#i clearly picked a favorite. and it was clear based on who looked the most like a little stuffed bear i could put in my bed.

[starrygazers]

home, or what's left of it.

˖ ࣪⭑ ⸱ I'M IN MY MYDEI WRITING GROOVE (procrastinating on my programming assignment). Also, the food used here is based on Golden Honeycakes, one of the oldest delicacies in Amphoreus history, which was once a favorite high-end dessert among the nobility. (according to the HSR wiki) also he made an ad for this? that's so cute

˖ ࣪⭑ ⸱ tags : comfort, fluff

˖ ࣪⭑ ⸱ featuring : Mydei; minor spoilers for 3.0

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The brutish man ducks his head to slip inside the small entryway. He makes no sound, but his demanding presence in the middle of the establishment is not easy to miss.

You meet his eyes, cloth in hand. Giving him a small smile, you look away and continue wiping the tables. "Normal people say hello, you know?"

Mydei huffs, his hands crossed in front of his chest. The chilly night air of Okhema doesn't seem to bother him, as he's dressed like he normally is. Flashy, royal; befitting of a Crown Prince.

"Take a seat," you motion to the table nearest to the counter. You've put away most of the chairs, as the clock nears midnight, but saved a single one in hopes of your esteemed guest's visit.

He positions himself on the appointed seat, watching you take ingredients out from behind the counter to start cooking.

Mydei is no stranger to being away from home; that's how he'd spent most of his childhood, anyway. Fighting for his life at sea, dying in the hands of giant waves, starvation, or beasts. Even in Kremnos, he never experienced a good night's sleep. It was a kill or be killed world, and immortality doesn't take that away from him; they just have to kill him again and again until he stays dead.

And home was not something to miss, not after what happened. Not after his god fell from glory, dooming his people, and he was forced to make a choice between dying (again and again) for mortals or reign as a deity. So, he chose pain, because that is what's destined for the King who never got his throne.

Home is so far, and he doesn't want to go back.

And yet,

"Here you go!"

You place a plate of Golden Honeycake, topped with fresh fruits and dripping with honey, just like how Mydei likes it.

Home is far, and he doesn't want to go back, but he remembers the same aroma. Of the cooks taking pity in him and introducing him to the sweet delicacy. Of stories in the past by his mother who teased him for having the same taste in sweets as his father and all the kings before him.

He gives you a curt nod, a sign of thanks. You beam at him, watching intently as he takes a tentative bite. It tastes like home.

He takes another bite. Then another, and another, until the plate is a fresh clean slate. You chuckle, picking up the plate.

"You know, most people consider it rude to barge in on closing time," you tease him.

"I didn't mean to disrupt your business."

"You act like you don't drop by here every night, ordering the same thing," you laugh again, and he find himself liking the sound of it. He wants you to laugh again. "You must really like it, huh?"

He chooses not to answer, but he doesn't shake his head either.

You disappear behind the counter to wash the last plate, and he stands in the middle of your restaurant awkwardly.

"Is there ... anything I can help with?" he asks sheepishly.

You stare at him, clearly surprised, before clearing your throat. "Oh, um, you can put the chair away. Please, if you don't mind."

Mydei nods, picking up the wooden chair with ease as if he were handling a feather. At the sight, you allowed yourself a joke, "Closing would be a breeze if you worked here."

The Prince looks away, seeing your apron tucked under one of the shelves, letting his mind wander about a universe where the battles he fought were less gruesome. Where he could patch his wounds and value his only life. Where he would go home, and he'd be proud to call it that.

But in this world, all he had were the scars and the baths.

"You make good Golden Honeycake," he says. "It reminds me of the ones they used to make back in Castrum Kremnos."

Mydei swears he can see the sparkle in your eyes when you stare at him in awe, and thought they rivaled the sight of the night sky of all of Amphoreus.

Then your lips break into a smile, and Mydei's cold, inhumane, non-existent heart melts like the butter on the honeycake.

"I'll have you know that compliments won't suffice as payment," you grin, though a hint of bashfulness is evident in your voice.

"Put it on my tab." the Prince turns away from you, hiding his own embarrassment as he walks to the exit.

"If you had one, it'd be longer than my grocery list," you joke again. "How about this; you come back tomorrow?"

Mydei looks back to you, reads the hope written on your expression easily, and lets out a sigh.

"Yeah, expect me to bother you again tomorrow."

Home is maybe not too far away.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

©2025 starrygazers. do not repost, copy, translate, modify, or use for AI.

˖ ࣪⭑ ⸱ if you liked this, consider buying me a ko-fi! (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶) .ᐟ.ᐟ

[eleganthologramcolor]

Autistic!Reader x Simon Riley

Tw suggestive, authors note- "this is based upon personal experience. Everyone experiences autism differently and this may be relatable to some and not to others."

Simon is a blunt man. He can be gentle with you, he knows his own strength, his size, the natural powerful resonance of his voice, he knows to take it down a notch for you. He's been trying to court you best he can for a while now. Both of you are shy in an awkward, stoic way. Stone faced and staring at each other's hands rather than the eyes, chatting awkwardly until obligatory small talk is over and finally conversation can trickle into something slightly more comfortable.

To an outsider, this is a very stilted and unnatural event. Both of you speak without even looking at each other in clipped responses, almost as if this is some sort of forced polite pleasantries that hide irritation from the public view.

Simon's a little bit more knowledgeable on you, though. It took a long while but finally he'd earned the privilege of your time, your company. It was something he'd cherished, how he didn't have to coax answers out of you anymore, how you offered them a little more freely. You didn't fidget as much anymore, at least not nervously, not glaring at the floor and chewing at your fingers while you wait for him to go away.

He'd finally had your number. You'd given it to him voluntarily, and he remembers tapping your contact in with shaky fingers, a little frown on his face, a sign of his own internal celebration, if you'd believe it.

Then came the complicated part.

Finally you'd reached a point with him when flirting was acceptable, feelings very much out in the open, interest made clear (verbally, it was a long conversation of, "in that way? Like that? Like romantic?" Not that he minded. Whatever it took), but somehow he found you pulling away, almost stubbornly, and he didn't know why.

His own blunt nature is unknowingly the cause.

It starts out small, a clipped conversation over text,

> You should pick out a place for dinner tonight.

It's how you both always communicated, blunt and to the point. You'd mentioned wanting to eat out someplace soon. So he'd take you tonight, or at least he thought. Your response confuses him.

> I don't want to go out tonight.

He might be used to blunt responses, but somehow he can detect a bit of irritation behind it. Has he done something wrong? Simon panics quietly for most of the day until he gets home to you. Where you're nice and calm, legs tucked under you where you sit, chin on your knees, watching your favorite show.

It happens again a week later, on one of his off days. He's spent the entire lazy weekend kissing at you, testing the waters with lingering touches, and when you reciprocate, he's over the moon, but still cordial, moving slowly and gently in case you'll put a stop to it. Finally, he's certain you'd want more, and he suggests, "we should head upstairs."

He watches for a moment as your face scrunched up. Minor irritation. You're quiet for a moment, and he gently retracts the statement, moving to just hold you close instead.

He wonders what he's done wrong. Simon spends another few days with similar instances, even being denied his routine morning goodbye kiss simply because he asked. It's not until he's listening idly one evening to you and a friend who's come over, that he perks up at something odd. You have a coughing fit. Nothing major, your throat's probably dry from talking all evening.

"Oh, are you okay? Go get some water!"

Your friend means well, but Simon looks over just in time to catch it. That flicker of irritation. Hesitation, even though clearly you'd like something to drink. You shake your head with a firm and quick insistence before returning to conversation.

That evening, he decides to test his theory.

You'd rejected his blunt demands for takeout and dinner plans. Even though you'd seemed excited for the idea previously.

"Thinking of going out to eat tonight."

He watches from the corner of his eye, as you perk up, sitting at the table with your books.

"Maybe that place in town. Haven't been in a week or so."

When you take a moment, sitting in thought, caught in that delicate limbo, he knows he's right. He's got to tread carefully, now. You'd let him go alone if he didn't invite you along, but you'd deny wanting to go at all if he told you to get ready.

"Don't think I want to go alone."

That gets you, nodding, eager to offer a solution to is predicament, and he smiles, hiding it with an awkward tilt of his head.

He doesn't mind it. He'll take time to learn you little by little, if that's what it takes.

[trippinsorrows]

looking through your eyes + short

a/n: angsty mess that's very multiverse based and somehow is 2 thousand freaking words....

----

"dada!"

one word. one word has easily become solana's favorite word in the entirety of the english language. a great feat considering her immense reverence and respect for the written word.

but, it's solely because unlike many of the other infinite words to exist, this one means so much to her. it means everything to her.

it's her world.

she is her world.

tearing her focus from the soapy water where she washes the dishes and pots from tonight's dinner, solana instead focuses on the sight that she would give anything to make her usual.

roman, this large specimen of a man, sitting on the floor, legs spread. he's dressed in some joggers, his shirt discarded, a small smile on his face as he speaks in a low voice to their 11-month-old daughter who wobbles in his direction.

it makes solana chuckle. melea rarely walks for her, prefers to crawl her cute self all over the house, if she could. but the minute her daddy comes around, she suddenly finds the ability and drive to use her legs.

solana studies the way roman reaches over to pick up melea, his own smile growing at the sound of his baby girl's sweet giggles as he lifts her up and plays with her.

eyes shutting, solana revels in this moment. does her best to stay in the here and now. tries not to think about tomorrow, about the absence of roman's body next to her in the bed, the crushing feeling of going into melea's crib, waking her up only for her to ask with those big, beautiful eyes, "dada?"

it kills her.

every. single. time.

sadness clouding her previous enjoyment, solana returns her focus to cleaning up the kitchen, instead focusing on making sure everything is put away and the dishes used are all sparkling clean.

it's an effective distraction, because by the time she's done, roman is sitting on the sofa, holding a sleeping melea.

small smile, she walks over to quietly sit down next to him, asking, "you want me to put her down?"

he looks over, shaking his head, "not yet."

she nods. she should have expected that. he enjoys spending as much time with her as he can when he can. for obvious reasons.

solana simply lays against the sofa, studying her daughter's sleeping face. as much as melea clearly loves her daddy, she looks so much like her mama. the most she has from roman is his dark hair color and those eyes. which solana has zero complaints about. of the many things she loves about her husband, his eyes rank pretty high up there.

"can you believe she's going to be one next month?" solana is both asking him and herself. it blows her mind sometimes just how quickly times has passed. continued to pass. her sweet little girl is going to be a year. it's been an entire year since solana became a mother.

roman chuckles, eyes focused on his daughter who sleeps so calmly on his chest. "not at all."

solana swallows, asking, "will you be here for her birthday?"

at that, his eyes turn to her, surprised almost, "of course." he then asks, almost defensively, "why?"

she shrugs, not wanting to feed too much into that defensiveness. "i never know when you're coming, ro."

"i wouldn't miss my daughter's first birthday, sol."

solana hates it. hates the bitter retort she has to do her best to suppress. to push away. it's cruel and uncalled for, but it's exactly how she feels.

clearing her throat, she carefully moves off the sofa, murmuring, "i'm gonna go take my shower."

she doesn't say anything else, already knowing he'll most likely have melea down and in bed by the time she gets out.

and that's exactly what happens, solana walking out the shower to find him sitting on the edge of the bed, phone in hand. as soon as he lifts his head to look at her, his phone is discarded, and he's motioning her to come over.

wordlessly, she walks in between his thick, muscular legs until his hands are on her hips.

solana bites down on her lip, more than eager to skip to the part where he makes love to her throughout the night, until both of them are completely spent, tangled limbs and souls intertwined.

but roman has something else on his mind, bringing up not even an hour ago. "you wanted to say something. earlier."

solana stills for a second. she should have known better. known he would pick up on it.

she shakes her head, moving her hands up and down his strong shoulders. "it doesn't matter."

