there was one thing that would always guarantee you a job that paid well -- this was in 2016 but still -- that as long as you had it you could do whatever you wanted. And that was a suitcase. Maybe where you live is an oversaturated market (thanks for having 6 library schools in a 4-hour radius, my state). Maybe something something economic factors I don’t really understand; the point is that going into this field, you should probably make peace with the idea that you’ll probably either end up taking a job that doesn’t make enough money or struggle a lot to even find one . . . or you’re going to have to go where the jobs are. It’s a small field. Just know that might be a compromise you have to make, unless you can get a strictly remote job.

Read: This sounds stupidly obvious but it’s true! Read things that aren’t your genre, aren’t your age range; patrons are going to ask you for reading advice all the goddamn time, especially if you’re a public librarian, so the more you can be knowledgeable about whatever your patrons might ask you about, the easier your life will be. If you’re considering librarianship you probably love to read anyway, so just ride that pony as hard as you possibly can.

Learn to be okay with weeding -- even things you don’t think deserve it: You are going to have to recycle books. You’re going to have to throw away books. You’re going to have to take books out of the collection and make them disappear in some fashion or another. There are a lot of reasons -- damage and lack of readership are big ones -- and there’s no bigger red flag to a librarian than someone saying “I could never destroy a book.” That kind of nonsense is said by people who’ve never had to fit 500 books onto a shelf built for 450. Archivists are different, of course, as are historians, and everyone should have a healthy respect for books both as physical objects and as sources of information, but you’re going to have to get rid of them sometimes, and you’re just going to have to learn how to do that dispassionately.

Have fun! No one gets into this because they want money; if you want to be a librarian, or work in any library-adjacent field, it’s because you really care about the values of librarianship, or the people in your community, or preserving and sharing as great a wealth of information as possible. Your job will often be thankless and it’ll sometimes be exhausting. There will be times where it’s actually scary. And unless you’re rich as balls, it will make you stare at your student loans and sigh with despair. (You may be living in your parents’ basement while you sigh at your loans because you can’t afford to live on your own, for an example that has zero relevance to any authors of this blog, living or dead.) I can’t tell you if it’s worth it -- though you’ll probably find out pretty quickly during your internship, because that’s what internships are for. All I can say is that I love it, and I can’t imagine doing anything else.

#ask forest #libraries #librarianship #information science #career advice #education advice #oh my god this is long #i have a lot of feelings okay?#there is no way on earth anyone will read all of this #if you do tell me bc i will not believe it #Anonymous

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artificialqueens · 4 years

Text

Private Show (Biadore) - Sarcastacnt

Roy has been watching Danny’s live streams maybe a little too intently. What happens when Danny finds out? Takes place way back in 2015 during BOTS.

A/n this sat for about 2 weeks cause I could not for the life of me come up with a title. This was also started as me wanting to practice writing smut. Yup. Not sorry about it.

~*~

2015

Battle of the Seasons Tour

London, England

Roy wasn’t sure when it started, not really. He knew that by the time the reunion was filmed he had developed a crush on one of his best friends. The only reason he remembered having feelings for Danny at the reunion was because of that fucking crush question. When Adore had answered in the negative, Roy felt disappointed and called on Bianca to come up with a joke to save face.

Thankfully Roy was good at hiding his feelings and now, a full year after the reunion he still managed to keep them to himself. Well, he’d told Shane a year ago but he had been very drunk at the time. Shane had rolled his eyes and said something about kangaroos jumping good.

At some point over the last year Danny had begun doing these live video chats with his fans. Roy had watched a few with mild interest, Danny chatting about whatever was on his mind was nothing new. It was just how Danny was, he had no filter and he very rarely thought before he spoke. Roy had almost stopped watching them until one night someone had asked Danny to dance. Maybe Danny had been a little more intoxicated than normal. Or maybe he had smoked too much weed. Whatever the case, not only had he danced but he had stripped down to just a black thong. Roy had watched with eyes wide, jaw slack and pants rapidly tightening. He was loathe to admit it, but when the stream ended Roy had been left sitting in his computer chair with his cock in hand and cum dripping all over his fist.

Since that first dancing video, Roy made a point to watch every single stream Danny put out. Any time he danced or stripped, Roy ended up getting off. Some nights when Danny was really feeling himself, the dances would take on a far more sexual energy then normal. Once Roy had managed to get off twice over the course of one particularly hot thirty minute stream (something he hadn’t been able to do since his 20’s). All it had taken was Danny slowly sucking one, then two and finally started choking himself with three of his long fingers. Danny moaned when his fingers hit the back of his throat and made him gag. The moan he let out, that incredibly arousing moan was now seared into Roy’s mind.

Roy knew it wasn’t a great idea to use his best friend’s live streams as though they were his personal porn. It was hard to resist though, those streams turned Roy on more then anything pornhub had to offer. Maybe it was the fact that Roy knew Danny personally that made it so arousing, or maybe it was because of the crush he had on his best friend (probably the later). Whatever the case, it made sharing a bed way too exciting for Roy to sleep well if he slept at all. Since they were currently touring together for Battle of the Seasons, they ended up sharing a bed frequently.

They were all given their own hotel rooms on those glorious nights they didn’t have to sleep on the bus. Though that didn’t stop Danny from climbing into Roy’s bed every chance he got. It had started when Danny claimed whoever was in the room next to his was having a screaming match. He had looked at Roy with those big green eyes and Roy had been helpless to do anything other then sigh and open the door. Since that first night, Danny’s excuses had gotten weaker but Roy always let him in. Danny would grin from ear to ear, strip down to his boxers and dive into bed. Having Danny’s nearly naked body pressed up against him at night was costing Roy more sleep then he could afford to lose.

The first time Roy had woken up as the little spoon with Danny’s morning erection poking his ass, he had been more then a little tempted to roll over and suck Danny off. All he could think about was how Danny had happily choked himself with his fingers and how badly Roy wanted to shove his cock into Danny’s mouth. He wanted to hear, not to mention feel Danny moan around a mouthful of his cock. He managed to control himself however, settling for grinding his ass ever so slightly against Danny’s cock. Roy thought he was busted when Danny clutched his hip and started moving against Roy. He risked a glance over his shoulder only to find Danny still asleep. Allowing himself to enjoy the faux fucking for a few moments, Roy eventually moved away from Danny and went to finish himself off in the shower.

Danny discovering just what Roy was doing during his live streams was Roy’s biggest fear. He just had no idea how Danny would react if he found out. Danny was pretty (very) comfortable with his body so he probably wouldn’t be embarrassed but he might find the whole thing gross. Maybe even gross enough to either block Roy from joining any future streams or just flat out be done with Roy all together. The possibility of Danny no longer being a part of his life was something Roy wasn’t sure he could handle. So, Roy kept his new habit very much to himself. Not being good at all things technological (social media aside) he figured that as long as he remained silent in the chat, Danny wouldn’t even notice that he had been watching.

Maybe Roy just needed to get laid. He should go out with Shane and actually bring back trade one night. The worry that he would end up saying Danny’s name at some point had kept Roy returning to his room alone for weeks. Besides, none of the other men could hold a candle to Danny and Roy wasn’t interested in fucking some random man when he could be cuddling in bed with the real thing.

That had to be what was going on, right? Just a need to get laid, combined with Danny’s strip teases. He just needed to get off and Danny’s streams were a convenient source of arousing material. He refused to believe that he was allowing this crush to interfere with his life. In reality Roy’s behaviour had made his crush very apparent to every other queen on the tour, Danny included.

~*~

Just because he played dumb when in drag did not mean that Danny was stupid. Far from it, he was far brighter then most people gave him credit for and was especially gifted when it came to reading people’s energy. He had known since at least the reunion that Roy had a crush on him. That was why he had hesitated before answering, he hadn’t wanted to hurt Roy. The truth was that at that moment he wasn’t sure how he felt. He had noticed right away how attractive Roy was and loved every part of him, even the 6am with no coffee part and that bitch was hateful.

Now Danny knew he absolutely liked Roy in a way that went beyond friendship. He had been hesitant to do anything about it because of how much he liked hooking up. At 25 he was growing tired of sleeping with people he didn’t know and would probably never see again. He hadn’t wanted to be with Roy if he couldn’t give the older man his whole self. As frightening as it sounded, Danny was ready to commit.

Danny, who was good with technology, always knew when Roy was watching one of his streams. He made a point to look for Roy’s name in the chat. The older queen never participated in the chat though, not even to throw shade. The little bubble with Bianca’s face in it let Danny know that Roy was watching. Whenever Danny knew Roy was there, he made sure to put on a show. The first time he had stripped down to his thong, his eyes had remained on that tiny icon of Roy’s face. As soon as he had logged off that night, Danny had gotten himself off while imagining that Roy had been in the same room as him. That the strip tease had been a private show, just for Roy. In Danny’s fantasy, Roy hadn’t been able to contain himself and had jumped Danny as soon as his thong hit the floor.

That was how his evenings went almost every time he recorded a stream. Getting off to whatever images of Roy his brain could come up with. It was getting so bad in fact, that Danny never really watched porn anymore. All he wanted was to get off to thoughts of Roy. Danny knew he should probably feel guilty but he was almost positive that Roy was using his streams to get off. One night Danny had rushed to Roy’s room after a stream and found his friend flushed and slightly out of breath. Despite Roy’s baggy sweat pants, Danny hadn’t missed the older man’s semi hard cock or the look of pure want when he saw Danny.

Danny wasn’t sure when his crush on Roy had begun but now that crush was turning into more. It was so silly! Both he and Roy were avoiding discussing their mutual attraction. Ducking around this fire that burned hotter and hotter every time they interacted.

Danny knew there was something there, all he had to do was get Roy to admit it. He snorted, easier said than done. He racked his brain, trying to come up with a way to force Roy into admitting what was going on between them. Or rather what had the potential to go on. A prank video he had seen recently popped into his head. They had used a simple app that had looked like Instagram but was really a two way call. Danny shivered at the thought of catching Roy in the act. He thought about watching Roy as he touched himself for Danny, because of Danny. The thought made Danny shiver and his pants tighten. He knew he had to make that happen and all he needed was five minutes with Roy’s laptop. With a smirk on his face, Danny jumped to his feet and nearly ran all the way to Roy’s hotel room. It was happening tonight, Danny was done with the teasing and the nights alone.

~*~

“Hey B, can I borrow your laptop please? Mine’s acting up.” Danny asked, after knocking and being allowed into Roy’s room.

“Yeah of course, you know the password?” Roy asked as he handed Danny the computer.

Danny nodded, “Yep!” he took the laptop, climbed onto Roy’s bed and quickly set his plan in motion. Thankfully this hotel had decent wifi so downloading the app wouldn’t take long. His tongue poked out the corner of his mouth as he worked.

The absent minded gesture caught Roy’s eye. He pulled his gaze from his phone and focused on Danny. Fuck did he ever look hot. His face was a study in concentration, hands moving over the keyboard so surely that Roy couldn’t help but wish Danny was touching him instead. Quickly shoving that thought aside, Roy wondered if Danny was planning on another stream tonight.

“You gonna strip for your mermaids again tonight?” Roy asked, somehow managing to keep his tone flat, as though he wasn’t overly interested in the answer. Which was most assuredly not the case.

Danny looked up at Roy and shut the laptop. He climbed to his feet and walked to the desk where Roy was watching him. Danny set the computer on the table and dropped a hand to Roy’s shoulder. “I’m putting on a special show in about an hour. You should watch.”

Roy shook his head, “Not tonight chola. I still have a tone of work to do.” He had emails to answer, planning his own show was a lot of work.

Danny lay his other hand on Roy’s shoulder and leaned forward until his mouth was beside Roy’s left ear. “Please B?” he whispered. “I promise it’ll be worth your time.” His breath was tickling Roy’s neck and the older queen squirmed in his seat. Danny was squirming as well, he felt almost drunk on everything that was Roy. The smell of his aftershave, the feel of his skin, the hitch in his breathing and the tiny noises Roy was making all working together to drive Danny insane.

“Adore…” Roy grimaced when his voice didn’t come out as stern as he’d hoped.

Danny gently kissed Roy’s ear, followed by his neck. Danny thought for sure that Roy would have pushed him away by now but no, for some reason Roy seemed perfectly content to let Danny not only hug him but kiss him as well. Deciding to see just how far he could push his luck, Danny licked a hot stripe from the base of Roy’s neck up to his ear. Then he took the ear lobe in his mouth and nipped at it before soothing the reddened skin with his tongue. He started flicking his tongue behind Roy’s ear, searching for any sensitive spots. He must have found one, Roy let out a low groan and his eyes slid shut.

Roy shivered as Danny continued kissing his neck. The soft brush of his lips was forcing Roy to think about other places on his body he would very much like to feel Danny’s lips. “I just have a lot of work to do. Maybe next time?” Somehow he managed to keep his voice even, which was surprising considering how fast his heart was beating. Danny was now caressing his shoulders, chest and arms, all the while running slow, gentle kisses up and down his neck.

“It would mean so much to me.” Danny let his tongue flick the soft skin behind Roy’s left ear. “Please? I’ll make it up to you.” He paused for a second before a mischievous grin spread across his face. “Oooh, is this one of those times when you want me to beg for it? Maybe call you daddy? Cause I can do that.”

Roy’s entire face went red. There was no way he would be able to control himself if Danny started calling him that. He sighed in defeat and gave in. “Fine. I’ll watch.”

Danny squealed and hugged Roy tightly, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “Yay! Thank you! You’re the best B!”

Roy squirmed in Danny’s tight embrace, “Yeah, yeah, now get out. I gotta finish this if I’m gonna have time to watch.”

Danny nodded, “I gotta go get ready anyway! See you soon!” with a wave and a wink, Danny was gone. Roy let out a sigh, he really needed to learn how to say no to that silly chola.

~*~

One hour later, Roy sat in bed with his back up against the headboard and laptop open. He was in an old tee-shirt and boxers, since Danny had promised a ‘special’ show, Roy figured he’d be dancing. Hence the loose boxers and bottle of lube on the night stand.

Roy frowned and cocked his head to the side as he saw the “Instagram” app, the colours were just slightly off. He examined the app closely and noticed that the letters a and g were both backwards. Curiosity got the better of him and Roy quickly googled the app that was definitely not Instagram.

MIS COLOURED INSTAGRAM ICON

Suggested: Would you like to learn to type like a normal human person?

Roy narrowed his eyes at his surprisingly shady laptop. Below that unhelpful suggestion was the information Roy needed.

“Sneaky bastard.” He chucked to himself. Danny had switched the app with a two way calling one that was designed to look very similar to Instagram. If you weren’t looking closely it was easy to miss the differences. Roy wondered what Danny had planned that he only wanted Roy to see. He glanced over at the bottle of lube, debating if he should put it away. No, Danny had been flirting with him earlier, whatever this ‘special show was there was little doubt in Roy’s mind that he would need the lube. He decided to let Danny believe that the switch had worked, he would keep it to himself that he was aware of Danny’s plan.

With a few clicks, Roy had the app open and saw Danny was already online. As soon as Danny’s image came into focus, Roy’s mouth went dry and his cock twitched.

Danny was kneeling on the bed, dressed in an old Pink Floyd tee-shirt and black thong. His dark brown hair was long enough to brush his shoulders now and Danny was running his hands through it while he licked his lips.

“Why do you guys always wanna see me dance?” Danny chuckled as he started looking for a song.

