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astaroth1357 · 4 years ago

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Demigod MC Series: Dionysus

Hey y’all, sorry for going dark! I’m alright, almost completely recovered in fact! I just got so sleepy while my body was fighting stuff off and couldn’t really work up the energy to write... Still going to be spotty for a short time, but I’m glad to have gotten this done. See ya soon!

Demigod MC Series: Intro, Aphrodite, Hermes, Hades, Dionysus

Lucifer

Well, this mortal stumbled out of the portal covered in glitter, body paint, and carrying a red solo cup… which they proceeded to stare at like, "'ell sshhit… Thiz iz sum stron s'uff…"

First impressions were not on their side here.

He spent a depressingly long amount of time more or less assuming that the MC was a drunken f-up and spent the first few months trying to make them more… presentable.

But like… How do you stop someone from acting like a drunk fool when they can turn any drink they touch alcoholic???

For months they would show up to meetings buzzed or stumbling, all smiles and all giggles but HORRIBLY unprofessional, and he just couldn't stand it!

But then he found out their little secret…

Assassination threats befall the exchange students all the time. Most of them are dealt with quickly but some (through skill or dumb luck) manage to slip through...

He had been walking with the MC through their new vineyard in the House's courtyard, yet again trying to lecture them about their drunken behavior, when suddenly the two were ambushed!

Ten or so heavily armored demons dropped down from the sky to attack them! Lucifer was so preoccupied that he got cornered by three of them and it took him a hot minute to destroy them.

When he looked back at the mortal (who had been fighting a 1-on-7) he was certain they'd have been kidnapped or worse…

But he saw that they had already cut down two attackers with their weapon with ease. The other five were rolling in the dirt, babbling about inexplicable terrors and imaginary pain as their minds succumbed to madness…

Meanwhile, the MC just stood in the middle of it all with the icy glare of someone who’s just revealed how stone-cold sober they've always been under the surface...

When they turned back to him, they put their usual ditzy smile back on over the tormented wails of the demons around them...

MC: Whoopsie… Gotta little mad there. 🙂

He uh… took a big ol'step off their back after that. Surprisingly, they're more pleasant (and less dangerous) "drunk" than they are sober…

Mammon

Oh HELL yeah!! Lucifer actually gave him a mortal that knows how to party!!

Admittedly, they looked like utter trash when they first met, like, "Hey, I've been at this party since DAWN" trash, but they gave him one good look and pulled together a surprisingly hot smile.

MC: "-ey yer cute… Ya like strip poker?"

Spoken like someone else who also makes shit decisions… They were going to get along just fine!

And they did. The MC to him was that one friend that's always down for anything. Just anything. Whenever. Wherever.

He wants to try sneaking into Lucifer's room to steal stuff? Sure, what time?

He wants to take a mattress and see if he can ride it down the grand staircase of the palace? Alright, we bringin' pillows too?

He needs to set up another scheme that's gotta involve live rats and box of tiny hats and monocles?? That's oddly specific but count them in!!

Sometimes he honestly can't tell if they're laid back or just crave chaos... but it works out fine for him either way so who cares? 🤷‍♀️

And if you think normal Mammon is a pain in the ass for Lucifer? Check out drunk Mammon. All the same urges but literally none of the (marginal) competence!!

At one point, the eldest ended up stringing both Mammon and the MC from the ceiling after they both barged into his office looking for Goldie… while he was still in there… watching them wander around aimlessly calling out for a piece of plastic like it was a missing puppy…

They end up together on the ceiling a lot come to think of it, but hey, at least now he has some company. 😌

Leviathan

Thinks they're the most normal normie to have ever normed on this normie planet!!!

No, seriously. They're a billion times worse than Asmo!! All they want to do is go to parties and drink all the time! What kind of use is he to someone like that??

… That being said they ARE pretty fun to be around… And their sake is WAY better than anything he could get off Akuzon!!

They also like karaoke too! So at least he has someone else to go with (even if they get so drunk they can’t remember any lyrics and just belt barely coherent discount Mariah Carey vocals behind him...)

Of course, the real fun between these two is everybody else getting to watch a couple of the Devildom's sloppiest drunks attempt to communicate with each other…

Levi: MMM-*hic*-MCCC…!!! *throws himself at them from across the bar*

MC: What Leviachan??? 😨 Did the chair kick you off?!

Levi: Nooo! *pokes their cheek* I wanna-I wanna tell you sometin'...! *tries pulling them closer*

MC: Whaa? Secrets?? *leans in eagerly*

Levi: Mammon used all ma money on’a pyramid scheme a thou-zand years ago… AND HE STILL WON'T PAY ME BAAA-!!! 😭😭 *starts shaking them violently*

MC: *getting flung around like a limp noodle* Waaaat?! Nooo!!! I'm so sowwy!! 😢

Mammon: *watching it all go down right next to him* 😑 Ya guys need some water… I'm cuttin' ya off, got it?

MC: 😱 Shut yer whore mouth, criminal!! *starts pelting him with pretzel bites*

Levi: 😤 Yah!! *joins in*

Good thing he's a shut-in, because the hangovers he gets after those escapades are unreal…

Satan

A little concerned for their liver, honestly… How much damage have they already done to the poor thing...?

But at the same time, he'll be damned if they don't make some utterly fantastic wine!

Alcokinesis wasn't a power he would have pegged a demigod to have but apparently the great art of making drinks comes from their godly DNA.