"everything matters when it comes to you, solana," he reminds, again asking, "tell me."

looking away, she debates lying to him, but she already knows it's a stupid plan. there is no lying to her husband. he sees through everything.

so, she swallows her anxiety at how she believes or knows this conversation will play out and shrugs, "i was just....i was just going to say maybe....maybe it would be easier if we....if we could come live with you." it's in watching his eyes shut, the almost scowl on his face and especially the way he stands up, walking away, hands on his hip, that solana knows exactly how this is going to play out.

not well.

as per usual.

"baby....we've talked about this." solana hugs herself, already dreading it. "why do you keep bringing it up? where is this coming from?"

"where do you think it came from, roman?" she asks, shaking her head. "our daughter is turning one, and i had to ask you if you're going to be there for her birthday, because i never know when you have time for us and when you don't---"

he turns around at that, gaze sharp and steel. "don't do that. don't fucking do that. you know what you mean to me. what she means to me."

feeling emboldened, she challenges, "just not enough for us to actually live together like a family?"

roman's eyes soften ever so slightly as he once again expresses, "it's too danger---"

"God, i'm so sick and tired of hear that." she cuts him off, eyes closing, mentally replaying the many times she's heard as such. "i understand that, roman. i do, but what you don't seem to understand is how hard this is for me." solana doesn't know where exactly it's coming from, well, not entirely, but the restrain she typically uses when it comes to this sensitive subject is all but gone. "i wake up alone almost every night. i go to sleep alone. i wake up our daughter alone. i bring her to my mom's alone. god, i---roman, i attended every ultrasound appointment alone. you....you weren't even there for her birth."

it's a low blow. deep down, she knows that. doesn't need to see the hurt flash in his eyes at something she knows he'll never truly get over. but, that wasn't just hard for him. it was hard for her. one of the happiest days of her life was also the saddest, because while her mom was with her on one side, the other side where he should have been, helping and supporting her as she gave him his first child, was empty.

but, of course, he won't comment on that, won't talk about one of his most painful regrets. he instead deflects, granted with a gentleness reserved for her and their child..

his volume lowers as well. "sol, you knew it would be this way before---"

"you're right, i did." because she did. because he made her very aware from the very beginning that he could never openly be with her. it was too dangerous. he had far too many enemies and would never risk anything happening to her. she understood it then. still understands it now, especially with them having a baby. it just sucks though. "and i'm not...i'm not mad at you, ro. i'm just frustrated with the situation. i'm tired of feeling like a single mother---"

at that, she sees the pain melt into something much more familiar for most people acquainted with roman reigns.

she sees anger.

but, she knows it's really hurt. he's understandably hurt by her honesty.

"you're acting like i don't fucking do anything." his tone continues to stay in the lanes of harshness, which doesn't help her tone down her frustration. "i'm trying, solana."

"but, it's not enough, roman!" she doesn't intend to raise her voice. it's a natural consequence of the emotions that have been bubbling to the surface for some time now. eyes watering, she explains, "you've given me this beautiful house, yes. i want for nothing financially, yes. you have the fucking secret service it feels like watching me and mel, yes, but.....but, i still feel so alone." sniffling, she admits, "i feel like i love you full time, but you only love us part time. when you can. and that's not....that's not fair. it's.....it's starting to mess with me, roman."

the tears are inevitable at this point, and before she knows it, roman is before her, gently cupping her face, wiping away her tears. "baby, please don't cry." it fascinates her how only seconds ago he was being borderline mean only for him to shift so easily into this gentle man who she loves with every part of her. "i fucking hate seeing you upset. you know this."

he would have hated to see her last week when she truly broke down over all of this.

"sometimes, i....i wonder if we moved too fast." met, married, and pregnant within a year, most would say it was absolutely too fast. most don't know, however, just how deeply she loves this man. "is this what you want?"

"i love you, solana. i love melea. i would give fucking anything for things to be different, but i can't. i can't change who i am, and what i do." he swallows. "but, i can't lose you either, so tell me how we make this work."

the real answer is she doesn't know. she doesn't know the sustainability of this dynamic. sporadic visits from her husband who only a handful of people know is her husband as he visits her and a daughter even fewer people know exist. she wants to love and be in love openly and wholly. not in the shadows and corners of secrecy.

but, maybe that's another problem for another day, because what solana wants the most is to just be with this man. be with the man she's shared so many first with. first time. first love. first child. there is no her without him, and navigating that might be difficult, but she'll do it. because she'll do anything be with him.

"i love you." she murmurs and moves against his chest, letting him hold and comfort her as he murmurs those precious words back to her. it settles her. more than it maybe should, but she doesn't question it. pulling back, solana reaches for his hand, moving it to her stomach. "the first one....just please be there for the first appointment."

roman seems to understand what she's telling him, but he still wants an additional layer of reassurance. "are you...."

she nods. a small, sad smile sets on her face. "yes, and i....i just want you there with me to hear it. to hear our baby's heartbeat this time."

roman scoffs, clearly a mixture of emotions: surprised, confused, happy. he then nods, his own face settling into the perfect combination of determination and dedication. "i'll be there." he kisses her forehead, so gently, so lovingly, vowing, "we're gonna be fine, sol. i promise."

as he takes her in his arms yet again, showering her with all of his love and vulnerability, rare displays only allotted to her and melea, solana's eyes shut.

if only she felt the same.

if only she trusted that they would be okay.

that this will work out.

but, she's not.

she's just not.

[shihalyfie]

I've alluded to tri. having some very troubled production behind the scenes, and among everything that apparently went on back there, there seem to have been at least two major bottlenecks: 1) the fact that the director (who, based on his own statements about deliberately not consulting source material, most likely didn't even watch Adventure to begin with) kept asking everyone to make things more "mature" without being clear on what that actually meant, and 2) the fact they ran out of budget and had to rewrite the entire plot halfway into it. Even the most brilliant of creators probably wouldn't be able to work at their best under such conditions.

But conversely, this also means that there were some excellent people involved in production whose efforts probably haven't been as appreciated as they should be! So I want to take a moment to spotlight some people I want to give props to:

Ayana Yuniko and Nakanishi Yasuhiro: These two scriptwriters were childhood Digimon fans who were thrilled to be on the project, and their enthusiasm clearly shows in every interview they were in. Ayana even made keen observations like noticing that the Adventure kids aren't as super-tight as people tend to make them out to be (something I've pointed out myself, and something that generally only tends to crop up among fans who have studied the series closely), and Nakanishi stated that she would slip him detailed notes about the characters and their relationships.

Both of them stated they were trying to portray the Adventure characters in a character-accurate way but kept getting their scripts rejected for not being "mature" enough, leaving them unsure about what they were supposed to do. Their roles on the series were also limited; Ayana was on parts 1, 2, and 4 while Nakanishi was on part 4 only, and they were sharing the scriptwriter role with multiple others (even within a single movie). But if I were asked to pick who on the staff list I would want to see come back for another Digimon work, it would absolutely be these two.

Kakikara Yuuko: The one in charge of overall writing for the series. tri. had a total of five scriptwriters and could have up to four(!) on a given movie, so because of that, her statements on the series and its story direction have been a bit difficult to tell whether it was her idea personally or whether she was delivering the writing room's discussion result. But one of her final statements on the series basically amounted to "I'm grateful if you even came to watch it to the end at all," and she was quite humble about saying she felt things could have been done differently; considering it sounds like she had a hard time keeping everyone and everything in order, I can only imagine she went through a lot trying to make sure everything ended safely. Incidentally, her writing portfolio is also quite respectable (and even includes kids' shows).

Suzuki Takaaki: The person with the job of "setting researcher", i.e. the one with the job of looking into the lore. Sadly, it seems like most of his ideas didn't make it into the final series (possibly because of the budget loss-induced rewrite), but his one solo interview indicates that he put quite a bit of conscientious thought into how Digital World lore works, including the idea of an EMP weapon that would affect Digimon easily but not humans (an idea that doesn't pop up among fans as often as you'd think, and took up until last year to make it into actual Adventure material via Takeru's 02TB in-universe fanfic).

Sakabe Gou: The person in charge of the series BGM. We haven't heard a lot from him, but the little we have indicates that although he also had difficulty understanding what the director was asking for when he wanted "mature" music of some kind, he himself put some very thorough thought put into the composition. In particular, he went into detail regarding the music used at the beginning of part 4, which seems to be a fan-favorite track from what I've seen (it's also my favorite too!). Sakabe also has an extensive and respectable portfolio outside Digimon; in particular, he's very highly regarded in Kamen Rider circles, so if you have a friend who's a fan, it might be a good idea to ask them about it!

[luckykittysshowerthoughts]

I wonder why micheal keeps getting portrayed as abusive (specifically in simeon, lucifer and mammon based fics) especially when you consider that his canon self isn't that?? I know it's probably something of a scapegoat since it's easy to pin the character we know the least about as the most villainous but I'm curious about your thoughts

Personally, I think there's a few things at play. One of them is recognizing the shades of gray. Humans by nature have a tendency to sort things into black and white when they really shouldn't be, and I think this is an example of that.

Because, there is some truth to what they say. Michael can be downright creepy at times- from sneaking into Lucifer's room without permission being a clear sign of an unhealthy obsession, to the flat-out psychologically damaging stunt he pulled in Nightbringer. And don't even get me started on the angel event from the OG; I was pissed about that for a long time. He also clearly has a very prejudiced, derogatory view of demons, and is likely where Luke got it from. He's certainly not innocent.

BUT, I think people carry it too far. Yes, he's creepy, and yes he can be a colossal asshole. But he also displays clear, genuine care&compassion for others, especially his brothers, and seems to be trying his best to do good.

Such as with Simeon and Luke- he clearly genuinely cares about their wellbeing. As revealed in one of the Hard Mode chapters of Nightbringer, he was worried sick about sending them down to the Devildom, showering them with care packages and wanting constant reports to make sure they were alright. In the OG game, when he cast Simeon out, he didn't just leave him out to dry; he coordinated with the Devildom- which he's always hated- to ensure Simeon's safety, and sent his right-hand man down to protect him. He's implied to have angsted over the very idea too, having told MC in S3, "and of course, I have Simeon to think about." Both of these points will probably be their own posts eventually, because I have a lot to say about them.

And, for all his harassment of Lucifer, he seems to genuinely care about his wellbeing too. For example- saving MC's life in Nightbringer just because he recognized that they were important to Lucifer. This wasn't even because it got him closer to seeing Lucifer again; Lucifer had no way of knowing about this little favor. He did it just to make his brother happy.

There's also him cooperating with the exchange program in the first place. There was no reason Michael had to do that. In fact, considering the Celestial Realm's very traditional and conservative views, it would've been very likely for them to just say no. They didn't have to send anyone down. And yet Michael did. Not only that, but he hand-picked who to send. He clearly cares about and has stakes in this program. It seems that he's trying to change; he at the very least cooperates with those who believe there should be change.

Ultimately, he's a very flawed individual, trying to do his best by others through a lens warped by celestial propaganda and unhealthy coping mechanisms. He's a very morally gray character, and I think sometimes the internet has a hard time reconciling with that.

Especially since we don't have a face to put to Michael. That's the other issue. People are a lot less likely to sympathize with a faceless persona than they would be with their favorite hot demon boy. The brothers and even the side characters can get away with a lot more because we see and regularly interact with them. Because of Michael's secretive nature, often times you have to read between the lines to really understand the nuance of his character- it isn't spoon-fed to you through direct interaction like with many of the other characters. Because he obscures himself so much, it's a lot harder to humanize him, and to get a grasp on his motivations.