“Maybe cause they’re a bunch of thirsty bastards and you’re too sexy for your own good.” Roy mumbled, trying not to laugh as Danny addressed the nonexistent chat.

Danny snorted with laughter and his face went a little red. While he looked for a song to dance to, Danny chanced a glance at Roy. His heart skipped a beat when he saw Roy sitting in bed with the lube next to him. Danny bit his lip as he considered the implication of that tiny bottle. Fuccckk, how did Roy turn him on so much by just sitting in bed?

“Oh! This one! I haven’t heard this in forever!” Danny exclaimed as he clicked something on his laptop.

‘Ava Adore’ by The Smashing Pumpkins began to play and Danny started to dance. He was still kneeling on the bed as he began to roll his hips. Danny smirked at the camera as he dragged his hands from his waist to tangle in his hair and back down again. With a wink he pulled up the bottom of his tee-shirt just a little, teasing Roy with a brief glimpse of the pale smooth skin covered with a light dusting of hair.

Roy groaned. Fuck, not even a minute in and he was ready to rip his boxers off and start masturbating. He couldn’t remember wanting anyone as badly as he wanted Danny. His desire had moved beyond simple want, he needed Danny, had to have him, to feel that ass when he was buried inside it, to feel those lips working his cock before painting Danny’s pretty face with cum.

Danny noticed Roy’s wandering attention and frowned. He felt almost offended that Roy wasn’t giving his strip tease the attention Danny felt it deserved. Arching one eyebrow, Danny addressed the camera; “What could be more exciting than me?”

Roy snorted and tried not to laugh at Danny’s absolutely adorable frown. Poor Danny looked very serious but all Roy wanted to do was ruffle his hair or maybe pinch one of his cheeks. Roy shook his head and turned his attention back to the image of his best friend. “Not much chola, I’m already fucking hard.”

“Good.” Danny said and he pulled off his shirt and smirked when Roy did the same. A low moan escaped Danny as he raked his eyes over Roy’s chest. With the shirt out of the way, Danny could now see the obvious tenting of Roy’s boxers. His mouth fell open and his tongue poked out the side mindlessly as he thought about tearing off those boring gray boxers and licking every last millimeter of Roy’s cock. Danny closed his eyes and shuddered, he wanted to taste Roy so fucking bad.

Roy could almost feel Danny’s gaze burning his skin as the chola took in his shirtless form. He saw Danny’s cock twitch in his thong and groaned when he realised that it was all for him. Just taking his shirt off had Danny moaning and licking his lips. Fuck, Danny’s face was the personification of desire right now. Knowing now that Danny wanted him filled Roy with both pride and lust. “You’re so fucking gorgeous.” Roy gasped as he squeezed himself through his boxers.

Danny grinned and felt himself blush at the compliment. He eyed Roy’s hand with envy, from what Danny could see it appeared all those jokes about being a ‘big top’ were true. With a groan Danny began to thrust his hips as he moved to the music. “Mmm, are you as turned on as I am?”

Roy could only nod as he continued to stroke himself over top of his boxers. He groaned as he watched Danny move. Why the hell did the stupid chola have to be so fucking sexy?

Danny ran his hands up to his chest and began to play with his nipples. “I wish you were here with me. Wish my hands were yours. I need you daddy.” Danny closed his eyes and bit his lower lip as he pinched his nipples harder.

“Fuck…” Roy breathed, his eyes fluttered shut for a moment. When he opened them again he watched Danny continue to play with his nipples. “Me too chola. I bet I could make you beg just by playing with your nipples.” Roy moved his hands to his own chest and gave a thorough demonstration of what he would like to do to Danny. “Fuck baby boy, I don’t know if you’ve ever looked better. All hard and begging, only for me.”

Danny traced the outline of his erection through the thong, teasing himself. Hearing Roy call him ‘baby boy’ made him groan. Roy couldn’t possibly know that yes, all of it was for him and him alone. Danny wanted to scream as he locked his eyes on Roy’s still contained cock. Even through the lap top camera, Danny could see the wet mark where pre cum was leaking from the tip. He shoved two fingers in his mouth and began thrusting them in and out until they were drenched, before trailing them down his body.

“Mmm, your hands feel so good.” He said, imagining his hands were Roy’s. “I want you so badly.” He was staring right into Roy’s eyes now, wondering how long it would take before Roy figured out what was really going on. “Please daddy…” he whimpered as he squeezed his erection.

Roy couldn’t stop the noise that escaped him. “Fuck…Danny…” he groaned as he caressed himself through his boxers.

Danny let out a little moan as he saw Roy touch himself. “Will you touch yourself for me?” his voice was low and sounded like pure sin.

“Fuck me…”

Danny chucked, “Don’t I wish babe. Now do it, pull it out and touch yourself for me.” Danny commanded, as he began to toy with the waist band of his thong.

Roy didn’t immediately respond to Danny’s order, he wanted to take his time tonight. He’d fooled around over Skype before but this was so fucking different, so fucking good.

When he saw Roy wasn’t playing along, Danny frowned. He didn’t like it when he didn’t get his way. “I’m not gonna keep going until you do as you’re told.”

The harsh tone of his voice was doing something to Roy. His cock twitched, begging for attention. Roy gave in, he set his laptop aside and pulled off his boxers before setting the computer back on his thighs.

Danny’s mouth went dry as he got a look at Roy’s erection. Sure, he had heard the rumors and Roy’s own jokes but the reality was something else. He wanted nothing more in that moment then to rush down the hall and wrap his lips around it.

“Mmm, you’re so big baby, so hard just for me.” Danny paused for a minute before deciding to really push his luck. “What would you do to me if you were here? Tell me.”

“Fuck…” Roy breathed. He ran through a list of fantasies in his mind before settling on the one that had consumed his mind the most often.

“Fuck baby boy, I’d bend you over and fuck you hard. Make you call me daddy.”

Danny closed his eyes briefly at Roy’s words. Oh he’d call the older man daddy all he wanted. “Would you make me beg for it daddy? Or just give me what I want?”

Roy groaned at the use of ‘daddy’. “Depends on whether or not you’re a good boy for me. Hun chola? What would you be?”

“I wish you were here daddy, I’d be so good for you. Let you do anything you wanted to me.”

Roy watched Danny’s hand as he gripped himself with an expression of open jealousy on his face. Roy would have done terrible things in that moment to replace Danny’s hand with his. He looked back up into Danny’s eyes and groaned seeing how wide his pupils were blown. Danny’s long brown hair was a mess and his face was flushed. He looked fucking divine. Roy watched as Danny caressed his erection.

“Anything hun? Hmm, in that case I’d start by sucking your cock until you fucking beg for more.”

Danny groaned as Roy spoke. If this night didn’t end with Roy plowing Danny into the mattress he wasn’t sure he’d get over it. If Danny did end up alone tonight, Roy sucking his cock until he begged was what Danny would think about while he jerked off. Listening to Roy actually tell Danny what he wanted to do to him made him seriously consider the possibility of cumming from Roy’s voice alone. The arousal was obvious in his voice, which was deeper than Danny had ever heard it and it made Danny’s cock throb.

“I’d set you on the bed on all fours and eat your ass while fingering you until you were ready to take my cock. Then I’d make you suck my cock, force you to take all of it while I spank you. Listening to you gag while I pull your hair.” Roy kept his eyes on Danny.

The images Roy was providing Danny with were making him tremble. Danny absolutely loved rough oral sex, both giving and receiving. He looked at Roy’s hands and pictured them gripping his hair tightly while thrusting into Danny’s more then willing mouth. Between what Roy was saying and the way Danny was touching himself, he was getting close to his release. It really wouldn’t take much to finish but when he came tonight, he wanted it to be on Roy’s cock. So Danny decided to end the game or bring it to the next level, depending on how Roy took the reveal. He looked right at Roy and pulled off his thong, grasping his erection.

Roy’s eyes went wide in shock at what Danny was doing. It occurred to Roy that Danny knew he was watching, Danny must want him to watch as he touched himself. Roy felt a possessive feeling over take him.

“Mmm please don’t stop Roy, let me watch you fuck yourself for me. Fuck, I need you so badly.” Danny closed his eyes and threw his head back as he stroked himself slowly. He opened his eyes again and made contact with those warm amber eyes he loved so much. “Please Roy, please I need you here. I want you so badly. Please come fuck me, I’ll be so good for you. I’ll let you do anything you want to me. Let me show you how good it could be. Please daddy.”

Suddenly he was faced with the possibility of getting to touch Danny the way he’d wanted to for months. Hell, forget possibility, Danny was literally begging for Roy to come fuck him. Roy kept turning Danny’s words over in his mind, ‘please Roy. I’ll be so good for you. Please daddy’. Fuck. Roy gripped his erection a little tighter, fuck.

“No one else was watching, don’t worry, it was a private call. I need you Roy, please I’m so ready for you. If you want to finish this in person, you know where to find me.” With that Danny ended the call, leaving Roy alone with his fist still wrapped around his erection.

“Fuck.” Roy cursed as he got to his feet and pulled on a pair of fluffy sweatpants. He picked up his tee-shirt and thought for a minute while he pulled it on. Danny was his best friend, maybe this was a bad idea. Before he could talk himself out of meeting up with Danny, the memory of the younger man masturbating and moaning Roy’s name came crashing back. Roy’s cock twitched hopefully.

“Fuck it.” Roy grumbled. If Danny wanted to get fucked that badly, who was he to refuse?

~*~

Roy knocked on Danny’s door less than five minutes later. When Danny opened the door, Roy’s mouth went dry. Danny was standing there in just a towel slung low on his hips. The various patches of ink on Danny’s skin stood out against the pale flesh. Between the tattoos and long shaggy hair, Danny looked like the bad boy who was just looking for redemption in some shitty movie. Roy walked into the room, deliberately crowding Danny and forcing him to take a few steps back.

“So, looks like your laptop is working just fine chola.”

Danny had the grace to blush, knowing he’d been caught. Before he could say anything, Roy turned the deadbolt, locking them both in.

The sound of the deadbolt engaging made Danny squirm. If Roy was locking the door behind him, it had to mean he was here for one reason. Danny had been half expecting Roy to show up and start yelling, enraged by Danny’s trick. Instead Roy was advancing on him like a predator, the kind Danny didn’t want to escape.

Danny stood his ground, eyes locked on Roy’s face. As soon as the younger man was within arm’s reach, Roy wrapped one hand around the back of Danny’s head and the other grabbed Danny’s right hip. Roy hauled Danny to him until they were flush against each other. They stayed that way for a moment or two, gazes locked, faces centimeters apart and their breathing becoming ragged. Both could feel the other’s erection as Roy moved his hand from Danny’s hip to his ass and ground against him. Danny gasped and wrapped his arms around Roy’s neck before pulling his face the rest of the way to his. A groan escaped Danny as their lips crashed together.

Finally.

After months, if not years of hidden feelings and private fantasies, they were wrapped up in each other’s arms. Lips moved together as hands began exploring.

Danny moaned as Roy’s tongue came out to lick at his lips. Roy pulled Danny’s lower lip into his mouth, nipping and sucking it in turn. He couldn’t get enough, Danny was fucking addicting. The taste of him was driving Roy crazy, the feel of him compelled Roy to lower his hands and grab Danny’s ass. Roy groaned loudly as he uses his grip on Danny’s ass to bring them even closer.

Danny lowered his arms before wrapping both around Roy’s waist, lowering one hand to squeeze the older man’s ass. He gasped against Roy’s lips when Roy raised the hand holding Danny’s ass to deliver a good smack. Determined not to be out done, Danny began rolling his hips against Roy’s, both men moaning at the friction.

Eventually, Roy pulled their lips apart and began to kiss Danny’s neck. Danny threaded his fingers through Roy’s hair, holding the older man against him as Roy moved down his neck, towards his chest.

Remembering the way Danny had moaned as he played with his nipples. Roy decided he needed to see for himself just how sensitive they were.

Reluctantly releasing Danny’s ass, Roy started by lightly brushing his fingers over the raised nubs gently. Danny moaned and thrust against Roy, grinding his erection against Roy’s hip. Encouraged by Danny’s response, Roy pinched the younger man’s nipples just on the right side of rough. Danny gasped and his eyes shot open, he shivered and Roy smirked when he felt it.

“You’re so fucking sensitive baby boy, I could do this for hours. Want to see how close I could get you without ever touching your cock.”

Danny groaned and shook his head. “Please Roy! I need you! I need you to fill me until I scream! Oh, please daddy!”

Roy disregarded those tempting pleas (difficult as it was) and resumed his worship of Danny’s body. Dropping to his knees, Roy peeled off the towel and wasted no time before taking Danny’s erection into the slick heat of his mouth. As Roy ran his tongue all around Danny’s cock. The younger man let out a mess of curses and praise. He was so turned on he knew he wouldn’t last long. With great reluctance Danny spoke: “You need to stop B, I’m getting so close..!”

Roy looked up at him, “How do you want to cum love?”

Danny didn’t have to think about it. “On your cock. Please Roy? Let me cum on your cock tonight.”

Roy got to his feet and took in the man before him. “You’re so fucking beautiful, I’ve been wanting to fuck you for so long. Wanted to fill you with my cock ever since you started dancing in those live streams.” He said as he grasped Danny’s hips.

Danny nodded, groaning at Roy’s words. “I know baby. The streams when I danced were the only times you stayed online until the end. I used to get off afterwards, thinking about you touching yourself for me. It was so fucking hot knowing that you were getting off to me while I danced.”

Roy went a little red in the face but looked relieved. “I was so afraid you’d be angry about it, or just disgusted by the thought of what I had been doing. I felt so guilty but you’re so fucking gorgeous and I wanted you- I want you so badly, I couldn’t stop myself.”

Danny grinned, “I’m glad you didn’t stop.” He ran his hands down Roy’s chest, giving both nipples a pinch before he grabbed Roy’s cock in one hand and cupped his balls with the order. “Now, can we please stop talking about this and get to the part where you spank me and fuck me into the mattress?”

Roy chuckled, “Impatient, aren’t you?” A moan escaped him as Danny jerked him off a little faster.

Danny nodded and gave Roy a look that silently asked him how he wasn’t feeling the same way. “I’m so fucking ready for you B. I’ve been wanting you to fuck me since you laced me into that corset back on Drag Race. I remember hoping you’d used the laces to tie my hands behind my back.”

“I wanted to.” Roy confessed. “So badly. I remember having to talk myself out of bending you over that tiny table. Every chance I got back in the werkroom, I was staring at your ass. Imagining how good it would feel to fuck you the way you need to be fucked.” He reached down and grabbed Danny’s ass, giving it a slap just to hear Danny moan.

“Then do it, fuck me. I’m all yours.” Danny purred as he arched his back when another slap made him bite his lip in an attempt to muffle his cry of pleasure.

Roy moved to kiss Danny’s neck. “Don’t hold back, let me hear how much you want me baby boy. How absolutely desperate you are for me to touch you.”

Danny groaned loudly, “Get on the fucking bed Roy. I’m done waiting.”

Managing to keep a straight face, Roy climbed onto the bed and lay down on his back, head among the half dozen pillows. He crossed his arms behind his head and watched as Danny climbed on the bed and began crawling towards him.

Danny kept crawling until he was straddling Roy, his hands planted near Roy’s face. Danny looked down at Roy and smiled brightly before dropping his head down to kiss him.

They kissed for a while, taking the time to explore each other’s mouths. Roy paid special attention to Danny’s bottom lip, making Danny whimper in pleasure when he gently bit down.