I also think a lot of people are looking for a "villain" in a story where there was never meant to be one. People seem to get this idea where every story needs to have a villain, and if they can't find one they make one. Obey Me was never about good guys and bad guys, heroes and villains. It's always been about highly flawed and dysfunctional individuals just doing their best. Plenty of drama and meaningful plot can be made from that alone. We don't need a clear villain, and it doesn't need to be Michael. I think a lot of people don't get that.

[swaps55]

That ask about Shiala made me remember a thing I often thought and giggled about - One night the Yang crew went out drinking and dancing and competing over who could get the most people to give them their number (contact info, comm frequency or whatever) and obviously Sam won.

Please enlighten me! How?! Did he actually flirt? Did he make the people think that he flirted? Did he bully them into giving him their number? Did he let them know about the bet and made them play along?

And what did Kaidan think about it? Did he even try to win or did he sulk about Sam charming people all over the place?

And what about Sam? What did he think about Kaidan flirting around?

Ahaha, I have actually tried to write this a couple of times - including as a first kiss AU - and just not been successful. This is in part because Kaidan did get too sulky about it and the tone wasn't right for something that was supposed to be stupid, idiot, squad fun, and part of it because I do not know how to write about hitting on people in bars. XD

But I can tell you this: Sam wins because he doesn't try. He's not interested in anyone but has a lot of confidence and is insanely comfortable in his own skin. So he's a magnet for people who want to get in his pants. All he has to do is turn off the death stare that he uses to repel people.

Aslany is too hostile. If anything she probably winds up with a one night stand and no phone numbers. Clay doesn't win because he he's a quality over quantity kind of guy. At some point, Kara resorts to flashing people and probably nearly gets arrested, which further slows down Clay (though he probably manages to get the number of the person trying to throw Kara in the brig).

And Kaidan is just...not built for this, lol.

Eh, what the hell. This is what I wrote for that abandoned first kiss AU based on the Phone Number Contest:

~

“You know, this may be the first time I’ve been hit on so kindly by someone who would clearly prefer to be hitting on someone else.” The brunette woman sitting at the bar swirls the toothpick in her martini, eyebrow raised as Kaidan sighs and leans an elbow on the counter.

“Sorry.” Someone bumps his elbow trying to get to the bartender, and Kaidan shoots them an irritated look. The Space Bar is flooded with people tonight. Between the asari pop cover band on the stage in the back – humans shouldn’t cover asari songs; it just doesn’t sound right – and the overlapping conversations getting louder with each drink, it’s quickly becoming his least favorite place.

“You don’t do this often, do you?” the brunette asks, lip curving in a smile. She is attractive. No denying that. Beaudoin would be interested. Aslany, maybe.

Interested isn’t the point, he reminds himself.

Out of the corner of his eye, Shepard laughs as the woman he’s talking to across the room at a high-top table drops her shoulder and leans in closer. Kaidan takes a long, deliberate sip of his drink. The brunette follows his eye.

“He’s quite handsome, by the way.”

“I’m sorry?” The damn music is way too loud.

She nods towards Shepard. “He’s not into men, I’m guessing?”

A flush burns Kaidan’s neck. He’s not into anything, Kaidan almost says, but isn’t so far gone on the whiskey to let that thought slip out into the open. Though, if he drinks much faster, this damned game isn’t going to end with a winner – it’s going to end with someone peeling Kaidan off the floor.

He steals another glance at Shepard, who has parted ways with the woman and is now on his way back to the bar, pausing to waggle a subtle eyebrow in Kaidan’s direction before settling in to wait for the next one. He’s the only person Kaidan knows who can wear BDUs like they were tailored to fit him.

How the hell is he good at everything? Never in Shepard’s life has he wanted to pick someone up in a bar, yet an hour into this fucking game he’s had six people try and pick him up, and those are just the ones Kaidan’s seen.

“It’s, uh. It’s not. He’s not….” Kaidan clears his throat. “What did you say?”

At least she looks genuinely amused rather than ready to throw a drink in his face.

Kara Pendergrass chooses that moment to run up and practically barrel into his lap, nearly spilling his drink. “I fucking got one, can you believe this shit? People will do anything to see a pair of tits. Sex is so fucking weird.”

The brunette’s eyebrows nearly arch off of her head. Kaidan inserts himself between Pendergrass and the brunette, and apologizes. “Please don’t mind her. She means well.”

Pendergrass looks from him to the woman, then leans over Kaidan’s shoulder. “He’s a nice guy who puts up with a lot of shit, and you should give him your phone number. Because if you don’t, Beaudoin is going to win and I’ll have to watch him gloat about it for a week.”

Kaidan sets his drink on the bar, grabs Pendergrass by both shoulders and steers her away, apologizing over his shoulder to the wide-eyed brunette. They bump into at least four people before they find an open pocket that’s even closer to the dance floor and the crooning band.

“Why?” he demands.

“Come on,” she says with a grin. “She was gonna give it to you.”

“Hardly.”

She slugs him in the shoulder. “People like you, LT. Think it’s your face. If you tried not looking miserable, you might have more luck.”

Elsewhere in the bar, someone shrieks. Kaidan looks over his shoulder, fervently hoping he doesn’t know the cause, and sees Aslany standing over a very dismayed serviceman who is now wearing his drink.

“Fucking hell,” Kaidan mutters under his breath, already moving towards her, but Beaudoin gets there first, like he’d been keeping tabs on her the whole time. In the blink of an eye, Beaudoin is buying him a drink, escorting him away, and probably gets his phone number in the process.

…Did they plan that?

Are they a team? His competitive side flares up a little. Maybe more than a little.

[acourtofthought]

Do you think these hardcore E/lriels (like your last anon who tried to pick a fight about "faerie racism" 💀) are longtime fans who just refuse the acknowledge where Sarah is going with the series?

I'm a new reader, finished the last book a few weeks ago and for me Elucien and Gwynriel seems the most likely outcome. I'll share my reading experience if you don't mind, maybe it will be a bit long.

So, I started reading acotar because I saw some pretty fanart of Az on instagram and became interested in his character. :D I saw that there are two possible ships for him, many liked his dynamic with Gwyn better, many liked the aesthetic of him and Elain together and I also saw the comments on how they have "4 books of build up" so I was interested to see for myself which one I will prefer.

So after acotar, I went into reading acomaf with the mind paying extra attention to all Elain/Az moments, and when I finished I literally was like "that's it??". Apart from that dinner scene where they had one polite conversation, it was very clear Az is in love with Mor, and Elain is with Graysen.

So then I went straight to Az's bonus chapter because I could not understand the hype about these ships and I wanted to see. :D Obviously I had no context, so all the bonus chapter did for me at that point is that I became interested in Gwyn's character. :D

Then I read acowar, again paying extra attention to all Elain/Az interactions. There were cute moments in acowar that I think had a possible romantic coding, but again I just found them lacking. Simply because it was clearly established they were still in love with other people.

Acofas was the first where I personally started to see them develop some romantic feelings (Az and Rhys's talk about how he refuses to check on Lucien's whereabouts for the sake of Elain's privacy - idk that whole part suggested to me Rhys kinda knows whats up //the infamous potato scene where Elain runs back to the kitchen to rebraid her hair - I interpreted it as her having a crush and wanting to look more presentable //he starts a conversation with her// she gives him a present and he laughes and blushes etc.) and we can also see Elain and Lucien's relationship kinda hit rock bottom. But, still there were mentions of lingering feelings for Mor and Graysen for both of them.

And then came acosf and Gwyn quickly became my new favorite character of the series. Since I was paying extra attention to Gwyn bc I was interested in her from the start, I picked up on all the cute moments she had with Az, but personally I don't blame anyone if it flew over their heads because they were subtle. None of them is ready for a relationship right now and that's fine. However reading the bonus chapter again, now in context, I was just stuck wondering: where the heck all these sexual thoughts came for Az about Elain?? I really don't see 4 books of build up, as I said for me acofas was the first I started to see them in a romantic light, but even that was more platonic. So that means, in the 9 months between acofas and acosf, Az started to fantasize about Elain instead of Mor. Offpage.

Although E/riel does have cute moments, I just really don't see the endgame potential based on everything we know about Sarah's writing style. She likes the mates to be equals, and Gwyn was made carynthian like Az. She and Az have banter, a lot of similar personality traits, even hobbies (singing). I think it's pretty clear she is set up to be Az's perfect match, not to mention the mate language in the bonus chapter (those theories blow my mind actually! :). Meanwhile all I see for Elain and Az is attraction (even that is questionable for me since it happened offpage somehow), they made zero effort to really get to know each other in the past two years, even though Lucien was not around.

Now Elucien is another question, since we know so little about how Elain feels. But I fully believe they will become a couple in the end, simply because otherwise Lucien's storyline makes zero sense :D. Lucien suffered the loss of his first love, and was given a mate who rejects him, only to find love with a human queen who will again die after 60-70 years while he lives on for centuries alone?? No thank you. Give my boy Lucien a chance for his happy ending. With his Mate.

Sorry this was so long, I just think when you read all 5 books after each other, it is clear what direction Sarah is going. (Which is the mates being endgame since she writes about fated mates) But I also understand that there were 2-3 years of waiting for acofas and acosf, so the picture might be different for people who joined the fandom back then. To be fair, of course Sarah can also decide to go with an E/riel outcome, although in my opinion that will just mess up the whole plot she established so far.

I appreciate all your thoughts and I think a lot of Eluciens and Gwynriels would agree with everything you've said.

What I find the strangest is not that anyone ships E/riel because I absolutely understand the specific scenes that have led them to that conclusion and they did receive validation in the knowledge that Elain and Az wanted to kiss so it's not like there's nothing there.

The part that I find strangest is that they do not also acknowledge it as a very real possibility that despite that, Elucien CAN still end up together and so can Gwynriel.

Feyre and Tamlin shared a very real relationship. They kissed, they had sex, they were engaged, he wanted to protect her and she was WILLING TO DIE FOR HIM. They were leaps and bounds ahead of whatever E/riel has shared after their supposed "multiple books of buildup" yet they still did not end up together. Not to mention Feyre was not in love with anyone when she first fell for Tamlin while the entire E/riel setup has coincided with her not being over Graysen while he has not completely gotten over Mor.

SJM eventually drew attention to the major red flags in the Feylin relationship and she also wanted to be sure that we knew that Feyre and Rhys were always destined to be together because they were mates, the most sacred of relationships that two characters can have.

But before that happened, Feyre hated Rhys at times and considered him her enemy.

Rhys always knew they were mates (proving that just because a character knows about the bond doesn't mean the love is less meaningful).

Yet they both came together, loving one another equally, regardless of where they each started from.

Nesta hated the fae at first and treated Cassian with absolute disdain. She then all but admitted her undying love for him only to turn around in the novella and tell him to leave her the hell alone while sleeping with other males. Then in SF, she began sleeping with him, even started falling in love with him but refused to call him her mate and proclaimed that she didn't know what she wanted because she didn't have a choice in any of it.

Elain was engaged and in love with Graysen when she got the shock of her life and found out Lucien was her mate. She still had not processed any of that and was holding out hope for a reconciliation with Graysen in ACOWAR only to be rejected. Though she hadn't full recovered after the war, we got glimpses that maybe there was hope for Elucien when she invited him back to Velaris.

But just like Nesta, Elain does a 180 in the novella and suddenly, she's pushing Lucien away (for reasons unknown), just as Nesta pushed Cassian away.

Elain suddenly shows interest in another male in the novella, just as Nesta showed interest in many other males in the novella.

In SF, Nesta starts the series with another male in her bed but ends up happily mated to Cassian by the end of it.

So why then, according to E/riels, is there absolutely no chance that Elain can start off her book at odds with Lucien (and either interested in Az or not interested in anyone after what happened on Solstice) and end up with her mate (just as every other SJM main character has done across all series) by the end of it?

It doesn't matter that Elucien's setup looks somewhat different than Feysands or Nessians (no one would expect them to be identical because that would just be weird) but there are enough similarities in their initial hesitation toward their mates and 2 out of 3 have so far ended up with the same outcome.

We don't know enough about the Gwynriel setup to see what sort of tension will exist between them however introducing her to the series as Nesta's best friend (meaning she's always going to be within Az's orbit) as well as having Az be the only one who saved her and the first male we've ever see her act a bit flirty with after her trauma seems a bit intentional, does it not?

It's not that I begrudge anyone for shipping E/riel but the problem is when they call us misogynists, stupid, clueless, "delucien's" (which I'm guessing is "delusional Eluciens?", lacking reading comprehension, etc. for shipping Elucien and Gwynriel.

I have to believe they can't be that blind to the patterns in SJMs writing and the reason they've resorted to name calling is because they're worried that E/riel won't be happening rather than them really thinking Elucien and Gwynriel aren't just as much a possibility.

[ohthehypocrisy]

Luxray for Pokemon Unite? Yes please! ...but how?

For a while, I've been running polls on this blog frequently, asking Tumblr to decide which pokemon they'd like to see join Pokemon Unite. Whenever Luxray in particular has been an option, it tends to dominate the poll, without a close second.

It's clear that you guys and most pokemon fans want Luxray in the game, and so do I, but I've run into a bit of a dilemma with this bolting bobcat.

These are the base stats of Luxray, or BST for short. As you can see, Luxray has a high Attack stat, so it should fit well in the role of a Speedster, correct? I mean, it's even got X-Ray vision, which would allow it to sneak up on enemies hiding in tall grass and such.

With that high Attack stat, though, one can also make the argument for it to be an Attacker. There are pokemon in Unite's roster that boast a high Attack stat but favor long rage combat like Cinderace and Decidueye, so who's to say that Luxray can't work just as well? Perhaps it can build up a sort of meter to get the most out of its Attack stat, like a paralysis gauge or something to that effect.

Luxray also has access to Intimidate, wide range moves like Discharge and Scary Face, even disruption moves like Roar and Snarl. With the ability to stun enemies with its electric type moves, it could also be a Defender, holding enemies back with moves like Wild Charge and Crunch. Perhaps as a Defender it can pull in high damaging moves like a Speedster or long range attacks like an Attacker.

But then at that point, you'd be better off making Luxray an All-Rounder, a pokemon that can fulfill multiple roles in one but not excel in any of them. Maybe it should hit as hard as a Speedster, Stun like a Defender, and keep its distance like an Attacker.

But that feels like a cop-out. There are All-Rounders in Pokemon Unite that feel better suited to other roles like Mimikyu or Lucario or even Blaziken being Speedsters. There's also the fact that we're a little overloaded on All-Rounders (15 in the game so far, with MORE coming soon. We'll have almost as many All-Rounders as we do Attackers!)

But even so, if the pokemon proves to be truly varied in effect and utility, maybe it deserves to be an All-Rounder. But then again, some fans of Luxray may prefer an alternative playstyle and may even have their own ideas on how the moveset would look like.

That's where you come in. If you've read this far, you're clearly a big Luxray fan, so I wanna ask for your opinion on this. If Luxray joins Pokemon Unite, what role do you think it is best suited to?

Now, I won't say if Luxray is in my drafts or will drop later this season, but I do want your genuine opinion on this. Pokemon fans always expect more out of their favorites, so it's better to gauge their feelings than to guess. If you want Luxray in Pokemon Unite and you have an idea of how to do it, I'd love to hear all about it.

[bundle-of-glitter]

what is your favorite rock of your collection :0?

Ahh very difficult question 😭 i mean theyre in my collection because they're all my favourite after all...

Here's the entire thing btw!

Disclaimer 1: somehow a moth managed to leave behind half it's wing at our home? Which is fourth from the left in the lowermost row, I did not harm it. I hope it was okay, tho it's probably long dead by now

Disclaimer 2: About the shells: uh, for the one at the top left corner,,, I mean i just couldn't resist it was perfectly chipped at the top to expose part of the iridescence and the lower portion had this fascinating exterior pattern, so for this once I decided to pick it(my apologies to any hermit crab that might have coveted it😔) (unfortunately some of the iridescence rubbed off in the bag while travelling TT.. but enough of it is still there) the small white ones were from a little stream, and the orange ones were broken pieces so I doubt they'd have been of any use to any other creature? Speaking of which

This one seems particularly old, and there seem to be little spiral imprints on it? I think they might be from little molluscs but idk(update: this might actually be a coral piece as well, based on the texture?)

Also to give a little closer look at some of the rocks that may not be as clearly appreciated in the group photo:

Here's one which I think quite resembles a cloudy sky!!! And if you were to turn it around-

An icy mountain range! (it's not everyday you find a picture of a sky *and* a mountain range on a rock? Some of my friends think it resembles waves on a beach too! )

These have particularly interesting patterns, a bit like the inside of a fish perhaps?

This one has a little rainbow in it! I had to edit it tho since it wasn't very clear in the picture.

This one(third from right in the third row) is almost see-through! I found it at my college campus so I was sceptical about it being a piece of plastic or glass, but that seems unlikely based on the weight and less sharp edges🤔

As for the others(which I didn't take individual pictures of because I thought they seem sufficiently visible? If you'd like to see pictures of them taken closely you can always ask!)

Most of the rocks are from the hill nearby(some of which I previously shared on here! They are often jagged and shiny and have gorgeous red staining from the soil!Some of the less jagged ones have a bluish tinge, which unfortunately looks more grey in photos)

The four rocks(two white and two yellow-brown ones!) near the top right corner are courtesy of my friend who got them for me from a trip!

There's three pieces of coral 🪸!! From my trip to andaman(where I got the big shell and the old orange one, and the smaller orange fragment next to the moth wing) There's the one shaped like a mermaid tail! And directly below it is an orange-ish piece, which was unusual since most pieces on the beach were bleached. And on the right of the mermaid tail is a piece that has rather interesting impressions on it(ig from the polyps themselves growing on it?)

Also next to the orange shell fragment there's a few small stones that i thought looked like canines (which I got near the same stream where I found the small white shells)

Ofc, the short answer would've been to just say all of them, but I hope you don't mind that I used the opportunity to introduce the entire collection and rant about it so much :)

[hawkpartys]

That's all the encouragement I need!

I'm gonna walk through the meme above as a starting point because otherwise there is a lot to talk about and nowhere clear to start. Feel free to ask for further clarifications because this is now a college lecture class this will be on the test(kidding)

Oh also opinions on taxonomy vary wildly depending on a few different things so if you disagree with anything I say here, feel free to fight me to the death in the taxonomy thunderdome. I understand this is how postdocs like to settle things

First, the taxon in question: Order Accipitriformes. Hawks, Eagles, Kites and Allies. Contains well, the stuff I just listed along with buzzards(not the American understanding of the word, New World Vultures aren't accipitriformes), Old World Vultures(yeah they are different from NWV), Ospreys, and a few other odds and ends.

Disclaimer one, it does not include falcons or owls. Falcons are parrots who chose violence and I think owls are a kind of sentient beachball. I cannot help with these

Disclaimer two, most of those words(Hawks, eagles, kites, etc) mean nothing. They are honestly more of a visual descriptor than any actual category. You do have stuff like "true eagles"(genus aquila) but that doesn't include stuff like bald eagles. A Cooper's Hawk is more closely related to a Northern Harrier than it is to a Red Tailed Hawk. Honey Buzzards are a kind of kite. Just make your peace with all of that now.

Okay back to the meme. First bullet point I thinks is pretty self explanatory with my above explanation. Stop categorizing them they clearly want to make you suffer Second point: Buteo is a genus that contains a bunch of accipitriformes that are commonly known as hawks(ex red tailed hawk, common buzzard) and has a lot of taxonomic drama, which is partially why I used it for this joke. The other reason is that I'm biased and its one of my favorites.

Third point: Buteogallus is you guessed it another genus of a bunch of accipitriformes(Black Hawks and Allies). Most of them are known as hawks, but the Chaco Eagle and Solitary Eagle are both also in buteogallus, because they hate you. I picked them for this joke because they are relatively closely related to buteos. There are a few that are more closely related to buteos, but the name similarity made it funnier to me. Buteos and the Cooler Buteos

"Initial ID was Nisaetus Cirrhatus but it's actually Pernis Ptilorhynchus" If you ever wanted proof that morphological taxonomy is fake, that's what this is for. The birds mentioned are Changeable Hawk-Eagle and Oriental Honey Buzzard respectively, and often get confused for eachother by people on iNaturalist, so it's a correction I make semi-often. However, they are pretty far from eachother on the taxon tree(I believe Nisaetus is closer to True Eagles? It recently was shifted around though cuz it was split off from Spizaetus so don't quote me).

Changeable Hawk-Eagle, Oriental Honey Buzzard

"Frameworks and binoculars" This joke was just me dunking on birders. I have no idea how often actual taxonomists use binoculars. I'm an engineer

The images:

A tree???: This is a taxon tree showing the updated position of Booted Eagles relative to other eagles based on a recent genetic study. I think I chose this one in specific because it was the only one out of the ones I have saved that fit in the slot. Yes I have multiple accipitriforme taxon trees saved don't worry about it

Range Overlap Hell: This image shows the complete range distribution of the Common Buzzard(buteo buteo)(also known as the steppe buzzard)(also known as motherfucker who makes my life harder). It's called range overlap hell because, well, it overlaps with a lot of very similar looking birds, and makes it a pain to ID everyone involved

Also it keeps having taxon changes every 5 minutes with stuff getting rolled into a b.buteo ssp or being split off into a morphologically identical sp and I'm this close to losing it I swear to god. Anyway heres a common buzzard and a bunch of birds its range overlaps with. Yes these are all different species no I am not fucking with you

Common Buzzard, Upland Buzzard, Eastern Buzzard

Himalayan Buzzard, Long Legged Buzzard, Forest Buzzard

Now that you are starting to understand my ire, the next joke: This Motherfucker

That image is allegedly of a Cape Buzzard. What's a Cape Buzzard? Good question. I can't answer it. It may be a new buteo species found in South Africa. It may be that a handful of migratory Steppe Buzzards are staying in South Africa year round instead of heading back where they came from. It might be that nobody can consistently identify a Forest Buzzard. Who knows. Not me. They won't let me DNA sequence the buzzards for some reason.