It wasn’t long before Roy wanted more. He wrapped his arms around Danny’s waist and rolled them so he was now on top. He looked down at the beautiful man below him and began to kiss his way down Danny’s body. When Roy threw Danny’s legs over his shoulders, Danny let his head fall back and his eyes drift shut.

They flew open again when instead of Roy sucking his cock, he felt a tongue circling his entrance. “Oh holy shit!” Danny cried out, his hands gripping the sheets tightly as he arched his back.

Roy pulled back for a moment to let Danny get himself together before he began licking him with abandon. He pushed the tip of his tongue past the tight muscle and wiggled it before withdrawing to circle Danny’s entrance once more. Danny was thrashing and moaning as Roy repeatedly tongue fucked him. After some unknown amount of time passed, Roy snatched the lube off the night stand and coated his fingers. When Danny’s moans became incoherent noises, Roy reluctantly pulled his mouth from Danny and slowly inserted a finger instead.

“Roy…” Danny gasped as Roy slowly started finger fucking him. Even with just one finger inside him, Danny felt amazing. “God yes Roy!”

Roy watched the younger man’s face, Danny’s eyes were shut tight and his mouth was hanging open. His cheeks were flushed and he looked like he was in ecstasy. Roy couldn’t help feel a little pride at what he had managed to reduce Danny to with just one finger.

“More…give me more. “

Roy kissed Danny’s left thigh, “That’s not how we ask for things Daniel.” Roy gently sunk his teeth into Danny’s inner thigh. All the while moving his finger slowly in and out of Danny. The tip of his finger just barely hitting Danny’s prostate.

“Please! I need more, please Roy!” Danny begged as he looked down and caught Roy’s gaze. He reached down and cupped Roy’s cheek, “please daddy.” Danny said softly, his eyes filled with affectionate lust.

The way Danny was looking at him made something in Roy’s chest tighten. He climbed back up Danny and brought their foreheads together as he slid another finger into Danny and began making a scissoring motion.

Somehow Danny managed to keep his eyes open as Roy fucked him. Their gazes locked together and Danny’s arms around Roy’s shoulders. He couldn’t take it anymore, fuck he needed Roy.

“Please Willow, I can’t take anymore,” Danny said with all sincerity.

Roy nodded and grabbed the lube once more before positioning himself between Danny’s widely spread legs. As tempting as it was to flip Danny onto all fours and fuck him into the mattress, Roy needed to see his face. Wanted to watch as he came apart under Roy’s touch. Roy grasped his erection and teased the head against Danny’s entrance for a moment or two before slowly pushing inside.

Two almost identical long, low moans filled the room as Roy bottomed out. Roy grasped Danny’s hips tightly as he tried to get himself under control. Danny was so tight, so beautiful and Roy knew if he didn’t find a way to control himself, he wouldn’t last and this was one experience that he wanted to savour. “Fuck baby, you’re so tight, so hot, you feel so good.”

Danny pulled Roy’s face down to his and kissed him soundly. By the time they broke apart, Danny was ready. He began moving his hips up off the bed to meet Roy’s. “Fuck B, you’re so big, stretching me so good. Fuck!” Danny exclaimed as Roy began to move.

Slowly at first and gradually picking up the pace, Roy fucked Danny. He altered the angle just a little and when Danny let a high pitched whimper escape his mouth, Roy knew he had hit the spot. He concentrated his thrusts there, watching Danny writhe beneath him.

“Good boy, moan for me. Let me hear you.” Roy encouraged as he started to thrust harder. The whole bed was shaking, headboard bouncing off the wall with the force of his movements. Danny was squirming and moaning, his hips raising to meet Roy’s thrusts.

“So fucking good B… fucking me so good…” Danny said as he reached down to grab Roy’s ass. His finger nails digging into the soft flesh before he lifted one hand and slapped Roy.

Roy groaned when Danny’s hand crashed down on him. He buried his face in Danny’s neck and bit him. “Do it again.” Roy demanded, spanking was something he was normally on the doing side of. Feeling Danny spank him however, while he was buried inside the younger man was making Roy reconsider his thoughts on the subject.

Danny couldn’t stop a smirk from gracing his face as he slapped Roy a little harder this time. When Roy moaned, Danny did it again.

With every strike of Danny’s palm, Roy’s thrusting became more forceful and wild. Gone were the slow, controlled movements. Replaced by a frantic pace as Roy began to chase his release.

As Roy fucked into him harder, Danny moved his hands to grab Roy’s shoulders. Unable to keep up with his movements, Danny was now just barely holding on. His hands kept slipping due to the sweat that made their bodies slick.

Roy reached between them and grabbed Danny’s cock, stroking him frantically. He was close and was trying to bring Danny with him.

Danny felt his whole body start to shake, “B I’m gonna-!” he was cut off as Roy pressed their lips back together. Danny was the one to break the kiss as the tight coil of pleasure deep within him finally snapped. He arched under Roy as his orgasm washed over him, spots of light flashing behind his tightly shut eyelids. Danny moaned against Roy’s lips as the older man followed Danny over the edge. Filling Danny as he came.

It took several minutes before their heart rates slowed back to normal. Roy moved his mouth back to Danny’s, kissing him lazily as he pulled out.

Danny groaned at the loss, squirming a little as he felt a combination of lube and cum dripping out of him.

“Don’t move.” Roy said as he went to the washroom to grab a towel.

After they were both more or less clean, they were laying in bed, Danny with his head on Roy’s chest. Roy was idly playing with Danny’s hair.

“That was really fuckin’ hot B.” Danny said with a laugh, “Like really, really fuckin’ hot.”

Roy chuckled and wrapped the arm around Danny’s torso a little tighter. “I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

Danny sat up and turned to look at Roy, “Didn’t you?”

Roy pushed some hair away from Danny’s face, “Of course I did chola. I was worried for a minute there that googled the wrong app and you had whipped your dick you in front of hundreds of people.”

Danny snorted, “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

They both laughed and chatted until they could no longer keep their eyes open. Just before he closed his eyes, Roy noticed that Danny’s laptop was still open. The screen was dark however, so he didn’t bother to mention it as he curled himself around Danny and fell asleep.

~*~

30 minutes ago…

Back in Roy’s hotel room, the Brians were sitting on the bed watching the show while munching on popcorn. No one was sure where they had found the giant red and white stripped bucket of popcorn and they didn’t volunteer the information. They also managed to dodge the question of just how they managed to get into Roy’s room. Although Katya was probably the one who got them in.

“You owe me 50$ Tracy Martel.” Katya said around a mouthful of popcorn.

Trixie huffed dramatically and crossed her arms under her over stuffed bra. “I never thought in a million years that Bianca would relax enough to finally fuck Adore.”

“But she did mother.”

“AAAHH! Not Maureen!!”

The End

#rpdr fanfiction #biadore #adore delano #bianca del rio #trixie mattel #katya zamolodchikova #smut #canon compliant #private show #sarcastacnt #tw daddy kink

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pianoperson · 4 years

Text

Ikerev Army Boys in a Zoom Meeting

Because they gotta stay in quarantine but have to talk about important matters.

Black Army

Ray Blackwell

Look, you can’t tell me his background in Zoom is NOT a bunch of cats.

He’s the host of the meeting, being King of Spades.

He’s trying to look serious as he brings up important matters to discuss, but it’s hard to look serious when he’s always petting Belle and the 200 other cats he brought in his house because he knew he couldn’t go outside to the alleyway of cats so he brought them all in plus several other cats he encountered.

“Ray, stop petting the cats and focus.”

“But they’re too cute... and they’re hungry and need to be fed.”

He and Fenrir tend to sidetrack really often too.

“Rayyyy I want to see you again! Quarantine is killing me!”

“Fenrir, I promise you, when we meet again, I’ll be wearing a chicken suit and go ‘bokbok’.”

“We’re derailing from the conversation.”

“And why are you going to wear a chicken suit??”

“DM inside jokes”

Sirius Oswald

He’s the one making sure the meeting is organized, especially with the 40-minute time limit.

He takes notes of important points that are brought up in a notebook.

But here’s the thing about Sirius.

He’s wearing a decent polo shirt.

But then Zeta called for him because something in their house happened that requires his attention.

So he stood up... and revealed his pink strawberry boxers.

“Wait... what???”

“Sirius wha—“

Everyone ended up laughing their butts off.

Luka Clemence

He turns off his camera for most of the meeting because he’s cooking during the meeting but is still listening.

He didn’t mute his mic, however, so the commanders could hear the sound of him mixing and cooking.

Cue the grumbling of stomachs

Unfortunately for him, by the time he was done cooking and decided to turn on camera, the first thing he was greeted to was Sirius’ pink boxers.

Poor guy was traumatized.

Seth Hyde

Ok this guy was wearing a face mask during the whole meeting.

Well... both the N95 face mask and that face mask you apply on your face to make your skin smoother and remove any blockheads.

Oh, and he has curlers on his hair for reasons.

He gives a lot of side comments this whole meeting.

“Sirius, you’re really serious!~”

“Lukaaaaaaaaa what are you cooking?? You’re making me hungry!~”

“Fenrir, you’re such an idiot!”

He shrieked when Sirius revealed his pink boxers.

“EEK SIRIUS OSWALD, THAT IS NOT APPROPRIATE AT ALL”

Fenrir Godspeed

He screamed when he first saw Seth’s mask because it looked really creepy.

“SETH WHAT THE HECK IS THAT”

“It’s my beauty mask, Fenrir.”

“It looks scary man!”

“What did you say?!”

“ALRIGHT YOU BRATS, LET’S GET BACK ON TOPIC!”

Ok, aside from the occasional sidetracking of topics with Ray, the guy was mostly behaved.

But on the side, he was browsing through memes on 9gag and ended up chuckling quite a lot.

When the meeting proceeded, he secretly videoed the whole Zoom meeting just in case, and it came in handy when Sirius had to stand up.

Fenrir was laughing the hardest among the BA guys, and even managed to take photos of Sirius’ boxers.

He uploaded the portion of Sirius revealing his boxers on Youtube, titling it ‘Funniest Zoom Meeting’, and it got 1.1m views. Don’t tell Sirius, though, he doesn’t know about this.

Red Army

Lancelot Kingsley

The poor guy didn’t know anything about Zoom.

First, he joined without video, so his face wasn’t seen.

He accidentally muted his mic and he was talking, not realizing they couldn’t hear him. He was really confused on why everyone was ignoring him.

“King Lancelot, why are you so quiet?”

“Wait Lance, turn on your video and mic.”

???

The last 10 minutes was wasted on trying to direct Lancelot how to turn on his video and mic. But thankfully, in the second meeting, he was heard and seen

It was really weird for him, seeing his comrades on a screen and not face to face. And frankly, it was a little refreshing to see them not wearing their uniforms. Kyle and Zero looked a little more frazzled than they usually are (well, Kyle always looks messy, but this was a whole new level) while Edgar and Jonah still looked impeccable as ever.

Otherwise, he was normal. Just needs help with technology.

Also took him forever to leave the first meeting oof

Jonah Clemence

He was the one who hosted the meeting.

Like Sirius, he was the one who kept the meeting organized and was the one bringing up points for discussion.

Oh but he also nags the others.

“Edgar, stop eating jellybeans! How many times do I have to tell you that?!”

“Kyle, your hair is a mess. Fix it. Now!”

“Lol ok Mom”

“Mom?!”

He’s the one making sure the meeting does not sidetrack but ironically is the one who changes topic by being mom.

Edgar Bright

He’s taking a video of the whole meeting and taking down notes of important points brought up.

But the whole time, he was snacking off. He turned off camera and muted his mic at appropriate times so Jonah wouldn’t catch him. But somehow, Jonah still caught him.

“Oh, you caught me. But how? I have my camera off and my mic muted when I eat.”

“Edgar... I just know.”

“Jonah’s mom senses were tingling. Can’t get away from motherly instincts Edgar.”

Edgar does not regret taking video of the meeting at all, partly for reference but mostly because of Kyle’s boxer reveal when the meeting was over.

Like Fenrir, he also uploaded it on Youtube and it also hit 1.1m views.

Kyle Ash

He was late to the meeting because guess who had a hangover.

He slept through the first meeting. Thankfully, he joined the second one on time.

He was mostly spacing out throughout the whole meeting, and Jonah had to snap at him to get his attention.

Head empty, only beer

When everyone said their goodbyes, Kyle got up, not realizing he forgot to leave the meeting and that he had his briefs shown to the others, butt facing the camera. He scratched his butt too.

Edgar and Lancelot were laughing really hard, especially the former. He even took pictures of Kyle walking around and touching things with the hand he used to scratch his butt.

Jonah had spat out his tea when he saw Kyle and his briefs.

“KYLE ASH, TURN OFF YOUR CAMERA!”

Zero

Goodest boi

He was actually paying attention.

Well, he was eating his meal during the meeting.

He was both bemused and disgusted at Kyle’s briefs reveal and he was kinda glad he didn’t stand up because he was also in his underwear.

But yes, good boi, not much to say

#ikerev #ikemen revolution #jonah clemence #luka clemence #fenrir godspeed #edgar bright #lancelot kingsley #ray blackwell #sirius oswald #seth hyde #kyle ash #ikerev zero #ikerev hc #damn haven’t made ikerev hcs in a while

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mk-wizard · 4 years

Text

Rescue Bots and BLM

Hello, dear friends of all the lovely flavors. Today, I want to address a serious topic I take to heart and how it would most likely be handled in the Rescue Bots series. That is the Black Lives Matter movement or as it is also known as simply BLM. Exploring this fan theory was a request by @ petrichornial and thank you for doing so.

I want to start off by saying that even though I’m white, I am very BLM as I believe treating everyone with kindness and justice ought to be human nature. Also, Chief Burns is a very special character to me in general because he’s a genuinely good man morally and lawfully. Anyway, onto the fan theory.

It has always been clear from the get go that Rescue Bots is a progressive series in many aspects and one of those aspects is how black positive it is. From the beginning, characters of colour were on equal footing with the white ones and were portrayed very well. In fact, even Blades the helicopter bot turned out to be brown after all this time according to his hologram. And I think they did this beautifully in how no one was shown any favour and the characters of colour were not stereotypically mistreated either. For the first time, colour diversity was treated like a natural and normal thing as it ought to be in real life.

Sadly, the real world isn’t always as kind as it should be and there is no doubt in my mind that if Rescue Bots had the chance, it would have most definitely handled BLM honourably because the Burns and Greene family are so close that they practically are family to each other. And like I said before, Chief Burns is an extremely good cop and man, so he would have the Greene’s back as well as every other black person’ back. However, he would also have to face a huge challenge because he is still a cop and just because he wouldn’t tolerate any police brutality towards black people doesn’t mean he believes it excuses excessive violence or taking advantage of riots to commit crimes on the other side of the fence. And knowing the Greene family, they would agree with Burns on this one.