(I cannot, for the life of me, find the photo I used here. However I think you've seen enough brown buteos with belly streaking to get the point)

"Hello I'd like to see a specimen of Buteo Buteo ssp Buteo''

Buteo Buteo as stated earlier is the scientific name for Common Buzzards. Ssp stands for subspecies, and b. buteo has a bunch, with are indicated with different names. You can also specify that this is the "default" ssp by repeating the species name. So a steppe buzzard would be buteo buteo ssp vulpinus, while the default is buteo buteo ssp buteo.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. I hope this clarified everything and nothing and that we all understand that taxonomy isn't real and it can't hurt us anymore(<-- lying)

[livvyofthelake]

post episode 3 thoughts on the wilds boys. first of all the girlies ARE superior in every way and their scenes are truly getting me through these bland ass men. anyway here we go. raf is still my baby sorryyy idc that he’s cringe and fail idc that he’s apparently going to do something bad. he’s allowed because he’s my little baby. henry is still just okay, he’s not really giving anything. maybe i will change my stance in henry when i see his backstory idk. the florida boys are alright i guess. bo is boring but still somewhat compelling as a character, and scotty is also kinda boring but the end of the episode when he decides they’re all gonna go kill that jaguar. ok go off scotty… kirin is not giving great vibes, but he’s not giving anything we haven’t seen on tv a million times before. he’s a jock he has an std he’s stupid he has a weird little rivalry with a gay kid, literally imagine if reggie mantle wasn’t a riverdale character. or fun. anyway. josh. yeah he’s still just the bitch from the magicians who assassinated his brother so he could marry margo in the life in the day. and he’s also annoying. so. fuck josh lol. ivan seems like he could be a fun character but he’s giving literally nothing at the moment. and seth. strange vibe from seth. i’ve been saying this and i know it’s annoying that i can’t actually articulate what i mean by that it’s just. a very strange vibe from him. it’s mildly unsettling. i really need him to just go evil soon so i can stop feeling like i’m hanging off a cliff whenever he talks. like just be gay and evil like my old pal rafe cameron can you just be extreme here the strange vibes are killing me man. again maybe it’s literally just that he’s harry from the society and the fact i heard he wasn’t as nice as he initially seemed but whenever he says or does anything i feel like i’m waiting for the other shoe to drop and it’s awful

[last-ofthe-starks]

HOTD episode 5 Easter eggs and thoughts:

Some slight but important changes to the timeline and order of events worth noting:

In Fire and Blood, Rhaenyra and Laenor’s wedding actually took place over the course of seven days, it did not end on the first night and require a shotgun wedding from the recollection in the book.

At one of the competitions, Criston beat Harwin Strong who was the strongest man in the realm, but we do not see them face off this episode.

Then, Criston faces Joffrey and beats him within an inch of his life with his favorite weapon, Morningstar. In the book, Joffrey suffers a brain injury and died six days later whereas there is NO denying he is dead on the show.

In the book Rhaenyra and 17 and Laenor is 20 at the time of the wedding in 114, while in the show Rhaenyra is at least 18 according to the last episode.

By the time this wedding takes place in the show, Criston Cole was already Lord Commander of the Kingsguard in the books.

We open the episode with Rhea Royce, who –in the brief moments we saw her – came across as a woman who would certainly give Daemon a run for his money and see right through his shit. And while there is a small part of me heartbroken that my boo Daemon did kill his wife (although we never see it on camera), this whole show is an excellent character study on Daemon as a character. His trip to the Vale was due to Viserys’ banishment sure, but when we see him and Rhea meet on the road it doesn’t actually look like he planned to murder her. The way it was shot makes it clear she drew a weapon first and her horse was spooked, but it did not appear that Daemon actually did anything. It was only when he end he walked away and she said something to him that he was prompted to pick up the rock and finish the job. Clearly that wasn’t a planned way to rid her but like most Daemon plans, he wings it. When Daemon dances with Rhaenyra, he sort of confirms he planned to rid himself of Rhea by telling her that he no longer has a wife and could put a stop to the whole wedding for her. He clearly wished to accomplish this task prior to her wedding day.

I like how they’ve addressed the unraveling of Rhaenyra and Criston on the show. It is believable that Criston would be so hurt by Rhaenyra’s response to his offer. The man broke and oath and his entire life as he currently knows it is due to her kindness and position. For her to have favored him, chose him as her protector, confide in him, and then later have him break an oath with her, it’s little wonder he thought she loved him just as much back. The way Criston asks her to escape with her and be free of her position and responsibility was a great way to weave together the rumors from Fire and Blood and also flesh out those rumors into a believable conversation with a heartbreaking end for Sir Criston.

Emily Carey (Alicent) was so great in this episode. It was the first time we actually see Alicent grow up and take the rose colored glasses off. We as viewers can see that she’s only seeing and being given bits and pieces of information, and surmising her decisions based on those bits. We get our first real debut of Master of Whispers, Larys Strong, and see his role in essentially starting the war. As viewers we can see she is getting parts of the truth but in the case of Criston Cole, some of her assumptions are incorrect. This long game of telephone is a great way of explaining how each chip fell to create what will be a giant, convoluted mess.

Speaking of Alicent and Criston, I really was surprised that Criston immediately fessed up to sleeping with Rhaenyra to Alicent. I thought for her in his anger he would have accused Rhaenyra of sleeping with Daemon to get back at her but no, he fessed up to it. This will add such an added layer to their dynamic as now Alicent has a very significant piece of information to hold over Criston’s head.

The king ain’t doing too hot, and wow, his arm was disgusting. Viserys in this episode is fighting so many things; his health being number one. We can see that it is rapidly declining and they are really at a loss for what to do for him. On top of that, his wife is beginning to use her own brain and fight back in the wake of her fathers dismissal, and the girl who was once so innocent and agreeable is about to become an enormous problem for him. Partner that with trying to repair a fractured relationship with Corlys, the return of his brother who he knows probably just murdered his own wife, and the image of Daemon taking Rhaenyra’s face in his hands at her own wedding celebrations as though they meant to kiss. THEN the poor dude has to have a shotgun wedding and cancel all of the fun, he truly can’t win.

Alicent walking into the hall in her green dress…shots fired. Then she hit us with the double whammy when she called Rhaenyra “Step-Daughter” in front of everyone. You can tell Rhaenyra knows she is onto something and her white lie didn’t hold up too well. I highly doubt she realizes that Criston Cole has thrown her under the bus for the first of many times.

I hate the Larys the club foot, so that means they are doing a great job with him.

Daemon waltzing into the hall unannounced and uninvited…a man after my own heart. Paddy’s acting in this scene was incredible, he portrays sooo much with just a look. And honestly, so does Matt Smith. Every scene we get between those two has been perfect.

The Vearyon’s are so hot. So hot. We get our first glimpse of Laena and Daemon together and you can tell they have great banter and she is GORGEOUS so naturally Daemon is attracted but I don’t think at this point it is a love at first sight sort of thing with them. Rhaenyra and Daemon never had a chance to finish their conversation before she was whisked away and married, so I’ll be curious how they explain Daemon and Laena next episode.

Sir Joffrey instigating Criston was excellent, he was perfectly dickish and you can see Criston slowly unraveling all episode but to see just how far he’s fallen was crazy. In the books Joffrey’s death was depicted differently. There actually were seven days of tournament and meals, one of which saw Criston Cole beating the crap out of everyone he faced including Harwin “Breakbones” Strong and killing Joffrey, the Knight of Kisses.” Using Joffrey as the straw that broke the camels back makes the most logical sense for this storyline and I thought they did a great job. The half of his scull missing on camera I could have done without but I know that is par for this beautiful corse.

The end of this episode broke my heart how Claire (the director) made the decision to have a voice over of Laenor saying his vows overtop of the shots of Rhaenyra. You can see both of their hearts breaking and it was so well done. It also helped so that Rhaenyra truly cares for him and despite their arranged marriage, she has his best interest at heart. His whole life just ended in a sudden blow and Rhaenyra clearly feels so strongly for Laenor. It is that mutual respect that Milly was able to capture so perfectly. He feels all alone and now Rhaenyra doesn’t have Criston or Daemon, so to see them both on that altar broken hearted was truly so sad and well done.

Speaking of Daemon, where did he go when all hell broke loose? Why is Harwin swooping in and not Daemon? The man is a mess.

I like that the director left it unclear if Daemon and Rhaenyra ever kissed but I’m sure someone in that room would have seen if it they did. To hear Rhaenyra question Daemon’s intentions again and ask him for such a huge ultimatum (to cut down the Kingsguard and whisk me away from here) was so great. But then Daemon never truly gets an opportunity to answer her or do those things either way. The fight breaking out disrupts their conversation and before the night is over she’s a married woman. When we see an aged up Rhaenyra next week I hope we get some insight into Daemon’s headspace and recalibrate Rhaenyra and Daemon’s relationship with one another.

Next episode we will have a lot of new characters (lots of kids) and a significant time jump but I want to shout out how amazing Milly and Emily both were as young Rhaenyra and Alicent. I will truly miss them both, especially Milly. It’s been some time since I saw a show have a younger and older version of the characters and it’s not an easy thing to pull off, but I’m optimistic and just hope next episode doesn’t feel like filler to establish the new players in this show.

[xgryffinwhore]

september nights

request:  i was wondering if you could write another soft bill smut? i don’t really have a specific plot in mind, we’re just really lacking content on tumblr rn :( in some really precarious place where they don’t want to get caught

warnings: soft smut, like i mean very soft.

word count: 2118

before your lips met bill denbrough’s, love was always, to say the least, a conundrum. lets be real for second, boys wasted your time, and you let them. only the cute ones of course. you are a hopeless romantic, drunk off of molly ringwald and john travolta films. you wanted any relationship you had to be just like the movies.

through your heart breaks, your best friends stood by you, your losers. eddie, richie, bev, stan, ben, and bill. for each tear you shed a punch was thrown to the man who caused it, they were protective over you. bill the most though, he always got so defensive when you were in the mix. all throughout middle & high school, bill has had to deal with every guy who even dares to think about breaking your heart.

“its not fair bill” you wailed into your pillow. he stroked your back and hushed you, his eyes welling with tears. “im never fucking good enough for any guy and its so fucking sad!” your complaints being cut off mid sentence by a choked out cry. “y-y/n. all of y-your boyfriend are i-idiots. anyone w-who would d-d-do this to you isnt w-worth your t-time. anyone w-would be the luckiest in the w-world to have y-you in their life” you picked your head up and looked at him with swollen lips and blood shot eyes “there no one out there for me bill, no one.” 

he bit his lip, fighting back any tears dripping from his eyes “they j-just dont see how p-pretty you are. how g-gentle and caring and s-s-sweet, and h-how your face c-can light up any room. theyre f-fucking idiots, and you d-deserve m-more.” you clearly thought he was being nice, because you could take a MOTHER FUCKING GOD DAMN hint, so you replied “i wish there was someone out there like you, for me, that thinks of me the way you do.” 

he furrowed his brows, tossing his head back and running his fingers furiously through his hair. “d-dammit y/n!” he cursed “cant you s-see what ive b-been trying to say? w-w-what ive been t-trying to say f-for the last f-five years!?!” your expression was bewildered, your brain was going a mile a minute trying to figure out what he meant. his frustration got the best of him, he got up and stormed out the door,  feeling embarrassed and stupid for trying to make you understand how he felt.

he was half way out your front door, fuming for his keys lodged deep into his front pocket; when suddenly:

“bill!”

his head turned at the call of his name, “y-y/n please i d-”

smack.

your lips locked with his, he rain pouring heavily outside. bills lips stilled at the contact, but this lasted briefly, he deepened this kiss by pulling you in to his abdomen by your mid back. your bunched the front of his base ball t shirt with your fists, and he did the same but with your hair.

the rest is basically history.

now six months later, and you couldnt have been happier. bill knew how to treat you, nights out twice a week (you always wanted to pay but bill insisted,) holding your hand to and from classes, he let you borrow have his varsity baseball jacket, which smelt just like him and was a little too big for you. 

when he would drop you off and your classes, he would always grab your hand and transfer a tiny piece of paper into your palm. when you got into class to unfold it, it was always a cute little message about his love for you. 

bill had it bad for you, everyone knew that, and you loved every minute of it. he met every and any standard you had, and exceeded your expectations. 

it was september, still warm enough in derry to wear shorts, so you and your friends thought of a last hurrah for the ending of the summery weather.