To elaborate how this would most likely play out in Rescue Bots if it was introduced in the series, knowing its style and how it has firm continuity, it wouldn’t be handled in one single episode like in the old days. It probably be a two parter and the BLM issue would still be ongoing in the background. Anyway, it would all start with several incidents happening all over the news and the Burns family would become passive supporters of BLM as would most of Griffin Rock, but then one fateful day, there would be an incident (there always is sadly). Dr. Greene would be the victim of abuse by a racist police officer after committing a rather minor and harmless crime such as being wrongfully parked or something which results in him being accused of other radical things and even having his colour and background brought up. And while Doc Greene is a pacifist, he would still try to protest a little, but the cop would get even meaner and go as far as threatening him which would most likely scare his wife and daughters. The event would spark an uproar in the town of which Chief Burns would fire the cop who took things too far, but things (as always) don’t end there and the ex-cop would start lodging complaints was he was doing his job and Dr. Greene was the one at fault for refusing to comply and giving him lip. I would also think this would be the time the mayor would shine because despite everything, he is not the type to tolerate racism or police brutality so he would side with the Greenes and Burns on this one. This would drive the bad ex-cop to rally together other extremists and other racist cops that the mayor and police chief are social justice warriors. In return, the black community would protest back especially because now, they would start being treated bad a lot more and sometimes, they will retaliate in all of the wrong ways.

Knowing Chief Burns, while he would now be open about being pro-BLM, he would not consider violence as an option to fight racism and slandering, so when the two sides would attempt to duke it out, he would get in the middle of it and command everyone to go home. I think Dr. Greene would feel overwhelmed and responsible for the town controversy while his family and the Burns reassure him that he did the right thing by lodging a complaint and they all know he didn’t play victim that day. He was an actual victim of racism that day and he handled the situation gracefully. Also, the bots would feel the heat as well because they are technically not white humans and Blades specifically isn’t white at all. He is what humans would consider as brown and he wonders that if some humans were aware of that, would he be treated differently. Cody of course would reassure him that none of them or any decent person would ever judge him by what he was as they never judged him for being an alien.

Though the situation in Griffin Rock isn’t getting any better and this would drive the bots into calling up Optimus for help and he sends the Autobot most appropriate for this situation: Jazz. He would come right in the middle of a peak riot silencing everyone by getting their attention by giving them a speech on colour and society. Basically, he would point out that the entire point of BLM is to bring awareness that prejudice by way of one’s colour is still a problem in human society and many black people still get bullied or judged for simply being black including by the law and this needs to change. However, BLM is not a get out of jail free card to be violent and cruel back and being pro-BLM doesn’t mean you are any less loyal to your own “colour” or that you disregard all other injustices. And it definitely doesn’t mean a black person who really is in the wrong should be exempted from taking responsibility for their actions. Jazz would also point out that on Cybertron, they don’t just believe in technological progress, but also social progress and Griffin Rock needs to believe in it too.

Sadly, it doesn’t end with Jazz changing every human’s mind though it at least ends the riots though the issues and BLM awareness become ongoing after. Also, the bad ex-cop’s mind never changes. The good part is that Dr. Greene is inspired to become more proactive in the BLM movement by going to a website and submitting a video of him telling his story to inspire other victims to come forward, but to retaliate civilly.

The incident ends with the Burns and Greene remaining close though now openly pro BLM. The bots in turn show what each of their human hologram equivalents look like and it is revealed that after all this time, NONE of them were white. As mentioned before, Blades is brown, Boulder is Hawaiian, Heatwave Latino, and Chase is black. Cody asks why none of them other than Blades ever mentioned they were coloured. They reply that up until now, they never thought it mattered and once the whole BLM incident happened, they feared that it would start mattering but only Blades admitted it because he was the only one who they knew was of colour. After everything boiled over though, they are all reassured that it still doesn’t change anything except now that they should be open about their true colours to which Chief Burns says they always were.

And that’s the end of how I believe the episodes and series would play out. Pardon me if it is sounds a bit sensational. I also firmly believe BLM would not simply end with just two episodes because BLM is still ongoing. It would leave us with the impression that though it’s going to be a long battle, there is hope and many victories to be celebrated. That and since Jazz is the most iconic black Transformer, he would have to be showcased here.

I hope I did this respectfully because BLM is something I take to heart as I do with all humanitarian causes. I mean, I’m an artist. I love everyone and believe in love for everyone.

Support BLM, people!

If you have a Transformers theory or character analysis you want explored, please let me know in my ask box. And please, support me through Patreon or Ko-fi if you want me to make Transformers merch and videos. Or if you want a commission of your favourite bot, let me know in my shop. All links are on my profile page.

Thanks for reading and as always, stay safe. And stay kind.

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sinfulwonders · 4 years

Note

naegami?

Sorry it took a bit!

Naegami

Who adapts easily to working from home, and who's climbing the walls?

Byakuya is used to being on the go constantly, to meetings, to scouting out different companies, and to going to work events and parties. So suddenly being stuck inside... oh man he’s s u f f e r i n g. Makoto adapts pretty easily, and he tries really hard to make Byakuya’s transition to working from home smoother, but it takes a while for Byakuya to not be stir crazy and irritable* all the time. (*More irritable than usual.)

Who wants to take advantage of not having to stand apart when they go outside on a walk because they've been quarantined together anyway, and who's so paranoid of getting yelled at by strangers (whether that scares or just irritates them) that they insist the pair of them still walk six feet apart?

Makoto may be a little paranoid, because he really doesn’t like getting yelled at, but Byakuya is not about to let some plebeians tell them what to do! If they try, well first of all “How dare they?” and second of all he’ll tear them apart.

Who gets really into cooking?

Makoto! As the isolation and staying at home carries on, he decides to brush up on some new skills, like the hope filled boy that he is! :3 One of those skills happens to be cooking, as before the quarantine starting neither of them could cook for the life of them. (Because why would Byakuya ever need to learn to cook? He’s got like a million personal chefs.) Makoto even gets pretty good at it, to the point that they’re eating home cooked meals most nights by the end of it. (Before they were door dashing a lot. Like a lot...)

Who gets really into a TV show they'd never thought to watch before?

Byakuya has never had time to really get into TV shows before this, being so constantly busy all the time. He’s really surprised to find that he really enjoys some of the anime Makoto watches in the evenings, even getting pretty into a few himself. Also Byakuya gets really into batman movies. (He’s really happy that there is some representation of rich people in super hero movies where they aren’t the villain.:P)

Who starts doing improbable musical performances on the balcony/fire escape/by the front window/in the backyard?

Makoto suggested playing some music for their down and out neighbors even though he’s really not musically talented. Byakuya sees his boyfriend’s eyes light up at the idea, so he dusts off his violin and puts on a breathtaking performance. Makoto basically tackles him in hugs and kisses once he’s done! (Added bonus of course)

Who gets the idea that now's a great or at least practical time to get a buzzcut, and does the other try to talk them out of it, sigh "it's your hair" and relinquish all responsibility, or offer to help so it's even?

Byakuya, who is used to frequent trips to his personal barber for trims, becomes increasingly irritated at his quickly growing hair. Eventually he has sort of a mini breakdown... “I’m Byakuya Togami, damn it! I can cut my own hair! Nothing shall get in my way, especially not my irritatingly long bangs!” Makoto tries his best to stop him, but it’s too late... Byakuya Togami cuts his own hair. It’s really not all that bad, Makoto is actually pleasantly surprised by how good it looks! But Byakuya... oh man he’s devastated for several days.

Who starts keeping a journal and calling it their apocalypse log?

I can see Byakuya doing this completely unironically lol.

Who makes sure they can video chat with everyone else in their lives and who is baffled by technology?

Makoto loves to video chat constantly with his friends, sister, and parents, but he’s honestly pretty hopeless when it comes to technology. Byakuya is definitely better with tech, but he gets irritated really easily, so he oftentimes just sets up the video call for Makoto rather than trying to help him do it himself. (It’s just faster that way without Makoto’s weird luck messing things up:P)

Who gets into social media arguments reminding strangers to self-isolate?

Oh man. Totally Byakuya. He is an online arguer for sure. xD

Who starts making weird videos two days in?

Makoto! His sister gets him really into TikTok and so he starts making videos on there. He actually gets a pretty decent following!

Whose sleep schedule goes totally off the rails?

Both of them! Makoto didn’t have the best sleep schedule in the first place, but he tried at least to maintain it somewhat, before the quarantine started. Now he really doesn’t know when day ends and night begins most of the time. Byakuya, on the other hand, had a pretty decent sleep schedule in place. (He didn’t sleep enough, but it was at least at the same time every day.) But now that he’s at home, his sleep schedule goes off the rails just like Makoto. Both are napping together at weird hours of the day and staying up and bingeing anime at night. It’s a totally non existent sleep schedule, but damn it if they’re not the most happy they’ve been in awhile getting to spend so much time together.

If they're in a relationship, do they start sleeping together more often?

Oh definitely. Byakuya isn’t travelling for work, he’s home all the time, so they go at it like rabbits tbh.

#naegami #makoto naegi #Byakuya Togami #danganronpa #ask meme #quarantine ask meme #ship meme

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maknaesdancersrappers · 4 years

Text

Devoted 2

part 9

Overall warning/s: kinkier smut (eg. voyeurism, exhibition, etc.) character death, dark themes

Just how devoted is Jaehyun to you?

prev: part 8

wc: 8.2k

You could hear voices outside. You peek out of one eye, blinded by the light after being shut for so long and automatically forced them open when you realized it was the sunlight coming from the window that blinded you. You whipped your head towards the little alarm clock on your nightstand, blinking at the red numbers that read 10:54 AM.

Shit.

You sat up, cussing at yourself when your head began to spin. Pausing for a moment, you realized you didn’t have anything planned today aside from getting groceries for tonight’s get together. Still, you scold yourself, you shouldn’t be oversleeping; not after last night’s events.

Then you heard voices outside your room again. It sounded like Jaehyun, but why was he still home? The other voice took you a moment to register, but eventually recognized it as Yuta’s. Why were they here at this hour? You swung your legs over the bed and trudged to the bathroom to freshen up. When you were done, you threw on some decent clothing and peeked out of the door.

You froze when you met eyes with a complete stranger, heart dropping to the floor as you assumed the worse. He doesn’t seem to notice your distress at his presence, respectfully bowing his head and quietly greeting you a good morning. It throws you off for a moment until Jaehyun appears behind him and smiles at you.

“Good morning, baby. Did you sleep well?”

“I,” You looked down the hall and spotted a couple more men, dressed in the same shirt as the first one, talking to Yuta, “Yeah… aren’t you supposed to be at work?”

“Not today. I’m having the security cameras installed. Get your phone, by the way, so you can download their app.”

You got your phone and followed him out into the living room, where Yuta smiles at you.

“Good morning! I hope we didn’t wake you up.” He gestures to his employees.

“Not at all! If anything, I should be thanking you for doing so since I overslept.”

He motions for you to come closer, pointing to a dark gray box by the television, “Here, the QR code for the app is on the camera’s router. It saves every footage from each camera and only you two have access to it; or a third party of your choice in case of emergencies, which I recommend you doing. Jaehyun is already designated as the admin, unless you have any qualms on that.”

You playfully hum, jutting your bottom lip out and crossing your arms, “I do, actually.”

Jaehyun chuckles, “You can be the admin to it, dear.”

“I’m kidding, does it really matter which one of us is the admin?” You opened up your phone’s camera and placed it over the QR code. It sends you to a website, titled Nakamoto Technologies, that has a small text greeting Jaehyun, and a unique download button for the app. You tapped on the button and waited for it to download.

“Sir,” One of Yuta’s employees came forward, “We’re done with installing the cameras.”

“Ah, good. Please set it up as well.” He nods, turning to you and Jaehyun, “Come watch so you’ll know what to do in case there’s a system error or reboot.”

You gather at the kitchen table where the man opens up their company laptop and begins to go through the steps one by one.

As his employee demonstrates, your phone vibrates to notify you that the download has finished and you launch the app. You’re taken to a feed of the hallway outside your apartment, where one of the employees is checking the camera and gives a thumbs up.

“Door cam is live.” The man in front of you announced.

You swiped right and the feed changed; you saw yourself along with the others and you looked over to where the camera was at. It was a small dark dome in the corner of the ceiling, barely noticeable at first glance and could even pass off as a light fixture.

“Living room cam is live. So is the hallway camera and kitchen camera. Waiting for the balcony and bedroom camera feeds.”

A part of you still didn’t feel safe as you watched the other camera feeds connect. If the person does get in, the only thing these cameras can do is alert Jaehyun and be a witness to the possible crime done onto you. The thought sends a shiver down your spine. You’re still praying to every higher being that this is all some prank and whoever Kun was trying to tell you about is just a thing of the past.

You feel a hand come over your shoulders and Jaehyun squeezes you lightly, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” You dismissed, “Just need some coffee. Would any of you like anything?”

After they assured you they were fine, you ambled over to the kitchen to make yourself a cup of coffee. You glanced at the kitchen camera; it didn’t look noticeable either. Choosing the hazelino muffin flavor and popping the bronzy pod into the Nespresso machine, you leaned against the counter and waited for it to brew. Did Jaehyun take a day off today just to have the cameras installed? Or is he coming into work when they’re finished?

Today, Ten was coming in from Thailand to visit and everyone was adamant to get together. Fortunately, you and Jaehyun already volunteered to host the gathering. You had to go to the grocery to pick up some ingredients for the food you had planned on serving. Would Jaehyun accompany you? You glanced over your shoulder just as your coffee was ready and saw Jaehyun and Yuta talking seriously.

Her personal camera.

That’s what you could read from your fiance’s lips. Personal camera? For what?

Images from that time in his office and the lewd video saved on his computer flashed in your head, bringing a wave of heat over your cheeks.

Oh.

You picked up your coffee mug and softly blew at it, wondering if Jaehyun had ever watched that video back.

A cell phone rang behind you and Jaehyun’s voice took over the abrupt halt of the ringtone.

“What? She hasn’t been home for 3 days?”

The concern in his voice makes you spin around. Who was he talking about?

“How about our cameras? Nothing?” He puts a hand over his forehead and uses his thumb and ring finger to rub circles on his temples, “Okay. Yeah, no, she—she’s fine. They’re done installing here. I’ll let her know. You take care, too, hyung.”

That must have been Yunho, then. You let out a little gasp; were they talking about Mina? Dread and worry began to bubble in your stomach. Could the person who sent the note be the reason why Mina is missing? Was she kidnapped? You put your mug down and paced towards Jaehyun, “Was that about Mina?”

He frowns, “Y-yeah, it was. Yunho said her family requested for a welfare check after she didn’t contact them like she usually does when she gets home. The police have been contacted already.”

“I hope she’s okay.” You bit down on your lip, “Nothing seemed strange when she left for work the day she was last seen?”

“No, she went home with one of the secretaries, Sera. But Sera says they separated at the train station because Mina said she was going to meet someone and that was the last of their interaction. Mina never mentioned who she was meeting or where exactly she was going.”

“Then police should search up any surveillance cameras around the area to determine where she went off to.” Yuta interjected, “There’s bound to be establishments that have their own CCTVs that caught her.”

You put a hand on Jaehyun’s arm, “Please update me about her situation, okay?”

“Okay.” He pulled you forward and kissed your forehead, “I’m sure she’s fine. Let’s not think the worst has befallen her.”

“Even so, she looks like someone who would put up a good fight before going down.” Yuta curtly chuckles before he clears his throat. “Looks like the setup is done and everything is working fine. If they’re are any problems, I’m a call away.”

“Thank you, Yuta. Are you sure you don’t want me to pay for this?”

“Let’s call it an engagement gift.” He grins brightly, “And if you want the same setup for your house, we’ll call that a housewarming gift.”

Yuta and his workers left shortly afterwards, leaving you to return to your coffee and Jaehyun insisting he’ll cook lunch for the two of you.

“What time does Ten arrive?” He asks, washing his hands at the sink.

“Two, I think. He’ll have a few hours to rest up a bit at his hotel.” You take a lengthy gulp of your coffee, softly moaning at the warmth coating your throat. “Oh, I have to go to the grocery!”

Jaehyun hums, “Okay, let’s go around three?”

You smile to yourself; of course he wouldn’t let you go alone. You definitely did not mind. It’s been a while since the two of you went grocery shopping together. “Sounds good. I’m sure they’ll be here at 9 so there’s plenty of time to cook and dilly dally.”

“Dilly dally?” He repeats, clearly amused as he spares you a glance before fetching ingredients in the refrigerator. “What exactly do you mean by dilly dally?”

“Whatever you want it to mean as, baby.” You shot back with a wink, “But it feels so tense lately, a bubble bath sounds good right now.”

“You deserve one, baby.”

You pout, “I think you deserve one, too. Even a massage.”

Jaehyun shakes his head, unable to contain his smile. “Should I call for a masseuse later?”

“Like I’d let any other woman touch you for too long.” You huffed, jutting your bottom lip out at the thought.

“I’d still like a massage though. If I do the dishes, can I get a happy ending?”

“Of cou— have you ever received a happy ending massage?!”

He bursts out laughing, “No, I haven’t. Don’t worry. Are those even still a thing? Like there are still salons that offer that?”

“I don’t know and we never will because we can handle it ourselves, okay?”

“Baby, calm down, do you honestly think I’d avail that from anyone else aside from you? Besides, I only found out about those when I was in high school.”

Your ears perked up at this, “High school?”

“Yeah, I told you how my friends back then were basically scum, right? Every week, especially after training, they’d get massages. I went once and the girl offered the happy ending service — which I didn’t really understand until she tried reaching for my dick and I declined it.” He practically shuddered at the memory, pausing from chopping onions. “I never went with them again.”

This was the first time he openly talked about something from when he was in high school. It’s not a happy memory, but he’s still opening up.

“Do you really hate them? Your friends from high school, I mean.”

Jaehyun doesn’t respond at first and you patiently wait for him to set aside the vegetables he’s cut before he looks at you. “I still had fun with them, I guess. If it weren’t for the vices, I would have liked to stay friends with most of them.”

You’re finished with your coffee, bringing it over to the sink to wash and put it away on the rack. Afterwards, you walked over to Jaehyun and kissed his cheek as a silent thank you for opening up.

He glances at you with an unsure smile, knowing you kissed him for something but wasn’t sure on the cause, so you took the chance to kiss his lips.

“I’ll set the table.” You quietly murmured after he pulled away.

Instead of the actual dining table, you only laid out the kitchenware on the breakfast counter. Jaehyun finished cooking just as you got two bowls full of rice and sat yourself down on the barstool. He brings over the food after plating and plays a song on his phone after quickly hooking up the bluetooth speakers from the living room.

You both start eating, appreciatively moaning at the burst of flavor dancing on your tongue. What you’d do to have Jaehyun cook for the two of you permanently if he wasn’t so busy with work.

“Oh, right. My mom called this morning. She found two possible wedding venues for us already.” Jaehyun informs you after swallowing. “One is a high end resort and the other is a private property; a friend of hers. I think it’s Yebin’s aunt.”

“Doesn’t the resort sound better? We can reserve rooms for the guests.”

“If we choose the resort, we’ll be reserving the whole place.”

You almost choked on your food, “We barely have 50 guests, Jaehyun. I don’t think we have to reserve the entire place. There are people who could have been waiting to book that place for a vacation.”

He purses his lips, “Then let’s go with my mom’s friend. It’s a villa they own for their family’s vacation homes and they have cherry blossom trees that fit the color scheme you want. We could have the entire place for ourselves. We wouldn’t need that much security either.”

Pushing the rice around your bowl with your chopsticks, you silently reminded yourself how prominent of a family Jaehyun belonged to. It would make headlines, of course, and there’s bound to be press trying to sneak a few shots of the wedding. Privacy is top priority among the Jungs.

“Okay. But can we do an ocular?”

“Oh, uhm…” Jaehyun trails off, “I might have an overseas trip this weekend. Is it okay if only you and mom go? Her friend is only available this week, too, before she heads back to Europe.”

You’re a little disappointed, but you’re not going to tell him you want him there because you’re certain he’ll do everything in his power to cancel the trip for a petty request. You nod your head, “I don’t mind! In fact, maybe I’ll ask my mom to tag along and we can have a nice girl’s weekend.”

“That sounds great.” He grins, “Ask Minkyung and Yebin as well, maybe they’re free.”

“If we want cherry blossoms to bloom on our wedding day, that would give us six months from today.” It’s the middle of September and Spring starts in April. “Isn’t that too quick? Doesn’t wedding planning take at least a year?”

He reaches over the table and puts his hands over yours, “Would you rather have me preserve cherry blossom trees for our wedding?”

You feel your eyes almost bugging out at the suggestion, “That… sounds expensive… preserve a tree?”

“No, love, a couple of trees. We can’t just have one, maybe six? And you know I wouldn’t mind spending millions for our wedding.”

“Well I mind!” You groaned, “But honestly, a spring wedding is the most ideal for me, if not a winter one.”

Jaehyun chuckles, “I don’t mind having a wedding for each season, baby. If you’re worried about the cost and the possible annoyance of our friends and families at having four weddings, then we could always just dress up for the occasion and do it ourselves.”

This makes you laugh while shaking your head in disbelief, “Just say our vows, kiss, and dance for a night?”

“Who knows, maybe for the winter ‘wedding’, we’ll be three.”

It didn’t click in your head at first what he had meant at first because as cheesy as it sounds, the way he looked at you with soft, gleaming eyes had you distracted for a moment, but his thumb moves across your knuckles and you have visions of his hand running over your swollen belly.

“That soon?” You lightheartedly teased, moving your hand so your fingers intertwined.

“I said ‘maybe.’” He squeezes your hand, “We’ll have a baby whenever you’re ready.”

“Well then,” You retract your hand away from his when you see both your plates are empty, “I can promise you that you don’t have to wait a year.”

You stand up and start to reach for his plates but he lightly swats your hands away.

“Nuh uh, not today. I’ll do the dishes.”

“But you already cooked for us.”

“And I’ll clean up for us, too.” He drags your plate away from you and stands up as well. “For a price, of course.”

The coy smile on his face makes you narrow your gaze at him. Putting a hand on your hip, you cocked a brow, “And that price is?”

He winks at you, “It involves your mouth.”

“That’s it?” You scoffed, sashaying over to his side of the table, “Easy.”

The smug look on his face is instantly wiped away when you grab his crotch and he winces in shock.

“I—I meant later—”

“Oh, I know. Just warming it up.”

Jaehyun tries to move away, but ends up bucking his hips into your touch when you flex your hands. The pained expression on his face makes you giggle, seeing the conflict of trying to be sane enough to do his chores or just giving into your temptation.

You pull away and cross your arms, “I’ll go run us a bath now.”

“God damn it.” He grumbles, but sucks in a breath and forces out a smile, “Okay. I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Take your time.”

“No the fuck I won’t.”

You burst out laughing, spying the annoyance in his features as he walks past you after gathering the plates in his hands. You make your way down the hall, glancing at the newly installed camera without much thought, and head inside the bathroom. As you run the bath, you peruse through your small collection of bath bombs and pick out a pink and grayish-purple one with a rose design. Giving it a quick whiff, you sigh at the scent of jasmine and ylang-ylang invading your senses. Any other day, Jaehyun would have probably preferred the green tea and peppermint one (although you’re convinced he’s only amused that it’s shaped like a dinosaur) but you’re certain he’s going to love this one just as much.

You gently lower it into the warm water, the instant fizzing of the bath bomb as it disintegrates in your hand tickles you. You let it float on its own to turn the tap off and decide to get it before Jaehyun comes. However, as you were halfway through tugging off your shirt above your head, a pair of hands slithered over your bare waist from behind to your chest. You toss your shirt to the side and strained your neck to look at Jaehyun, who merely smiles.

“Oh, don’t mind me, I’m just warming it up.”

“Enough warming up, the water will get cold.” You pushed against him using your butt as you peeled down your shorts and underwear.

He steps back and you think it’s so he could take off his clothes, but then you feel his hands on your ass, spreading your cheeks apart so he could access your pussy with his tongue. You fall forward, grabbing onto the edge of the tub with a loud gasp.

“Jae—”

He moans and the vibrations affect you as well. You weren’t very keen on this position, not when his nose is just poking at your anus, but he obviously doesn’t mind.

“Jaehyun,” You whimpered when his tongue reached your clit, “The water.”

He relents, standing up after delivering a soft smack on your pussy, but doesn’t let go of your body. “I know, I know.”

You straighten yourself up, only to flinch when he snakes his hand between your legs. “If you keep doing that, I’ll feel bad about wasting this bath I ran.”

He chuckles, kissing your shoulder, “Which one is this one?”

“It’s jasmine-scented.” You push his hand away and spin around, grabbing hold onto the edge of his shirt. “It’s called Sex Bomb.”

His eyebrows shoot up ever so slightly, “Is that so? Well, let’s get my clothes off and hop in.”

“If you could have just kept your hands to yourself for just a second, we could have breezed through that step ages ago.” You pulled his shirt up and he shrugs it off completely, tossing it to where you discarded your shirt. You then push his sweats down and he kicks it off to the side.

Getting into the tub first, you wait for him to make himself comfortable before sitting between his legs and leaning back on his chest. The water’s temperature was just right, not too hot for the two of you to be bothered or too cold for either of you to get sick.

“Can we please make joined bath times a weekly thing?” You sighed, hugging onto one of his arms that slung around you.

“Baby, you read my mind.” Jaehyun kisses the back of your head. “Now, about that payment for earlier.”

You rolled your shoulders back, exaggerating your movements, “Ooh, my body still feels a bit stiff though.”

Jaehyun scoffs behind you, bringing his hands over your chest, “That’s it?” Mocking your tone from earlier, “Easy.”

“A new house!” Ten exclaims, pounding his fist on the table, shaking the cocktails in their glasses. “Tell me when and where so I can clear my schedule for the housewarming!”

“Knowing Jung, it’s not just a house.” Yebin makes a remark as she narrows her eyes at you for confirmation, to which you move your head around in a nonchalant manner, and she scoffs, “Of course.”

“Heard the Kangs bought new land down south.” Jaehyun snides, laid back on his chair with his arm draped on the back of yours. “Is it another private property or are you commercializing it?”

She snorts, rolling her eyes, “Of course we’re commercializing it. A resort we’ll have the honor of staying at before it even opens.”

Doyoung makes a face at her, “So, we’re the guinea pigs?”

Everyone laughs when Yebin unabashedly shrugs her shoulders and crinkles her nose.

“Oh!” You exclaimed, perking up in your seat. “Speaking of private property, Yebin, Minkyung, are you guys free this weekend? I’ll be doing an ocular for the wedding venue and it would be a great girl’s weekend—”

Minkyung gasps with visible excitement in her eyes, “Bachelorette party?!”

“Do you want strippers—ow!” Yebin yelps, jerking up and hitting her knee on the table. She glares at Jaehyun, “What are you, 12?”

“Our mothers are coming along.” He grits through his teeth before taking a sip of his whiskey. “I suggested having the two of you tag along since I’ll be out of the country this weekend.”

“Well then, I’m in! We can plan the actual bachelorette party there.” Minkyung gleefully chirps, smiling at you.

“No—ow!” It was Jaehyun’s turn to cry, hitting the underside of the table so hard that the forks clattered.

“Johnny, plan this man a bachelor’s party!” Yebin elbows the man beside her, who’s brows shoot up as he glances at Jaehyun.

“Okay. Leave it to me.”

Jaehyun grimaces and you laugh at his expression, knowing he can’t stop Johnny now if he says those four words.

“Enough about us!” You wave your hand around, feeling warm from your fourth glass of wine. “How about you guys? Dons? Are you still hooking up with that divorce attorney?”

Doyoung almost spat out his whiskey, quickly grabbing a napkin to dab his lips. Everyone begins to jeer as he coughs loudly, “Uhm, yeah, every other week. Just to destress, you know?”

“Nice.” Yebin raises her wine glass at him, but he just makes a face at her. “Oh my god, imagine if you accidentally knock that chick up. You’d have a kid before these two.”

“Not a chance. She’s both on pills and film.” Doyoung vehemently shuts the idea down, shaking his head in denial. “I’m not fit to be a dad either.”

“Aw, Dons,” You coo, “You don’t know that. Didn’t you have a name planned for a son back in high school?”

He sucks his teeth, looking up as he tries to remember, eyes growing wide along with a smile, “Oh, right! I think I said Jeno or something. I don’t know; that was for that project on genetics.”

“Oh my god,” Minkyung props her elbow up on the table and rests her chin on her palm, “Could you guys imagine all our kids being friends? That would be so cute. Please! We need to make them best friends, too!”

“Honey, that’s only happening if we all manage to get pregnant or impregnate someone in a specific timeline.” Yebin points out, taking another swig of her drink.

Minkyung pouts for a brief moment, using her free hand to meticulously tap her manicured nails rhythmically on the table before slapping the surface and leaning towards you. “When are you two having kids?”

You almost regurgitate your drink back into the glass, surprised that she was really contemplating the idea.

“[Y/N] promised we don’t have to wait a year after the wedding.” Jaehyun casually answers, swirling his whiskey around, “So maybe by the end of the next year?”

“Okay, I can do that.” Minkyung tells herself.

Yebin stares at her, “Min, you’re not actually thinking about having a baby just to make sure they’ll be besties with theirs. Think about your job.”

Minkyung worked as a model that was highly sought after by high end fashion brands and this barely gave her time to socialize since she flew to Europe and America for fashion weeks and photoshoots, let alone date someone.

“So I’ll be on hiatus for a few years, so what?” She waves her hand, “If these two are having kids, I am going to give them the best present: a best friend.”

“You don’t have a boyfriend.” Ten points out, “Gosh, do you even get laid?”

“You don’t know two shits, Ten.” Minkyung retorts in a sweet voice and an innocent smile. “Anyways, there’s something I am very curious about and I’m tipsy enough to ask it without regrets: what happened between you and Johnny?”

The table went silent for a moment before the two men in question burst out laughing.

“John, didn’t you tell them?”

“I was hoping I didn’t have to... with what’s going on and all but…” Johnny scratches his nape, letting out a heavy sigh, “Our relationship was just for shits and giggles. We established that from the get go especially since my parents arranged a marriage for me between a business partner.”

“I thought you got out of that?” Jaehyun asks, moving the hand behind to your shoulder and giving you a lazy massage. “The Bae conglomerate, right?”

Johnny nods his head, releasing another drawn out sigh before taking a sip, “Yeah, the one that hates men.”

“Irene?” Yebin’s eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her head, “Her parents are arranging her marriage… with you?!”

“I’m sorry, is there something wrong with marrying me?” He says in faux offense, putting a hand over his chest and jutting his bottom lip out at her. “But, yeah, Irene. You know her?”

Jaehyun mumbles something into his glass about not being surprised about that, although those across the table — including Yebin — hears him, prompting Yebin to give him a pointed glare.

“Yeah, we were classmates. Kyeonggi Girls’.”

You licked your lips; “Kyeonggi…?”

“The elite all girls’ academy.” She flips her hair and bats her eyelashes at you, “Everyone was fake.”