“camp out, its nearly perfect” Richie exclaimed. eddie rolled his eyes “like youve ever been near anything perfect toizer, do you even know what perfect means?” richie shoved eddie “yeah eddie i actually have. have you seen amanda’s tits?”

 you tuned out richie and eddies bickering as you’re boyfriend cleared his throat. “you g-gonna go?” he said into your ear, “only if you promise to wear bug spray bill, you know how bad-” he cut you off with a kiss, his mouth forming a small smile at how cute you were. “get a room, honestly” stan poked, pda wasn’t his favorite... “at least i h-have something to k-kiss aye s-stannie”

you arrived at the edge of the forest, parking your car at the last parking ish space. you walked toward the sounds of ben and richie fighting, and came to see that richie really went all out. three tents, sticks for a fire, and more snacks than anyone needed. 

you all spent the remanence of the daylight dancing in the light sky, sharing stories, and eating waaaay too many chips. it was dark now, you all huddled in a circle near the fire; making small talk and trying not to admit you were all very tired.

“ok folks, im off to bed” richie yawned “me stan eddie n’ mike will take the green tent, bev and ben in the red.” richie paused and smirked over at you and bill, you were tangled in his limbs, golfed in his navy blue pull over. “and uh- heh- billy boy and y/n in the yellow tent eh?” you could practically feel bills eye roll, god richie was so immature.

“w-we dont have to s-sleep in the s-s-same tent, i c-can ask ben if he’d s-switch” you look up at bill and reassure him “bill no- its not a big deal, right?” he tucks your hair behind your ear and kisses the side of your temple “c-course not.”

you both went into the tent, bill began to unroll the blankets you both had packed tightly into your bags. You both set up your makeshift bed, bill leaned against a pile of pillows while you hugged his side, your face buried in his neck. his smell was absolutely intoxicating; his skin had remanence of his milk and honey body wash, but it was slightly overpowered by wintergreen, clove, and his bourbon cologne. 

you were like this for around an hour, the orange crank-powered lantern being the only source of light. you switch positions though, you now laid your head on his lap, reading a magazine you stole from the hair salon. he watched your eyes scan every letter, when you read something funny you’d huff to yourself, and when something was intresting you stuck your tongue out from between your teeth. he adored you.

“d-dont stay up t-too late” he stroked your hair off your shoulder “we have t-to have you w-well r-r-rested.” you sat up from beside him, as he adjusted the pillows and took off his pull over, then his pants. he got under the covers and waited for you.

“nice donut boxers” you laughed. “s-shut up” he blushed and regreted not changing them when he had the chance. you turned around took off your shirt, you were shy about how you looked, but it was just bill. it was just bill. you heard his breath hitch, his eagerness radiating off his body onto yours. the air became tense as you unzipped your pants and threw them to the corner. you turned around, bills pupils growing until you were completely facing him.

“yeah i know. mine are boring” you laugh nervously, brushing your hair behind your ear and getting under the covers next to him. he didnt respond, he couldnt take his eyes off of you.you began to sit up again “i can go put back on-” “n-no!” he interrupts, his blush taking up his entire face.

“i j-j-just cant b-believe i g-get to see something s-so special” he gulped “s-so b-b-b-beautiful.”

you grabbed him by his shoulders and kissed him, hard. youve been with boys before, i mean youve dated plenty of people. but no one ever called your body special. hot, yeah. nice, yeah. beautiful, sure. but no one ever thought that it was special. 

bill was a kind boy, the most you two have ever done is get each other off with your hands, always clothed. bill never asked to see more, he felt lucky enough just to make you feel good, and that was enough for him. so when you felt the heat of his hands hovering over your body but not touching it, you new you’d have to call the shots tonight.

“bill,” you laid down “just touch me everywhere, please.” he crawled in between your legs, kneeling so that he could lean over your face “m-my pleasure.”

he traced your collar, leaving small, delicate, kisses to make up for what his fingers left behind as they trailed. he kissed the valley between your breasts, licking slow striped down your skin. he picked up your upper back a little and cocked his head to the side, you nodded and he unclipped your bra. he sat their with his mouth open, taking in the view. you blushed and muttered “hey, keep that mouth to good use.” he dipped down and sucked on your nipples, his mouth felt so good against your skin grazed with goosebumps. he was gingerly with his tongue, it was sexy, it was romantic. he kissed down your stomach, his fingers sweeping down your sides. you could see his member pressing against his boxers, the pressure made him wince every once in a while. his fingers met your panties and he hooked them. again, he looked up for permission, you nodded once again. 

he brought your underwear down your legs and off, looking back to see what he had relieved. he licked his lips, getting ready to please you more than he already did. but you felt bad, bill always gave gave and gave. “its ok, im ready right now.” bill looked up at you in shock, he wasnt expecting you’d want to go all the way. “y/n, y-youre sure?” you lean up and kiss his lips, swiping your tongue against his bottom lip “please.”

he pulled down his boxers eagerly, his member sprung out to hit his stomach. he lined up with you, checking once more that it was ok. then he pushed in, bottoming out. he felt bigger than you thought, of course he was well endowed, but he filled you up so well. you mewled, the pain and pleasure making a delicious feeling that made your toes curl.

he waited, but began slowly moving after a bit. he grunted, feeling you wrapped around him was something he’d never be able to get out of his head he thought to himself. he grunted “f-fuck this feels g-good’ he grunted, his breath becoming heavy and full of lust. with every stroke, you felt yourself get more and more lost in the bliss he made you feel. “youre making me feel so good  bill” you moan, the sound of his name coming out of your mouth driving him absolutely crazy. he speeds up, loving the view of your face contorting in pleasure and your body moving with his. 

he couldnt help but feel admiration to you, your hair formed a halo around your head, and the sweat that coated your skin made you glisten in the orange light. “im t-the luckiest in the world” he husks, holding your cheek. 

you felt the knot in your core coming undone, “bill im close” you strain, trying not to be too loud so you dont wake your friends. he moved your leg up to his shoulder, hitting you from a different, deeper angle. his fingers went to your clit, making you bite your had to stop you from screaming. “you l-look so p-pretty y/n, t-taking me s-so well. making y-you feel so good.” “so good bill” you repeat, drunken off his cock and fingers. 

without warning, you came came, your legs spazzing as you moaned “fuck bill” he followed, his hips stuttering, as he cried out into your shoulder. he pulled out and laid next to you, both of you breathing heavily and coming off your highs. 

“y/n” he looked at you “t-that was really j-just wow- thank y-you.” you kissed him, chaste and sweet “that was great yeah?” “it w-was perfect babe. t-thank you f-for t-that. i love you y-y/n.”

“i love you too bill.”

he sat up, his fingers dancing on your inner thigh.

“y/n?”

“yeah?”

“c-can we p-please do t-that again?”

[subspencer]

the to-do list

Pairing: Spencer Reid x fem!Reader

Summary: Reader is worried that she’s not adventurous enough in bed. So, she makes a secret checklist of things to try with Spencer. Based on this request.

Category: Smut, 18+ ONLY, minors dni

Warnings/Includes: switch!Spencer, (sort of?) corruption kink, exhibitionism, mile high club, brief description of oral, unprotected sex, creampie, brief mentions of other stuff but no descriptions

Word Count: 3k

Spencer’s girlfriend has a secret checklist. It could be called a bucket list, of some sort, but really all of the items on it pertain to sexual acts to perform with Spencer, on Spencer, or in front of Spencer. So checklist is a more appropriate term.

The list came into existence after a girl’s night game of Never Have I Ever, in which she discovered there was an embarrassing number of things she’d never done. Some of them seemed nearly impossible to have gone twenty-something years without doing, especially when in a committed relationship. That was made abundantly clear to her when the girls pointed it out, teasing her — and by association, Spencer — for being more than vanilla.

There was no real reason she hadn’t tried those certain things — she wasn’t adverse to the idea of most of them at all. Really, it was just that she never bothered to dip her toes beyond what was familiar.

When Emily, Penelope, and Tara had nearly all ten of their fingers down after a couple rounds, she finally realized she might’ve been coming up short in the sex department. She figured it was about time to find out what she’s missing, so she made a list of everything she needed to try. And one by one, she and Spencer checked the items off.

One of the more simple things on the list, and perhaps her favorite, was giving her first blowjob. It wasn’t something she felt compelled to try with any of the guys she’s been with before, and Spencer, though he was very curious about it, was too much of a gentleman to ask for one.

So when she asked him to sit on the edge of his bed and dropped to her knees in front of him, he didn’t stop to ask questions. His mind went blank the second her fingers undid his zipper. It was Spencer’s first, too, and his fingers knotted in her hair as she took him in as deep as she could, hollowing her cheeks around his cock and swirling her tongue as her head bobbed up and down. Spencer always made pretty sounds in bed, but in this instance she envied his memory because she wished she could replay his moans and gasps from that first blowjob all over again in her mind.

Another favorite was allowing the favor to be reciprocated until completion. She figured she might just be someone who couldn’t get off from oral, because though she always welcomed Spencer to go down, she got impatient every time and pulled his head up by his hair, demanding him to fuck her already. Spencer was one to oblige every request, but he couldn’t pretend that he wasn’t overjoyed when one time she never stopped him short.

There were no interruptions, no hands shoving his face away from its rightful place against her, just increasing moans and shaking legs as Spencer was encouraged to give more. She can still remember the half-moon shapes his nails left on her thighs from where he had to grip them so tightly as she rode out her high. And she definitely remembers the almost feral look in his eyes after, because since that first time he insists on doing it again nearly every day.

There were more or less a dozen other items that slowly but surely got ticked off the list.

Handcuffs in the bedroom — fun, but perhaps better saved for special occasions. Or if Spencer was being extra good and deserved a treat.

Various new positions — a reminder to stretch more. And that sixty-nine is not as easy as it sounds on paper.

She let Spencer put a blindfold on her — it was decided they both prefer it more when the blindfold is on him. It keeps him guessing.

Spanking — both of them like this one, either giving or receiving. Surprisingly, she thinks she might like receiving it a little more, and Spencer is always excited to give.

Shower sex — a bit of a logistical nightmare, yet still a weekly staple. It’s slippery, yes, but it’s also relaxing and intimate. And Spencer just enjoys putting his hands on her wet, soapy body.

Sending dirty texts — great, but Spencer prefers taking nude polaroids of her instead. He keeps a few in his wallet for easy access. And because he knows Garcia can’t hack his wallet and find them.

And there were more items that went in the same tune until there was just one left. The one she was most nervous to attempt.

She wondered if joining the mile high club was better or worse if it was on the BAU jet. They’d have ample opportunities to do it, but they’d also be surrounded by their colleagues, and there is no coming back from getting caught.

But the main challenge was convincing Spencer to do it in the first place.

The initial plan of attack was to drop some “subtle” hints. She brought it up for the first time one night in their shared hotel room, right after Spencer fucked her against the bathroom counter, her legs wrapped around his waist.

“We could totally do that in the jet bathroom.”

“Yeah, I guess the basics are the same. Cramped space and a ledge to lean on.” Spencer was completely aloof as he picked up the scattered articles of clothing from the floor, rattling off about the size and dimensions of the airplane bathroom and missing the entire point of the comment.

She mentioned it again a little later, hoping the repetition may help him catch the drift.

“What’s the craziest place you’ve had sex?” she asked, completely catching him off guard as he ate a breakfast of frosted flakes in his kitchen.

“Um.. I don’t know? You tell me,” he shrugged, knowing that whatever the craziest place was, it was definitely with her.

“What about doing it on the jet?” It couldn’t get more obvious.

“We haven’t done that, silly. OH! I’m gonna say it was in my car,” he nodded with a wide grin, confident in his answer that unfortunately brushed past the proposition far too quickly.

It was time to change methods.

The new plan was to see if she could get him turned on enough on the jet to motivate him to do something about it right then and there. It seemed easy enough.

She sat next to him on the small couch, as she always did, and cuddled up to his side as he read his book.