“Why does that school sound familiar?”

“Because I went to Kyeonggi Boys’? Their brother school? Did you forget?” Jaehyun pinched your waist and you jerked towards him, backhanding his stomach for doing so. “But I agree, our school is a breeding ground for fakes.”

“I bet your schools had mandatory boy-girl interactions.” Johnny chuckled, “Did you two meet back then?”

“No. Thank god.” They said in unison, making everyone burst out into laughter while they share annoyed looks at one another.

“But, [Y/N],” Jaehyun clears his throat to cut the noise, “You mentioned before that we could have met back then.”

You frowned, not recalling what he was saying, “I did?”

“That interschool sports festival? You told me you won first place in swimming and my team won in basketball.”

“Oh!” You remembered now; during one of your first dates while you talked about competitive swimming, you mentioned winning an interschool competition and that was the time Jaehyun told you where he studied in high school after recognizing the said festival. You cupped his face, “I watched all the basketball games, though, I can’t believe I missed your face.”

“That’s because his visuals are just so-so back in high school. Kyeonggi Boys’ are assholes, but they’re hot. Jung must have blended right in, especially if he’s on varsity basketball.”

“I don’t know if I should be offended you clustered me with them as being assholes or flattered you called us hot.”

“Don’t let it get to your ego, Jung, your fiancee is right there. Besides,” Yebin leaned back, “Almost every girl in Kyeonggi’s wanted your dick. They loved the ice prince vibes; they didn’t even care that someone spread rumors that you were gay… I suppose it’s better that you two didn’t get together in high school because I’m sure my bitch ass classmates would tear your reputation apart.”

Jaehyun makes an indignant sound in retort, “I would have protected her if that had happened.”

Yebin makes a snide comment and sparks another little bicker between her and Jaehyun with Minkyung trying to calm both (mostly Yebin) down. You glance around the table, eyes a little heavy already; Ten and Johnny are talking to themselves about business, while Doyoung was on his phone. Sneaking a peek, you let out a scandalized gasp when you caught sight of the text he had just received.

“You? Sexting?” You put a hand over your mouth to further prove your shock at what you had witnessed. “Dons, just date the woman!”

His face goes bright red, eyes avoiding every gaze turned to him as everyone starts to tease him. “It’s nothing serious! I’m still not attracted to her, I just like the sex!”

“It always starts out that way.” Ten nudged him with his shoulder, “Just let yourself fall when it happens.”

“Anyways!” He exclaims, ready to change the topic, “Jaehyun’s bachelor party, yeah?”

“I don’t want one.” Jaehyun shakes his head, but the three other men have launched themselves into planning it.

“Invite Sicheng!” You butt into their conversation, “Oh, and Yuta, too!”

“Yuta?” Johnny repeats, “Nakamoto? Sure, why not. He’s a cool guy.”

“Ah, of Nakamoto Technologies?”

You knew Johnny knew Yuta, but you didn’t expect Doyoung to know him as well. “You know him, Dons?”

He shrugs, “Not really, but remember that emergency regarding a hack in our system? It was resolved, but the CEO wants to change suppliers. Nakamoto Tech was suggested to us and they seem efficient and trustworthy.”

“They handle our security systems, too. Both at work and here.” Jaehyun mentions, putting his hand back over your shoulder.

“He was here this morning.”

“But you’re moving, why do you need to install a security system here?” Doyoung asks, turning his gaze to where you gestured: the barely noticeable CCTV camera dome in the kitchen ceiling corner.

You open your mouth, ready to answer, but you hesitate, turning to Jaehyun instead, who seemed reluctant to give a reason as well. “Well,”

“Oh my god! Is it your stalker from college? He found you again, didn’t he?” Minkyung lets out a concerned gasp, putting her wine glass down.

You were ready to deny her allegations, but Jaehyun’s voice overpowers yours as he responds, “I’m afraid so. We’re tightening security up to catch him and put him in his place. That’s why I’m a little reluctant to go away for that business trip.”

You stayed quiet, confused as to why Jaehyun would say it was your college stalker, but then again it would be harder to explain why the two of you know that it’s not the guy from college. His hand finds yours under the table and he squeezes tightly with you returning the motion.

“Then hire a damn bodyguard for her!” Yebin yells, “You know you can’t be with her every waking hour and you can’t just lock her up, too!”

“I know that.” Jaehyun grits, “I’m already on top of it. I just haven’t run the idea by [Y/N] yet but I’ve already chosen two bodyguards for her.”

“Isn’t that too much?” You chewed on your bottom lip, glancing between Yebin and Jaehyun. “Do I really need two?”

“Yes.” They, along with Johnny, said. Jaehyun quickly follows up with, “It’s so that they can take turns. Think of it like morning and night shifts. If it were up to me, I would recommend two at a time.”

You shake your head, “I don’t need four bodyguards. But okay, if you think I really need them, then I’d like to meet the two you’ve chosen.”

“There’s a whole company worth of them if you don’t like the two I’ve picked out for you.”

“Oh, are these from Moon Security Services?” Johnny inquires, “Then you’ll be in good hands. Taeil has the best bodyguards and security personnel in the business. Don’t let his looks represent his employees, they’re all army trained.”

As you listened to their conversation, you picked a muscat grape from the platter in front of you and popped it into your mouth. Jaehyun, Johnny, Yebin, and Ten all come from rich families; it would be no surprise that they know who and what the best of best are. Minkyung, despite sharing the same last name as Yebin, isn’t from the Kang Conglomerate, and she proclaims herself as the pauper of the group, yet she studied all her school life under a scholarship and now earns at least 5-digits in dollars as a model. You and Doyoung come from well-off families and work well-paying jobs as well, although yours depended on your clients which made you the one in the group that earned the least. It wasn’t something that bothered you, but moments like these reminded you of it. Without Jaehyun, you wouldn’t be sipping on Schiava or munching on expensive grapes every week. Without him, you wouldn’t be living comfortably in a penthouse and soon, in a mansion that could house four families. You’d like to think you would still do well even if you weren’t with Jaehyun, but the thought of not being with him isn’t something you let your mind dwell on.

You feel a kiss on your temple; you closed your eyes and let yourself smile. When Jaehyun pulls away, you peer up at him and he asks, “Are you okay?”

“Just drowning in my thoughts. Thanks for pulling me out.”

“Is it the stalker?” Minkyung asks, “Karma will bite his ass eventually, [Y/N].”

“I just… What would he want from me anyways? Why me?”

Jaehyun kisses your hair, “If it’s you he wants, then honestly, I don’t blame him.”

“And if it’s not that guy from college,” Yebin crosses her arms over the table, “Let’s say this guy is actually after you, Jung, and they’re going to use [Y/N] against you.”

“If that’s the case,” He grabs a grape and twiddles it between his fingers. “then I’ll deal with it accordingly.”

You silently watch in shock as Jaehyun slowly digs his thumbnail into the little fruit’s flesh, drawing out the sweet juice.

“If someone has a problem with me, then take it out on me. I’m not going to forgive anyone who lays a hand on [Y/N].” He cuts the grape all the way through, popping one half into his mouth. “It’s petty to drag people who aren’t involved into situations they’re not a part of or don’t even belong to.”

It was five in the morning when you woke up with a horrible headache. Last night — well, a couple hours ago — you made the horrible decision to drink 3 bottles of wine with the girls and switch to whiskey when neither of you could stand up to grab a new bottle of Schiava in the fridge. You begrudgingly rolled off the bed, noting Jaehyun wasn’t beside you. You’re not even sure if he got into bed… you don’t even know how you got to bed.

Your mouth was dry like sandpaper, just begging for some water so you trudged your way out to the kitchen. You peered into the guest room, spying Minkyung and Yebin on each of the twin beds, recalling how they claimed each one and banished the boys on the couch. Walking out of the hallway, you silently laugh at Johnny draped across one of the armchairs while Ten and Doyoung comfortably laid themselves on the L-shaped couch, all of them snoring in disharmony. The kitchen cub lights were on and you vaguely heard the sound of running water. Reaching your destination, you find Jaehyun putting away the last whiskey glass into the dishwasher before shutting it and wiping his hands on a towel. On the kitchen island, there were two glasses filled with water and two painkillers.

“Oh, you’re up.” Jaehyun turns around and looks surprised to see you.

“You did the dishes?”

“Well, I only meant to grab us some water and painkillers, but I thought I’d do them anyway.” He gestures to the glasses you’ve already spotted. He cheekily grins at you, a little lopsided that told you he was still drunk, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask for compensation.”

You giggled, almost like a schoolgirl, when his dimples appeared. You drink one of the glasses, gulping down half of it before letting out a satisfied sigh when your thirst is finally quenched. “Are we getting too old to get drunk like this?”

“Absolutely not.” Jaehyun tears one of the painkillers and tosses it into his mouth, “We’re in our mid-20’s, what are you talking about?”

“I don’t know, maybe I’m still drunk.” You swallowed down the other pill and chased it with water, “If that thing Minkyung wants — if we all had children and they become best friends — we gotta let them drink when they want, alright? Not like, at 14 when they’re curious, but at like, barely legal age. That’s fine, right? As long as they’re at someone’s house — no clubs and whatnots. We’re gonna be cool parents.”

“Okay, [Y/N].” He pulled you into a hug and kissed your cheek, “Let them drink at a barely legal age; got it.”

“It’s better they learn from us than some strangers. Give them enough freedom so they wouldn’t become rebellious or estranged. Promise me you’ll take our children out on daddy dates.”

“I promise to take our children out to daddy dates.” He repeats, “So mommy can have a spa day to herself.”

“We’re going to spoil them just enough so they wouldn’t turn into entitled brats.” You mumbled into his chest, “Promise me you’re not going to force them into inheriting the family business, especially if they want to become something else.”

“I promise, baby.” He kisses your cheek again, “Little [Y/N] can be anything she wants to be.”

“Hey,” You tilt your head back to see his face, “What if we have a son first?”

“Then what would you name him?”

You moved your hands to cup his cheeks, “Well, I don’t want him to be Jaehyun Jr. or Jaehyun the second… but I still want to name him after you. So maybe something with Jae?”

“Jaebeom? Jaeho? Jaegyu?” He pauses, “Uh… Jaemin?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll decide on it when I’m actually pregnant.”

Jaehyun ducks his head down and presses his lips against yours, “Okay.”

He leans forward again for another kiss, but you lightly push him away.

“Don’t be offended,” You swallowed, “But I want to throw up.”

“What? Then go to the bathroom!” He scolds in a playful manner before quickly escorting you to the toilet and holding your hair up for you.

“I should hire you once I save enough to move.” Minkyung states, moving her sunglasses up as a makeshift headband to inspect the little succulents on display, “You would know how I’d like my home. Something along the lines of light gray, green accents, and—”

“—a splash of pink.” You finished for her, throwing her a smirk over your shoulder as you checked the price of the snake plant.

“See! You know me so well.” Her face drops, “Unless I’m that readable.”

“No, it’s because I lived with you for 4 years.” You laughed, moving over to compare the plants side by side, “Also, you didn’t have to come with me.”

You and Minkyung met up for brunch earlier that day. It was Friday, a week after everyone met up, the day Jaehyun leaves for Hong Kong, and the day before you were scheduled to go check out the possible wedding venues with her, Yebin, and your moms. When you mentioned you had to run an errand for work, she invited herself with you.

“Don’t be ridiculous! Not after what you and Jaehyun told us last week, as if I’d let you be alone in public places. I’ll be with you as long as I can.”

“I have bodyguards, Min.” You peer out the large window to see two men outside, dressed in casual clothes, but had ear pieces and shades on. You met the pair first thing on Monday morning and learned they were cousins. Hyunwoo was older than you by five years while Jooheon was older by two years. They were big and intimidating upon first impression, but they spoke softly and humbly towards you whenever you talked to them. They initially wore suits as their uniform, but after they accompanied you to visit Kyungwon at your old office and accumulated pointed stares, you asked for them to wear casual clothes instead and wait outside or in the car. They drove you around, opened doors for you, and either one would always survey the area before you even arrived. It felt a little too excessive, but in the end all of this was for your safety and Jaehyun’s peace of mind.

Minkyung follows your gaze and pouts, “Well, they’re outside as per your request, but who knows what could happen in here with you.”

“Hyunwoo already checked the place out before we arrived, otherwise Jooheon wouldn’t have let us step foot in here.” You returned your attention to the task at hand; choosing some indoor plants for Yuta’s apartment. Personally, you wanted the peace lilies, but the yellow streaks of the snake plant complemented Yuta’s apartment as a whole. You also had to choose the perfect pot to go with it. “I think it’s too tacky to go with a yellow pot, even if it’s muted. Which is better, black or white?”

“See? You would be standing here all day if I didn’t come with you.” Minkyung rolls her eyes, “I like the white one!”

“If I were to design your new apartment, I’d fill it with plants and call it a day.” You joked, calling for one of the sales attendants.

“And you know what? I wouldn’t be mad about it.” She picked up a small succulent in a lightbulb shaped glass container, “You should try gardening in your new house, [Y/N]! It could be your pregnancy hobby.”

“My what?”

“Like, the hobby you pick up because you’re pregnant. Some people try knitting, some paint, you can try gardening!”

You don’t get to answer back as the sales attendant you flagged down finally came to you and you pointed out which plants you wanted to buy. After it’s settled you and Minkyung follow her to the counter where you fill up some forms to have it delivered to Yuta’s apartment when it’s ready. When you finish, you look back at Minkyung who still had the succulent in her hands, “Are you going to buy that?”

“Yes!” She grins, “I’ve already named it as well!”

“You… name your plants?”

“This is Cadbury.”

“...after chocolates?”

She sighs, “If it dies, then I’ll never eat that brand ever again.”

You stare at her for a good minute, trying to figure out if she was joking or not as she steps forward to the cashier and asks for the succulent to be wrapped. “Have you lost one yet?”

While she fishes out her card from her purse, she offers you a sad pout, “Nutella.”

“Miss [L/N] [Y/N]?” You turn your head to a polite voice over the counter and return the smile, “Hello ma’am! We received an order for flowers to be picked up by you today.”

“Aw!” Minkyung coos, “Jaehyun got you flowers?”

“I…” You paused, releasing a sigh instead and looked back at the sales attendant, “Okay, then, thank you.”

The lady excuses herself to retrieve the flowers at the back of the store and Minkyung leans her head on yours.

“Oh, [Y/N], I wish I’d find someone as sweet as Jaehyun. Did he know you were going here today?”

“Yeah, I texted him before we went here. It’s just weird though, he’ll usually pick it up himself and surprise me back home.”

“Maybe he’s too busy? His flight is tonight, right?” Just then, her eyes practically sparkled as an idea popped in her head, “Let me and Yebs sleepover! I’ll come once he’s gone and it’ll be more efficient for us the next day since we’re leaving before lunch.”

“Sure, I’ll ask Yebin right now.” You take out your phone just as the lady returns with a small, brown clay pot with reddish flowers. It wasn’t what you were expecting; he usually gave you roses or peonies, occasionally sunflowers, in bouquets, but never potted plants. Nonetheless, it’s still from Jaehyun and you readily accept it from the lady. “Oh, thank you. What are these?”

“Begonias, ma’am. If I may, it’s quite peculiar your partner would give you these flowers.”

“Why is that?”

“Well, ma’am, they symbolize caution.”

“Caution?” You and Minkyung said in unison.

The lady waves her hands, “But don’t take it too literally, ma’am. Since they are from your partner, it could mean gratitude and giving thanks.”