Once everyone was distracted, she snaked a hand onto his thigh, allowing it to rest there long enough for Spencer to get over his initial shock and relax into her touch. As soon as he let his guard down, she moved her hand up another inch or two, watching him squirm again as he fought his mind from wandering. She repeated that cycle every five minutes until it drove him insane, his willpower diminishing in tandem with the proximity of her hand.

When everyone finally fell asleep, she craned her head to press small kisses on his neck, alternating between quick pecks and lingering ones, sucking warm and wet little flecks onto his skin that drew soft sighs without fail.

“What are you doing?” his breath was raspy and low as he muttered into her ear.

“Nothing.” She kept her tone innocent and sweet as she continued to sprinkle the teasing kisses across the column of his throat.

Her hand finally found its way directly on top of the bulge straining against his slacks and gave it a gentle squeeze. Spencer grinded himself into her palm, desperate to feel some friction, his jaw slacked and pupils wide. She dragged a thumb across his length, stopping to rub slow circles over the sensitive tip, drawing out a wet spot at the front of his trousers.

But even with his skin flushed red and his cock leaking and half-near orgasm, Spencer still found the restraint to stop her from jerking him off right on the jet and ripped her hand away, placing it in her lap as if the action could permanently force her to keep her hands to herself.

“I can’t go to the crime scene with cum in my pants,” he hissed, squeezing her wrist tighter.

She smirked at the opportunity, wrapping her warm lips around his ear lobe and tugging with her teeth before whispering with hot breath. “Then put it in me.”

For a second she saw him consider it. His eyes had a dark cast, gaze flickering between her eyes and lips as he swallowed the thick lump in his throat. But then Emily woke up and it was yet another failed attempt.

She resigned to the fact that it just wouldn’t happen, and that the item might remain unchecked on the secret list. So she cleared the idea from her mind, not wanting to keep pushing Spencer toward something he clearly didn’t have an interest in, or to keep embarrassing herself by trying.

And then a couple weeks later, as the team wrapped another case up, she came back to their hotel room to find Spencer sitting on the bed, facing away from the door.

“Hey, baby,” she greeted. When Spencer didn’t respond, she crawled onto the bed behind him, placing both hands on his shoulders and attacking the side of his face with kisses, giggling into his messy curls. “I said hey.”

Still nothing. Her eyes followed his line of sight down to his hands and went wide with realization.

“Spencer, where did you get that!?” She tried to snatch the crumpled piece of paper from him, but he was too quick to pull it away.

“I was looking for gum in your purse,” he explained, reading the sheet over again in complete amusement, “but I found something better.”

Spencer was much too excited about it, bordering on smug, and she rolled off the bed away from him in annoyance.

“Is this what I think it is?” She remained silent, suddenly feeling very insecure about the note. “Did you... did you make a list of things to do in bed?”

“You weren’t supposed to see that, it’s so stupid.”

“Hey, who said it’s stupid?” He tugged on her fingers, pulling her back onto the bed next to him. “I just wanna know where it came from.”

“Well... when I went out with the girls, we started talking about all the things we’ve done…” she paused to see if Spencer could guess where this was going, and of course he didn’t, “... in bed. And I hadn’t even done half of what they have, so I wrote some of them down. I — I wanted to try them with you.”

“So you… you’ve never done these with anyone else?” Spencer’s eyes widened as he pieced the puzzle together. He looked down again at the discarded sheet laying on pillows, his pride swelling at how long the list was. “I’m the first?”

She nodded in assent and no sooner was Spencer pushing her back flat against the mattress, settling his body on top of hers.

“God, that’s so hot,” he spoke into her neck as he sucked purple bruises into it, allowing his hands to roam freely under her shirt. His nimble fingers made quick work of her bra clasp, pulling the hem of the top up to attach his lips to her exposed nipple. He rolled the other in his fingers, tugging gently as she arched into his touch, rolling her hips up to grind against his. He groaned and pushed back, nestling himself perfectly between her legs.

Suddenly his motions halted and he popped his head up, looking at her with wide eyes and freshly ruffled hair. “We haven’t finished the list yet!”

“I — I didn’t think you were interested in the last one.”

“If my girlfriend makes a list of ways she wants to fuck me, I’m interested.”

A devilish grin took over her face. “Well, we fly home tomorrow.”

And true to the plan, they arrived on the jet the next day with at least a vague sense of strategy: wait until everyone is asleep then go at it in the bathroom. It wasn’t the most elaborate of plans, but there wasn’t much else to think of.

Except for the possibility that the others might not go to sleep.

The flight was already halfway through its journey and everyone was still wide awake, and Spencer was growing incredibly impatient. Perhaps even more than his girlfriend, now that he knew this would be part of a long list of things he got to be her first for.

That fact seemed to encourage him, the thrill of forever being her first at something. Never mind that she’d be his firsts, too.

Spencer’s not stupid, he knows that bending her over the bathroom counter while everyone is awake to hear it is a horrible idea. But his willpower doesn’t extend far enough to stop him from dropping his hand to her exposed knee, rubbing it softly just to be able to touch her. It seemed innocent enough in case anyone might see.

He kept his eyes on the open book he was pretending to read as his fingers traced the inside of her thigh, pushing up the hem of her skirt ever so slightly.

He inched his hand up and slowly spread his long fingers apart until they covered the length of her inner thigh. The tips stopping just below her cunt, delicately tracing lines back and forth parallel to the seam of her underwear.

And she quickly discovers there’s no taste worse than your own medicine. There was gentle brushes and concealed touches, all the things that she did to him. But where Spencer would’ve stopped her teasing before it got too far, she wouldn’t have done the same.

She covered up his hands by bringing her own down to her lap, silently encouraging him to continue unseen.

Spencer looked down at her through his thick lashes, bottom lip stuck between his teeth. Looking for more confirmation that she wanted this. The answer came in the form of her shifting subtly down the seat, pressing her clothed pussy firmly against his hand.

His cock twitched against the confines of his slacks when he felt the damp patch on the fabric. His knuckles brushed against her clit and her knees clamped shut, holding him in place as she brought her lips close to his ear to let him hear her soft whines.

He has to put his book over his lap to cover how hard he is, and it almost makes him regret starting this game. Almost.

Because just as she starts desperately grinding against his hand, squirming for more friction, he notices that everyone’s asleep. And then it’s a race to the bathroom, Spencer positioning her directly in front of him to cover his bulge as they stand up.

Their mouths are on each other before the door even closes, her hands wasting little time in going for his zipper. Both desperate to have each other after all the anticipation. She immediately perched herself on the countertop, spreading her legs wide so Spencer could fit in between them, just like in that hotel room. A confused whine fell from her mouth when he lifted her off from the ledge, interrupting her plan.

“No. Like this,” he growled, turning her around and pushing her hips against the edge of the counter, bending her over it. She muttered a “Fuck,” under her breath as he pressed his cock against her backside, knowing he preferred this angle because he could get deeper.

His lips trailed down her neck as he tugged the skirt up to her hips and pulled her panties to the side, running his cock along her folds to gather the wetness that had been pooling there.

“Shit, you’re so fucking wet.”

He quickly inserted his thumb into her mouth to stop any sounds from escaping before lining himself up. Her moans vibrated against the digit as he slowly pushed in, stretching her out and letting her adjust before starting to move. Slowly and deliberately, at first, then quickly gaining speed.

She pushed her hips back to meet his thrusts until he pinned them against the ledge with his own, holding them still so he could set his pace faster.

The hand that was resting on her waist came up to her chest, groping at the flesh over her blouse. Her spine arched into his palm, bending forward to give him more leverage to get deeper to that spot inside her repeatedly.

He alternated between a few quick thrusts followed by a deep one, holding himself there for a moment before repeating.

Her cunt tightened around him as he held still against her, applying firm pressure to her spot with the head of his cock.

“Fuck, do that again, please,” he grunted against her neck, pushing his hips into her ass with bruising force to get impossibly closer. A loud whine nearly escaped her lips as he did so, the motion sending her over the edge.

She sucked harder around his thumb, using it to keep her cries at bay as she reached her climax. Her walls fluttered around him as she did, giving him exactly what he needed.

“Remember what you said before, baby?” he hummed in her ear, “Do you still want me to cum inside you?”

“Please.”

Immediately his thrusts became erratic, hips snapping forward a handful of times before he spilled into her in hot spurts, biting down on her shoulder to stifle his moan as he came.

Still heaving from the comedown, he pulled her panties back on, using the fabric to keep his cum from spilling out.

She turned to feverishly attach her lips to his, panting into the open mouthed kiss. When they finally broke apart, both looked completely wrecked with swollen lips, flushed skin, bruised necks. Still, they tried their best to fix themselves, straightening out their rustled clothes and smoothing knotted hair.

Before Spencer turned the door handle, he pulled her side into him, pressing a kiss onto her forehead. “We should make another list.”

.

.

.

taglist: @suburban--gothic @ssa-sarahsunshine @mercy-burning @reidspurple @mediocre-writer @honeyboysteezy @ssa-m-187 @calm-and-doctor @drayshadow @s1utformgg @you-sunshine @altsvu @reidtheprettyboy @goose-eats-god @sonnydoesrandomshit @rigatonireid @muffin-cup @amoeebaa @reidingmelodies

[demonsandco]

Howdy! Your demon 3rd form Luci is AMAZING and Hot! How tall is he? Can his tail do the peacock fan thing? What happens to the undercarriage? Does he have a mating dance?

How do you feel about mate markings, and hoe demons are territorial with their boo

Lastly, where do you think the bros place their pact marks on mc and thensves?

Sorry. I hope this makes sense. I'm really high and I saw your Oct 1 post and I can't not ask bc now i. Abt stop thinking about jt.

Goodnight,! I lovr your blog

Hehehe I’m happy to hear you like Luci’s design and I hope you have a good/night, too!!

Luci’s a very pretty boy and I love talking about his demon form. He can be anywhere from 6’6’’ to 7’10’’ depending on his form or how he’s feeling that day. His tail can do the classic peacock fan, but he never does it on purpose. It usually rattles and fans out without his consent whenever he feels a strong emotion, and he absolutely hates it. It’s practically the only part of himself that he can’t control fully, and it makes his emotions surprisingly easy to read. He doesn’t actually have a mating dance of any sort, but he is fond of inviting his partner to actually dance together! Slow dancing with them quickly becomes one of his favorite pastimes.

I think mating marks and some demonic possessiveness is,, uh,, very hot hhh, but I plan to make a full headcanon post about it, so I won’t add anything more here!

Now, on to pact marks! (Spoilers I suppose for up to lesson 20 and specifically lesson 16)

On themselves, they’d let MC pick the location, the fact that their partner chose it makes any location special. If they don’t have a preference, though, the mark would end up being in the same place that their mark is on MCs body.

Lucifer prefers placing his mark somewhere bold and exposed, staking his claim on his partner and making sure any demons that pass by will be able to see it, and know to keep their distance. Being the last to make a pact with them, he has to work around his brother’s marks, but his first choice would be across their chest, the top resting at the hollow of their throat, and reaching down to the middle of their chest. Any place that is rarely covered up is acceptable in his eyes, too, if their chest is already taken, like on their neck, on the back of their hand, or even somewhere tastefully on their face, as long as he can be sure it’ll be visible.

Mammon is the first one to make a pact with them, giving him practically unlimited options in terms of placement, but he knows from the start where he wants to place it: right on their neck. As much as he complained about the pact, at first, he wants everyone who looks at them to see that they're his human. He could be convinced to shift it to their hands, but he’s very stubborn about it. He wants his mark to be a loud and clear statement of their bond, as well as an added bit of protection. Not many demons would mess with someone so clearly marked by a demon lord, after all.

As much as Leviathan wants everyone to see his mark and know that they’re his human, too, he feels much more comfortable placing his mark somewhere slightly more hidden. He doesn’t feel the need to flaunt his power quite as much as some of his brothers, and the mark itself is enough for him, not needing it to be obnoxiously noticeable. His first choice is somewhere like the inside of their wrist, or perhaps somewhere on their lower leg, like their calf or ankle. That way, while it won’t be visible in their school uniform, he’ll still see his mark now and again in quieter moments, while spending time and relaxing together.

At first, Satan considers placing his mark somewhere where it would be visible, difficult to hide, purely out of wanting to get a rise out of his siblings, but he changes his mind when the time comes to actually pick a spot. He feels that it would do their bond more justice to mark them somewhere more private, making it feel more personal to him. He picks a spot along their hip or upper thigh, a place that’s rarely exposed, but he knows it’s there, and that’s what matters. Plus, he often finds himself placing his hand there when sitting together, an almost unconscious gesture, but he enjoys feeling the energy of his mark on their skin when does it.

Asmodeus humors the idea of placing his pact mark somewhere rather naughty, and ends up picking a suggestive spot at first, right above their pelvis or on their inner thigh. It’s not something he put a lot of thought into, considering he agreed to the pact out of curiosity, wanting to see just how powerful they could become as a sorcerer. It’s only afterwards that he starts to understand how he feels about them, and requests to shift his mark. He wants to place it in the hollow at the bottom of their ribs, a delicate spot close to their heart. They’ve already left a figurative mark on his heart, so he wants to leave one on theirs as well.

Beelzebub doesn’t put a whole lot of thought into his pact mark placement. He values the pact itself greatly, the bond he shares with them being important to him, but he doesn’t need a mark to show that. The mark ends up manifesting somewhere based on what part of his own body he happened to be thinking about at the time, most likely on their stomach, upper back, or bicep, due to him feeling hungry and sore from working out more often than not. Either way, he doesn’t mind the location, and he isn’t bothered that it’s not easily visible. If he really felt the need to leave a noticeable mark on them, he’s perfectly capable of leaving a hard to miss, yet temporary, mark with his teeth.

Belphegor spends a lot of time thinking about where to place his pact mark. A pact wasn’t something he thought he’d ever want, so he’d never considered it before, until now. It’s an important decision for him, though, with it not only being his first pact, but also the first step into a fresh start together. His pact is an apology of sorts, and a promise to never hurt them again, so he chooses to place his mark on the back of their neck, or somewhere along their spine, placing a physical promise of safety in the same area that he had once used to kill them. He hopes they can make that connection themselves and understand what it means to him, because he’d never be able to get all that out verbally.

[duckprintspress]

How to Edit an Over-Length Story Down to a Specific Word Count

One of the most wonderful things about writing as a hobby is that you never have to worry about the length of your story. You can be as self-indulgent as you want, make your prose the royalist of purples, include every single side story and extra thought that strikes your fancy. It’s your story, with no limits, and you can proceed with it as you wish.

When transitioning from casual writing to a more professional writing milieu, this changes. If you want to publish, odds are, you’ll need to write to a word count. If a flash fiction serial says, “1,000 words or less,” your story can’t be 1,025 and still qualify. If a website says, “we accept novellas ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 words,” your story will need to fall into that window. Even when you consider novel-length works, stories are expected to be a certain word count to fit neatly into specific genres - romance is usually around 80,000 words, young adult usually 50,000 to 80,000, debut novels usually have to be 100,000 words or less regardless of genre, etc. If you self-publish or work with a small press, you may be able to get away with breaking these “rules,” but it’s still worthwhile to learn to read your own writing critically with length in mind and learn to recognize what you do and do not need to make your story work - and then, if length isn’t an issue in your publishing setting, you can always decide after figuring out what’s non-essential to just keep everything anyway.

If you’re writing for fun? You literally never have to worry about your word count (well, except for sometimes in specific challenges that have minimum and/or maximum word counts), and as such, this post is probably not for you.

But, if you’re used to writing in the “throw in everything and the kitchen sink” way that’s common in fandom fanfiction circles, and you’re trying to transition only to be suddenly confronted with the reality that you’ve written 6,000 words for a short story project with a maximum word count of 5,000...well, we at Duck Prints Press have been there, we are in fact there right now, as we finish our stories for our upcoming anthology Add Magic to Taste and many of us wrote first drafts that were well over the maximum word count.

So, based on our experiences, here are our suggestions on approaches to help your story shorter...without losing the story you wanted to tell!

Cut weasel words (we wrote a whole post to help you learn how to do that!) such as unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, the “was ~ing” sentence structure, redundant time words such as “a moment later,” and many others.

When reviewing dialog, keep an eye out for “uh,” “er,” “I mean,” “well,” and other casual extra words. A small amount of that kind of language usage can make dialog more realistic, but a little goes a long way, and often a fair number of words can be removed by cutting these words, without negatively impacting your story at all.

Active voice almost always uses fewer words than passive voice, so try to use active voice more (but don’t forget that passive voice is important for varying up your sentence structures and keeping your story interesting, so don’t only write in active voice!).

Look for places where you can replace phrases with single words that mean the same thing. You can often save a lot of words by switching out phrases like “come back” for “return” and seeking out other places where one word can do the work of many.

Cut sentences that add atmosphere but don't forward the plot or grow your characters. (Obviously, use your judgement. Don't cut ALL the flavor, but start by going - I’ve got two sentences that are mostly flavor text - which adds more? And then delete the other, or combine them into one shorter sentence.)

Remove superfluous dialog tags. If it’s clear who’s talking, especially if it’s a conversation between only two people, you can cut all the he saids, she saids.

Look for places where you've written repetitively - at the most basic level, “ ‘hahaha,’ he laughed,” is an example, but repetition is often more subtle, like instances where you give information in once sentence, and then rephrase part or all of that sentence in the next one - it’s better to poke at the two sentences until you think of an effective, and more concise, way to make them into only one sentence. This also goes for scenes - if you’ve got two scenes that tend towards accomplishing the same plot-related goal, consider combining them into one scene.

Have a reason for every sentence, and even every sentence clause (as in, every comma insertion, every part of the sentence, every em dashed inclusion, that kind of thing). Ask yourself - what function does this serve? Have I met that function somewhere else? If it serves no function, or if it’s duplicative, consider cutting it. Or, the answer may be “none,” and you may choose to save it anyway - because it adds flavor, or is very in character for your PoV person, or any of a number of reasons. But if you’re saving it, make sure you’ve done so intentionally. It's important to be aware of what you're trying to do with your words, or else how can you recognize what to cut, and what not to cut?

Likewise, have a reason for every scene. They should all move the story along - whatever the story is, it doesn’t have to be “the end of the world,” your story can be simple and straightforward and sequential...but if you’re working to a word count, your scenes should still forward the story toward that end point. If the scene doesn’t contribute...you may not need them, or you may be able to fold it in with another scene, as suggested in item 6.

Review the worldbuilding you’ve included, and consider what you’re trying to accomplish with your story. A bit of worldbuilding outside of the bare essentials makes a story feel fleshed out, but again, a little can go a long way. If you’ve got lots of “fun” worldbuilding bits that don’t actually forward your plot and aren’t relevant to your characters, cut them. You can always put them as extras in your blog later, but they’ll just make your story clunky if you have a lot of them.

Beware of info-dumps. Often finding a more natural way to integrate that information - showing instead of telling in bits throughout the story - can help reduce word count.

Alternatively - if you over-show, and never tell, this will vastly increase your word count, so consider if there are any places in your story where you can gloss over the details in favor of a shorter more “tell-y” description. You don’t need to go into a minute description of every smile and laugh - sometimes it’s fine to just say, “she was happy” or “she frowned” without going into a long description of their reaction that makes the reader infer that they were happy. (Anyone who unconditionally says “show, don’t tell,” is giving you bad writing advice. It’s much more important to learn to recognize when showing is more appropriate, and when telling is more appropriate, because no story will function as a cohesive whole if it’s all one or all the other.)

If you’ve got long paragraphs, they’re often prime places to look for entire sentences to cut. Read them critically and consider what’s actually helping your story instead of just adding word count chonk.

Try reading some or all of the dialog out loud; if it gets boring, repetitive, or unnecessary, end your scene wherever you start to lose interest, and cut the dialog that came after. If necessary, add a sentence or two of description at the end to make sure the transition is abrupt, but honestly, you often won’t even need to do so - scenes that end at the final punchy point in a discussion often work very well.

Create a specific goal for a scene or chapter. Maybe it’s revealing a specific piece of information, or having a character discover a specific thing, or having a specific unexpected event occur, but, whatever it is, make sure you can say, “this scene/chapter is supposed to accomplish this.” Once you know what you’re trying to do, check if the scene met that goal, make any necessary changes to ensure it does, and cut things that don’t help the scene meet that goal.

Building on the previous one, you can do the same thing, but for your entire story. Starting from the beginning, re-outline the story scene-by-scene and/or chapter-by-chapter, picking out what the main “beats” and most important themes are, and then re-read your draft and make sure you’re hitting those clearly. Consider cutting out the pieces of your story that don’t contribute to those, and definitely cut the pieces that distract from those key moments (unless, of course, the distraction is the point.)

Re-read a section you think could be cut and see if any sentences snag your attention. Poke at that bit until you figure out why - often, it’s because the sentence is unnecessary, poorly worded, unclear, or otherwise superfluous. You can often rewrite the sentence to be clearer, or cut the sentence completely without negatively impacting your work.

Be prepared to cut your darlings; even if you love a sentence or dialog exchange or paragraph, if you are working to a strict word count and it doesn't add anything, it may have to go, and that's okay...even though yes, it will hurt, always, no matter how experienced a writer you are. (Tip? Save your original draft, and/or make a new word doc where you safely tuck your darlings in for the future. Second tip? If you really, really love it...find a way to save it, but understand that to do so, you’ll have to cut something else. It’s often wise to pick one or two favorites and sacrifice the rest to save the best ones. We are not saying “always cut your darlings.” That is terrible writing advice. Don’t always cut your darlings. Writing, and reading your own writing, should bring you joy, even when you’re doing it professionally.)

If you’re having trouble recognizing what in your own work CAN be cut, try implementing the above strategies in different places - cut things, and then re-read, and see how it works, and if it works at all. Sometimes, you’ll realize...you didn’t need any of what you cut. Other times, you’ll realize...it no longer feels like the story you were trying to tell. Fiddle with it until you figure out what you need for it to still feel like your story, and practice that kind of cutting until you get better at recognizing what can and can’t go without having to do as much tweaking.

Lastly...along the lines of the previous...understand that sometimes, cutting your story down to a certain word count will just be impossible. Some stories simply can’t be made very short, and others simply can’t be told at length. If you’re really struggling, it’s important to consider that your story just...isn’t going to work at that word count. And that’s okay. Go back to the drawing board, and try again - you’ll also get better at learning what stories you can tell, in your style, using your own writing voice, at different word counts. It’s not something you’ll just know how to do - that kind of estimating is a skill, just like all other writing abilities.

As with all our writing advice - there’s no one way to tackle cutting stories for length, and also, which of these strategies is most appropriate will depend on what kind of story you’re writing, how much over-length it is, what your target market is, your characters, and your personal writing style. Try different ones, and see which work for you - the most important aspect is to learn to read your own writing critically enough that you are able to recognize what you can cut, and then from that standpoint, use your expertise to decide what you should cut, which is definitely not always the same thing. Lots of details can be cut - but a story with all of the flavor and individuality removed should never be your goal.

Contributions to this post were made by @unforth, @jhoomwrites, @alecjmarsh, @shealynn88, @foxymoley, @willablythe, and @owlishintergalactic, and their input has been used with their knowledge and explicit permission. Thanks, everyone, for helping us consider different ways to shorten stories!