Jaehyun is romantic, but you don’t think he’s sensible enough to search up flowers and their symbolisms before giving them to you. With the current situation of him leaving, it could mean he just wants you to be careful and be alert while he’s gone.

After checking out the plants for Yuta’s apartment and Minkyung’s little succulent, you tucked the flower pot in your arms and made your way outside where Jooheon opened the door for the two of you. You dropped Minkyung off at her apartment and Hyunwoo drove you back to yours, where you set the flowers on the living room table and proceeded to pack your weekend bag and Jaehyun’s weekend luggage.

Jaehyun came home earlier than usual as he had a flight at 9PM and you greeted him at the hallway opening with a kiss.

“Minkyung and Yebin are coming over after you leave. They’ll sleepover as well so we don’t have to wait for each other tomorrow morning when we have to leave.” You informed him, watching him loosen his tie. “Are you hungry? I was about to make dinner.”

“I’m starving.” He sheepishly admits, prompting you to glare at him since it meant he had skipped lunch once more. “Work is piling up, baby.”

“That’s not an excuse.” You reprimanded, tiptoeing to kiss him once more, “But I understand. I’ll go get dinner ready. Go freshen up for your flight.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He chases after your lips for a longer kiss before pulling away.

As you moved around him to get to the kitchen, you quickly spun on your heels to face him again, “Oh, and thank you for the flowers. The lady said it was an odd choice.”

You gesture to the begonias on the coffee table and Jaehyun stops untying his tie.

“Oh.” He says after a pregnant pause, “Are they?”

“Yeah and I get it, you want me to be careful. Don’t worry, I will be.”

“Is that what they meant?” He stares at the flowers and moves his attention back to you as you nodded, “They must have mixed up my order then… I’ll replace them.”

“No, you don’t have to. They’re pretty, don’t you think? You don’t have to replace them, besides, the lady said they could also mean gratitude.”

He licks his lips in contemplation, “Alright then.”

You smile at him, giving him another kiss, “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Jaehyun whispers back, watching you disappear into the kitchen.

He moves towards the coffee table, scrutinizing the potted red flowers under an intense glare. He wants to cancel his flight and stay with you; but this meeting had the whole Jung’s reputation on the line. There’s a horrible sick feeling in his gut and he could practically feel the familiar rush of anger in his veins. He would never give you flowers with such meanings — no, that’s not the problem — he never even ordered flowers for you today to begin with.

a/n: yay new update 🎉 i’m aiming to update with part 10 in a week or two, meaning the old schedule of uploading on Fridays will be back (hopefully) 🤞🏻 please let me know what you think of this chapter here 🥰

next: part 10

~ buy me a peach? but why?

#nct smut #jaehyun smut #nct scenarios #jaehyun scenarios #devoted au

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whitehotharlots · 4 years

Text

Previewing the 2024 Democrat Primary

Within a couple weeks of his being sworn in, just about every person on earth will wish Joe Biden was no longer president. Sure, the few surviving John B. Anderson voters will be thrilled to see 4 years of crushing austerity and half-assed attempts at Keynesian stimulus. But most people will begin dreaming about a brighter future.

Good news! The 2024 Democratic primary field is going to contain dozens of options. Bad news! They are all going to be disgusting piles of shit.

The “top tier”

While it’s too early to do any handicapping, these are the candidates the media will treat as having the most realistic chances of securing the nomination.

Kamala Harris

Kamala did not win a single primary delegate in 2020. This is because she dropped out before the first primary, and that was because no one likes her. She has no base beyond a few thousand of twitter’s most violent psychos. Her disingenuousness approaches John Edwards levels: any halfway incredulous person can see immediately beyond her bullshit. She has no principles whatsoever, and while that may be par for the course for Democrats, she lacks even the basic politician’s ability to intuit anything that might, hypothetically, constitute a principle.

Even better: she is an awful public speaker. She sounds like how a talking dog would speak if he were just caught stealing people food off the kitchen table. She communicates in weird grunts and faux sassy squeaks, which is how she imagines real black women sound like, but something about her is unable to sell the bit. She begins her sentences in halfhearted AAVE, stops and panics halfway through as she realizes that maybe this sounds fake and offensive, and then reminds herself oh wait, no, this is okay since I’m black. This doesn’t happen once or twice per speech. This is how every single sentence sounds.

Kamala is like Nancy Pelosi in that no sketch show will ever impersonate her correctly, because anything that came close to authenticity would be considered far too cruel. This might benefit her in the primaries, as she exists in the minds of Democrats as someone and something she absolutely is not in reality. Nominating her would be like allowing your child’s imaginary friend to attempt to drive you to the store.

Andrew Cuomo

Easily one of the 50 worst people alive, Cuomo has a solid chance because Democrats, same as Republicans, are unable to differentiate between electability and self-serving ruthlessness. Cuomo used the deadliest public health crisis in American history as a pretext for cutting Medicaid and firing 5,000 MTA workers, and his approval rating increased. New York Dems are little piggies who love eating shit. If we assume that the political media will continue their habit of refusing to discuss the legislative history of right wing Democrats, Cuomo might well cruise to the nomination and then lose to literally any human being the GOP nominates by an historic margin.

Joe Biden

The party loves him because he is a right wing racist. “Progressives” tolerate him because black primary voters over 40 supported him, and their opinion is supposedly a magic window into god’s truth. Everyone else can tell he is manifestly senile. I don’t put it above the DNC to pick a candidate who is in horrible health, dying, or even dead--whatever the financial sector wants, they’ll get. But I would be shocked if his approval rating is above 39% by mid-2023, and by that point deep fake technology will be advanced enough they’ll put out a very lifelike video in which the Max Headroom version of Joe explains he’s proud of his accomplishments--that budget’s almost balanced already--but, man, I gotta abd--I gotta abdica--, uhh, I gotta, I, uhh, I gotta move down, man.

Wild Cards

These candidates would have all have a chance if they ran, but they could all much more easily retire to Little Saint James off of kickbacks they’ve gotten from Citibank and I.G. Farben.

Rahm Emanuel

Rahm is going to receive some hugely influential post in the Biden administration. Let’s say he becomes Secretary of Education. His signature achievement will be replacing all elementary school teachers with Amazon’s Alexa, which saved the taxpayers so much money we were able to quadruple the number of armed police officers we put into high schools. This will give him several thousand positive profiles on network news programs and the near-universal support of the Silicon Valley vampires who will own 99% of the country by the time Biden’s term ends. They will use their fancy mind control devices to convince geriatic primary voters that Rahm’s the one who will bring Decency back to the white house. His candidacy will be the paragon of wokeness, as expressing concern toward the fact that he covered up the police murder of a black guy will get you called a racist.

Rahm has a bonus in that Jewish men are now Schrodeniger’s PoC. When they are decent human beings, they are basic, cis white men who are stealing attention from disabled trans candidates of color. When they love austerity and apartheid, they become the most vulnerable people of color on earth and criticizing them in any way is genocide. No one will be able to mention a single thing Rahm has ever done or said without opening themselves to accusations of antisemitism, and that gives him a strong edge against the rest of the field. The good news is that an Emmanuel candidacy would result in over 50% of black voters choosing the GOP candidate--which, I guess that’s not really good but it would certainly be funny.

Gavin Newsom

Newsom is every bit as feckless as Cuomo, but he doesn’t put off the same “bad guy in an early Steven Segal movie” vibes. He will mention climate change 50 times per speech and no one will bother to mention how he keeps signing fracking contracts even though his state is now on fire 11 months of the year. If anything, this will be spun into an argument about how he’s actually the candidate best suited to handle all the water refugees gathering on the southern border. Look for his plan to curb emissions by 10% by the year 2150 to get high marks from Sierra Club nerds. He’s also a celebate librarian’s idea of what constitutes a handsome man, so he’ll have some support from the type of women who claim to hate all men.

Larry Summers

I mean, why not? Larry, like most members of the Obama administration, has politics that are eerily similar to those of Jordan Peterson. In normal circumstances, this makes a person a dangerous fascist who should not be platformed. But if that person has a D next to their name this makes them a realistic pragmatist who has what it takes to bring suburban bankers into our tent. If current trends in Woke Phrenology continue apace, Larry’s belief that women are inherently bad at STEM will be liberal orthodoxy by 2023, and his dedication to the Laffer Curve could see him rake in massive donations. Seriously, I’m not kidding: cultural liberalism is now fully dedicated to identity essentialism and balanced budgets. Larry is their ideal candidate. If he were black and/or a woman, I’d put him in the very top tier.

Jay Inslee

Unlike Newsom, Inslee’s attempt to crown himself the King of Global Warming won’t be immediately derailed, since his state is only on fire because of protestors. This, however, poses a different problem. He’s going to be a good test case for the Democrat’s uneasy peace with the ever increasing share of the electorate who become catatonic upon hearing a pronoun. On the one hand, you need to take their votes for granted. On the other hand, they’re not like black people or regular gays: most voters actively, consciously despise wokies, and associating yourself with them will ruin a campaign even in deep blue areas. There’s still gonna be riots in a year. Biden’s gonna announce the sale of all our nation’s potable water to the good folks at Nestle and some trans freak named Sasha-Malia DeBalzac is going to use that as an opportunity to sell their new pamphlet about how it’s fascist to not burn down small businesses. No matter what Inslee does in response, it’ll end his career.

AOC

I’m not one of those “AOC is a secret conservative” weirdos, but I am aware enough of basic reality to know she has zero chance of coming close to the nomination. The right and the center both regard her as a literal demon. The party is already blaming her for the fact that a handful of faceless Reagan acolytes failed to flip their suburban districts even though they ran on sensible pragmatic proposals like euthanizing the homeless. The recriminations will only get more unhinged when the Dems eat shit in the 2022 midterms. She will be a Russian, she will be white male, she will be a communist, she will be a homophobe: any insult or conspiracy theory you can name, MSNBC will spend hours discussing. Her house seat challenger will receive a record amount of support from the DNC in 2024 and it’ll be all she can do to remain in congress.

Larry Hogan

Don’t be dissuaded by the fact that he’s a Republican. Larry is the DNC’s ideal candidate: a physically repulsive conservative who owes his entire career to appealing to the most spiteful desires of suburban white people. He’s an open racist in a material sense--if you’re old-school enough to think racism is a matter of beliefs and actions, rather than the presence of cultural signifiers--but his is the beloved “never Trump” style of racism that Dems covet. He’s also a Proven Leader who thinks the role of government should be to finance the construction of investment property and give police the resources they need to run successful drug trafficking operations. Few people embody the Democrat worldview more than Larry.

The Losers Bracket

These people will have at least a small chance due solely to the fact that the Democrats love losing. They have lost in the past, and in the Democrat Mind that makes them especially qualified.

Joe Kennedy

The man looks like a mushroom-human hybrid from a JRPG. Trump proved that physical hideousness need not doom a presidential bid, but a candidate still needs some kind of charm or oratorical abilities or, god forbid, a decent platform. Joe aggressively lacks all of these things. A vanity campaign would be a good way to raise money and perhaps secure an MSNBC gig, so Joe might still run.

Mayor Pete

I am 100% convinced that Pete’s 2020 run was a CIA plot meant to prevent working class Americans from ever having a chance of living decent lives. I am also 100% aware that Democrats are dumb enough to enthusiastically support a CIA plot meant to prevent working class Americans from ever having a chance of living decent lives. If we have some sort of military or terror disaster between now and 2023 the Dems are sure to want a TROOP, and wait wait wait you’re telling me this one is a gay troop? Holy hell there’s no way that could lose!

Stacy Abrams

Never underestimate the power of white guilt. She lost the gubernatorial race to Gomer Pyle’s grandson, and her spiritual guidance of the Dems saw the party lose black voters in Georgia in 2020. Nonetheless, she is regarded as a magic font of fierceness within the DNC. She might stand a chance if she can establish herself as the most conservative non-white candidate in the field, but there’s going to be stiff competition for that honor.

Elizabeth Warren

Liz is probably angry that the party so shamelessly sold her out even after she was a good little girl and sabatoged Bernie’s campaign for them--yet another example of high ranking US government officials reneging on their promises to the Native American community. Smdh. The fact that this woman hasn’t been bankrupted a dozen times over by various Wallet Inspectors genuinely astounds me. So Liz is probably going to run again, and her campaign will be even sadder the second time around.

It might surprise you to hear this if you don’t work at a college or NGO, but Liz diehards actually do exist. She’ll get even less support this time because there will be no viable leftist in the field for her to spoil, but she’ll still hang in long enough to make sure the very worst possible candidate beats out the second worst possible candidate. Maybe she’ll fabricate a rape accusation against Sherrod Brown. Maybe she’ll spend her entire allotted debate time doing a land acknowledgment. With Liz, anything is possible--so long as it ends in failure.

Amy Klobuchar

Amy was the most bloodthirsty of the 2020 also rans. She will double down on the unpopular failures of the Biden administration, explaining that if you weren’t such a selfish idiot you’d love the higher social security retirement age and oh my god are so such a moron you think you shouldn’t go bankrupt to get a COVID vaccine? There’s a non-unsubstantial segment of the Democratic base that’s self-hating enough to find this appealing, but it won’t be enough to make her viable.

Martha Coakley

She lost Ted Kennedy’s senate seat to a retarded man who was pretending to be even more retarded than he actually was. Then she lost a gubernatorial race to a guy who openly promised Massachusetts voters that he would punish them for electing him. Her record of failure is unparalleled, making her perhaps the ideal Democrat standard bearer for the twenty twenties.

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skrltwtch · 4 years

Text

Muse

Prompt 1: Just like some people sleep-walk, you tend to paint or draw while in your transformed state because it calms you down. And apparently, people really like your art.

Prompt 2: A is a popular artist, and B messages them without thinking one day. They didn’t expect to become friends, and they definitely didn’t expect to become more. Person B just felt that connection between the two of them.

Prompt 3: A/Werewolf has a tendency to curl like a dog in front of the fireplace a lot (usually in their werewolf form, but it’s not uncommon for them to do it as a human). (Sources in master list)

Word count: 3,721 words

Genre: Fluff, romance, supernatural

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

I put up with the long commute to and fro between home and work for two reasons, and two reasons alone: the decent rent for a place with a picturesque view and that catered to my monthly needs, and the glut of time to catch up on my reading. And by ‘reading’, I meant ‘scrolling through the handful of social media feeds that survived my latest cull of shit that was taking up my time and storage space unnecessarily, and occasionally attempting (and failing) to pay attention to my Kindle’. Hey, at least I was aware I had a problem …?

Instagram was my first hit of the day. I flicked past images of makeup, friends in situations I wouldn’t be finding myself in anytime soon, and cute animals. The occasional meme and comic draw out an exhalation of air from my nostrils. I marvelled at artwork and photography, half wishing I were half as good as the people I followed and admired, half chiding myself for not practising either enough and losing interest quicker than I’d dropped money on new equipment in the name of my new endeavours. You could say one of my hobbies, the ones I’d been consistent about, was amassing gadgets obtained to indulge my whims and fancies.

My heart skipped a beat — or was it the pothole the bus went over? — when I came across a new post by George. I didn’t know him personally to refer to him by his first name like that, but hadn’t social media broken down boundaries between people, making them seem closer to each other than they really were? He was an illustrator whose work I chanced upon on Reddit a while back. His portfolio was a patchwork of subjects, often portraits, rendered mostly in traditional media like watercolour and oil paint. He sometimes shook things up with abstract, contemplative pieces. He had something for almost everyone. For me, it was his attractive, angular yet distinctive faces and statuesque figures, use of watercolour, and versatility: one piece could be superhero fanart, followed by a collection of moody, atmospheric paintings of the English landscape with some fantastical additions.

It also helped that he seemed to be a nice, chill person, and a handsome one at that, too, based on the smattering of pictures he had of himself on his feed. Please, let me imagine a world in which someone as ideal as him — or what I knew about him — wasn’t beholden to anyone for a moment.

His latest post was a drippy bust of a snarling wolf with full moons for eyes. The caption simply read: ‘Mood.’ I smirked as I hit the like button. Did I mention that he drew wolves a lot as well? Sometimes his wolves were feral; sometimes they were humanoid, but still wild. The latter featured heavily in his conceptual works, albeit as hazy, indistinct forms, like blurry photographs. In any case, I liked that he had a fondness for wolves and werewolves, as the constant presence of the full moon in art of the latter would suggest. Anyone who liked wolves was a-okay in my book. Anyone who liked werewolves was even more so. Because.

An interrupted connection between my brain and my reflexes led me to visit his profile. Instead of returning to my feed, my thumb gravitated toward the message button at the top of the screen. Not a single cell in my body resisted this turn of events despite the restored connection. Oh, what the hell. Why not? Like, what were the chances he’d read my message? He had tens of thousands of followers, a likely considerable chunk of them being bots aside. He must receive DMs every other minute. I’d be another sycophant in his sea of fans. Or he’d see my homely mug and locked profile, and he’d think I was driven to add to his never-ending count of unread messages simply out of misguided thirst.

The beauty of the Internet was that it made ‘out of sight, out of mind’ fairly easy to put into practice.

I got the following out of my system and into his inbox: ’Hi! Hope you’re doing well. I’ve been following your Instagram for a while, and your latest post just made me want to say your art is amazing. (I can totally identify with the sentiment behind it.) I especially love your more abstract pieces. There’s something so … raw about them. And I like that you seem to like wolves a lot, too. They’re beautiful animals, and your art really captures that about them. Anyway, keep up the great work! Take care.’

I exited Instagram, not caring about the rest of my feed anymore and not wanting to feel like I was stalking my notifications for something that’d never come. My phone buzzed with several notifications as I went down my Reddit homepage. I swiped away the banners with green icons that pelted the top of my screen. Those could wait. What couldn’t were the banners stating that I had a new message and a new follower request from —

‘Oh, my God!’ I said, loudly enough for me to hear my own voice above my music (the chorus of Walk the Moon’s ‘Shut Up and Dance’ at half of maximum volume, so … loud). Not one soul on this lightly populated bus acknowledged my exclamation — not even the woman sitting next to me. (Come on, lady, the front was mostly empty.) Thank God for technology making hermits of us all. Or my sudden outburst paled in comparison to the shit that could happen and had happened on public transport. When you took long journeys as I did every day, you’d see some real shit in due time, too.

I launched Instagram for the second time this morning (stop judging, Screen Time) and the first time ever with trembling hands. The notifications were real. I approved his request first. My mind raced to recollect anything on my profile that might make him regret his decision to let my piddling photos of food, myself, my cat, and random junk take up precious space on his feed. Nope, couldn’t think about that now, because I was now staring at an actual, honest-to-God message from George:

’Hey! Thanks for reaching out, and thank you for your kind comments. They mean a lot to me, especially what you said about my experimental stuff and wolves. They are stunning creatures, aren’t they? And yeah, I drew that last picture after a particularly rough night. You could call it a self-portrait of sorts, I suppose.’

I snorted. Change the fur colour and make the eyes normal, and it was a portrait of myself every full moon. Okay, not something I could tell someone I just met, let alone a popular artist on the Internet …

Before I could recover from the shock that my inbox held an actual, honest-to-God message from George Holden (that was his last name — the oxygen made it to my brain for me to remember that he had his last name on his profile), he sent another one: ’Anyway, how are you? I took a look at your profile, and it looks like we have quite a number of things in common.’

What, really? No way. Was it the lashings of sweet treats I subjected my stomach to every weekend? The horror and science fiction titles, celebrity memoirs, and comics, sometimes paired with an iced coffee at either a café I put down roots for the afternoon or the one-bedroom house in Waltham Forest I called home, I showcased to put forth some form of air of intellectualism? The cross-stitch projects featuring memes and popular culture icons? His profile was quite barren of anything that could provide insight into what else he enjoyed doing besides his art. Which, hey, was perfectly fine: no one was obligated to share their personal life online.

I replied, ’I’m fine, thank you. I’m on my way to work. Favourite part of my day, really. And really? Like what?’

Most of my notifications that day were from him.

✦✧✦✧

I was a bustling hub of activity in my seat: A sip of my drink. A shake of my knee. A lift of my phone. A turn of my neck. A shift of my weight from one butt cheek to the other. I was certain I was generating enough electricity to power a lightbulb in five-second intervals. I couldn’t help it. I was so, so excited — and so, so nervous. This was my and George’s first time meeting each other in person. There’d be no screen between us. Actually, what difference would that make? We’d been talking to each other for months, either through text or video calls, the latter more common in the weeks leading up to today. We’d seen each other even on our ‘I’ll put on a clean shirt, brush my hair, and hope for the best’ days. What could either one of us do in person that would irrevocably alter our friendship for the worse? Well …

The sound of someone entering the café stopped me from starting on a list of things that I could do to fuck things up. I looked up, probably the seventh time I did so in the last ten minutes. This was on me. I grossly overestimated the amount of time it’d take me to get somewhere as usual; a natural by-product of living far from the city. Seventh — probably — time was the charm: it was George — and right on the dot, too. His punctuality added to his attractiveness, which had already gone through the roof and was heading straight into the stratosphere. I bit my lip to suppress any unfortunate exclamations. He was a friend, Evelyn … just a friend, and I had no illusions otherwise.

I called out to him. He waved at me and joined me at the table I picked out for us. And the second our eyes met, devoid of any barrier between us, everything about him — and everything about us — clicked.

He was just like me.

And I was just like him.

And he was as astonished about it as I was, going by the long silence that passed between us, a first since we got to know each other.

‘Hi! Oh, my God, it’s so good to finally meet you!’ I said with a grin to break the tension. He broke out into a smile, his posture relaxing. Success. Should I go in for a handshake? No, that’d be too stuffy for a months-old friendship. A hug? No, that’d be too intimate for a months-old friendship, and an online one, too, no less. Was it obvious this was my first time meeting someone I met online?

‘It’s good to meet you, too,’ he said, his expression of cheer unabating. ‘I’m going to get myself a drink first, and then we can shoot the shit.’ His smile turned into a grin. ‘Do you want anything? My treat,’ he added as he spotted me reaching for my wallet.

‘I was thinking a red velvet muffin, please.’ I didn’t know why I didn’t get one earlier. ‘Thank you.’

‘No problem. I’ll be right back.’

As he left, my nerves turned into happiness that I met another werewolf. It was rare to meet other werewolves just about anywhere. What were the odds that two werewolves, one of whom was Internet-famous, would become friends because the other one had a brain fart one morning to send a message to the Internet-famous one? You couldn’t make this shit up. In all the years I’d been a werewolf, George was the first one I knew. I didn’t even know the one that turned me. I got bitten one night, and that was my life changed forever. I figured everything out on my own — I had to. And my puny social network of werewolves made sense: this wasn’t exactly the kind of thing anyone would advertise about themselves.

Once George settled down and courtesies were out of the way, the first thing out of his mouth was ‘I never thought I’d meet another one like me’.

I moved my chair closer to him so that we could speak at length about what we were without the fear of being overheard. ‘Me neither.’ Then it hit me, and I quickly said, ‘It’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it, though.’ Personally, I was okay with what I was. No existential dread here, contrary to what one might expect of a werewolf. It happened. I learnt to manage it in a way that made it not have any kind of significant impact on my life. I refused to let it define me. And honestly, I lived for particularly bad days that coincided with full moons.

‘Are you kidding me?’ His face lit up with boyish glee. ‘I’ve been waiting for this day for so long! As in, us meeting up in person for the first time and me getting to know another werewolf. Two birds, one stone: the only kind of killing I endorse. And I’m so fucking chuffed it’s you. I always felt like I could talk to you about anything, and now that really, really means anything.’ It was his turn to be able to power a light bulb, but in twenty-second intervals this time.

‘Same. How were you turned?’

‘I was bitten during a camping trip with friends a couple of years back. You?’

‘Secondary school. I was walking home from the library.’

‘Shit, that was some time ago, huh?’

‘Almost half my life a werewolf.’

‘Do you know the werewolf that did it?’

‘Nope. How about you?’

He shook his head. ‘Nah. Kind of sucks, doesn’t it, that you’ll never get to know the person who’s changed your life so … deeply? They won’t remember either that they turned someone. If only having kids was like that, yeah? Absolutely no sense of responsibility whatsoever.’ He gave his teaspoon a lazy twirl, causing a faint plume of milk to rise and sink into the dark, bittersweet depths from whence it came. ‘I struggled with what I’d become the first couple of months. The transformations were one thing.’ Oh, yeah. ‘I felt … grotesque. God, the amount of self-pity, like, why was I the only one who had to go through this every month when there were four other guys ripe for the picking? So, I decided to start incorporating wolves in my art to get to know and reclaim that part of me. I didn’t want to see it as something ugly. I mean, you get to experience a kind of rebirth every month. That’s extraordinary if you think about it. And I told myself that like myself, the wolf didn’t ask to be born. Ha, ha. Millennial humour. Anyway. Then the most miraculous thing happened one full moon: I woke up next to a coherent painting that wasn’t there the night before.’

‘Oh, my God.’

‘Right? My more artsy stuff? The ones I hate coming up with captions for? Almost all done while I was transformed. I’d started some of my art — bet you can’t guess which one — on full moons, too, and I finished them after I changed back. It’s as if the wolf knew we were now cool with each other.’ He took a big chunk out of his apple crumble and jammed it into his mouth. ‘Sorry if that sounded like spiritual woo-woo. I’ve been wanting to tell someone about this forever.’ Crumbs fell out of his mouth as he spoke. ‘Shit, I’m such an’ — he shot me an impish look as he swallowed — ‘animal, aren’t I? Fuck, I can make stupid references like that now, and someone would get it!’

I laughed. He was such a dork. ‘It’s not “spiritual woo-woo”. It’s amazing. How is that even possible?’

‘I have no idea.’ He held out his hands in front of him. ‘So thankful we get to keep our hands and not have them turn into paws.’ He waggled his thumbs. ‘Fuck, yeah, opposable thumbs. And I want to say it’s like when artists get high and make stuff. I do know artists who do that, and hey, no judgment. To them, I do the same thing, too.’

‘And here I am, feeling accomplished whenever I make it through another full moon without waking up in a trashed place. Seriously, that’s amazing.’

‘I think that’s what’s keeping me from losing it while transformed. I was surprised people liked those pieces when I started posting them, considering they’re such far departures from what I usually post.’

‘That explains why they’re so … visceral.’

‘Yeah? I figure you’d appreciate them even more now.’ He smirked. ‘And you know, no one really talks about my wolf art, and especially my werewolf pieces. Maybe if I didn’t make them blurry and made them more explicit …’ Oh, he’d get a different breed of followers altogether. ‘But that’s fine. I don’t want my lycanthropy to define me and my work. It’s just a part of who I am.’

‘My turn to say something possibly corny: I like your wolf art because … they make me feel seen, because they’re drawn by you.’

He put a hand on his chest. ‘That’s not corny. I’m happy my art makes you feel that way. You know I don’t care about the likes or comments. It just so happens I like drawing things that make me get likes and comments.’ He pushed his plate toward me and motioned at me with his fork to try some of his apple crumble. I obliged him. ‘Did you ever suspect anything? Not that, you know, I purposely drew wolves and werewolves as a kind of signal for other werewolves to pick up on. That’d be giving me way too much credit.’

‘No, I just thought you like wolves a lot.’

‘Same here. What you said about wolves being beautiful creatures when you messaged me the first time … that made me feel something, too.’

‘Then I’m very glad we got to be friends,’ I said. Born from the same blip in brain activity that set us on this path, my hand found itself on top of his. His touch had a pleasant, almost familiar heat to it.

‘Me too.’ He turned his hand over and clasped mine.

‘I have an idea,’ I said, mostly to distract myself from how right this felt. ‘Do you want to meet on the next full moon?’

‘Sure. I can’t wait to see what kind of inspiration will strike with another werewolf around.’

‘Your place, then?’

He nodded. ‘Unless you’re cool with me possibly trashing your place with paint and stuff. That hasn’t happened before, but who knows? What if wolf-me doesn’t like change?’

I stared at him in disbelief.

‘I can’t help it. You have no idea what kind of beast this has unleashed. Oops.’

We sat and talked in the café the entire afternoon; we took turns treating each other to food and drinks to justify our occupancy. Our conversation moved on to other topics besides the one special, biggest thing we had in common. Just like we didn’t want it to define who we were as people, we made a promise to each other, and we did so over a strawberry custard tart, that we wouldn’t let it become the foundation of our friendship from this point on. It’d be unfair to the moments we shared before this. We were friends because we cared about each other, we brought out the best in each other, we could truly be ourselves around each other, and, honestly, I didn’t think anyone else would have the patience for his goofy in-jokes.

✦✧✦✧

I lay in front of the fireplace, rejoicing in the warmth it offered on this cool night, while George was working on his newest painting. Since getting to know each other in these forms, we’d been able to exercise better control. For me, that meant greater peace of mind; for him, that meant a more refined grasp of his artistic sensibilities. As with much about our condition, we didn’t question this. What could possibly be a drawback of us spending more time in each other’s company? I now understood why animals curled up by a fire was a common sight in media and real life, too. Wait, what if this, and not George’s presence, was what I’d been missing all my life?

My tail wagging like a fiend when I felt his breath on my skin begged to differ. I licked his face. He gently parted my lips and slid his tongue onto mine. Our tongues engaged each other in a playful scuffle; the fire crackling in the background could only dream of coming close to causing the rise in temperature in the pit of my stomach. The tussle between our tongues didn’t get to turn into something more: he’d had a long night. I nuzzled him to convey reassurance. He lay down beside me and wrapped his arms around me, his hold firm yet tender. We fell asleep like this, keeping each other warm long even after the fire had died out.

We wished each other a good morning with a kiss — no, two kisses, and we got ourselves ready for the day. As we were having breakfast, George piped up, ‘Do you want to see what I painted last night, love? I’m really proud of it, and I think you’d love it, too.’

I nodded excitedly, my mouth too full of scrambled egg to speak.

He returned as quickly as he’d left the table. His hands held on to a painting … of me curled up by the fire last night. The figure was the clearest, most detailed he’d ever done; the lighting was phenomenal. ‘It’s beautiful,’ I said, tearing up a little, frankly. ‘I love it. It’s going to look so good in our new place’, along with the recent paintings he’d made of a similar nature. He’d come so far from the gauzy forms that once populated his attempts at capturing his — our — condition on canvas.

‘Of course, when I have the most stunning model.’ He gave me a peck on the cheek. ‘I love you, my muse, my mate.’

#exophilia #terato #werewolf #monster love #monster romance #mine #fun fact #I wrote this story in early october last year #and it's kind of truth in television for me now

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