When they first met, he was trying to get the MC to act less slovenly but made the mistake of agreeing to a wager: he'd let them dress however they pleased if they could give him the BEST drink he'd ever tasted.

Now, Satan isn't a huge drinker (thank you terrible alcohol tolerance), but he's still a man of fine tastes. Plus, he's sampled Demonus from Diavolo royal stock before. They should not have won…

But on that day, he had to let them go to RAD in a pink blanket toga... 😑 Their wine is just THAT good.

He hates to admit it, but they've gotten him drunk more times than he could probably count too… He's not a huge fan of clubbing with them and the others, but if they bring over a bottle from their vineyard he just can't resist. They're a master of their craft, truly.

And it's a good thing he likes their drinks so much, because if they called him, "Kitty-boy," when he's sober, he may have just become a sour grape himself…

They also may or may not have copious amounts of blackmail material of him either meowing between sentences, sobbing over some fictional character he likes, pole dancing on dares….

Yeah, he's been trying to destroy their phone for months now. If Lucifer were to see ANY of that, he's done for… 😣

He has also been meaning to ask them about other aspects of their abilities, their father is also the God of Madness after all, but anytime he tries to bring it up they shove another glass in his hand and tell him not to kill the mood...

Eh. What's the harm in having another drink, right? 🤷‍♀️

Asmodeus

Honey. He's MET Dionysus. He's been to a Dio-party or two and they're INSANE. He could not be more thrilled by this!!!

He practically scooped them up on the first night that they were in the House and it’s practically been a nonstop rave between these two ever since. They’re like the party twin he never knew he needed!!

He absolutely abuses their ability to turn pretty much any drink they touch into alcohol at clubs. It makes the nights so much easier on the wallet PLUS it makes an excellent little party trick to impress the succubi! Who doesn’t want a free drink? 😏

And can he just say that their drinks are better? Just flat out amazing! If it weren’t so unhealthy he’d consider drinking nothing but their booze and wine for the rest of his days, Satan’s certainly getting close to it.

But little does Satan know, he’s not even getting the GOOD stuff...

There’s the normal wine: grapes picked from the vineyard, hand squeezed, then magically helped through the fermenting process. But their real good stuff? They were given enchanted oak barrels from their father and anything that comes out of those is worth starting a WAR over. 😩

He knows, because he gifted an extra bottle to Diavolo once and Barbs came to him the very next day demanding to know what vineyard had produced it with the look of man willing to annex a small nation...

Asmo had to beg Lucifer to talk to Diavolo after the butler more or less kidnapped the MC back to the Castle… Devil knows even Barbs wouldn’t ever be able to reproduce their wine, so they could have been locked there for eternity!!

Thankfully, he got his party-buddy back and their debauchery continued! (Just now with Barbatos following them around sometimes like he’s trying to gather state secrets... It’s an impossible task but he hasn’t given up yet, bless his black heart.)

Beelzebub

He isn't much bothered by their carefree nature, at least they seem to be having fun with his family which he appreciates. 🙂

To be honest, though, he nearly ate them when they first met because they smell like freshly peeled grapes… and for good reason.

By their third day at the House they had (somehow) planted and cultivated a full on vineyard in the courtyard. Hell, the wall growing to their bedroom balcony was covered in grapevines!! Always ripe and completely healthy in defiance of the lack of sun... Whatever magic they used was strong.

And, of course, their grapes were also delicious! Easily among the best fruits he's ever tasted! Every cluster is ridiculously plump, juicy, and sweet like little droplets of pure Heaven… 🤤

When their fruit first ripened, the MC came out with a basket to collect some only to find Beel had gouged himself on over half of their crop!!!

… which may have been why he got snared up on one of the courtyard walls by pissed off grapevines... Even with all his strength, he couldn't break through them and had to wait for Lucifer to cut him down… 😔

From then on, Beel was pretty much the pesky rabbit to the MC's harvest. They had to set up traps and magical barriers to keep him from their precious grapes…!! Which inevitably meant one of his brothers had to come rescue him from their furious vines at least once a week... 🙄

SOMETIMES, the MC will bring him along to help harvest with them with the deal that he can have an extra basket for however many he helps them pick. But the second he takes a bite he shouldn't, it’s back on the wall!

Out of the vineyard, they're nice enough. But put some grapes between these two and they're mortal enemies… STOP messing with their plants, Beel!! 😤

Belphegor

So… this drunken fool is supposed to get him out of the attic? Never mind, this is never going to work…

He was SEVERELY underwhelmed when the "human" finally made it up the steps. This was who they decided to bring for their exchange program? They seemed like they could barely stand!

Naturally, he figured all the better for him. They probably wouldn't even last that long!

Some poor, incompetent human falling victim to a demon out there? Diavolo's reputation would in tatters and he wouldn't even have to lift a finger! (His favorite way of doing things really 😌).

But… they just kept coming back? Like. Nothing was killing them….! How guarded were they keeping this moron??

Or… maybe it was something else?

Sure, the MC seemed like a drunken idiot but there were times when he'd swear that they were just… too aware to be sloshed…

MC: *suddenly stops smiling at him mid-conversation and looks him in the eye* You tilt your head when you lie. You know that?

How can someone so cheerful ALSO be so unnerving…?

So really, he should have seen their sudden heel-turn after they opened the door coming. There he was, fully intending to take them by surprise and choke them after a hug…

...and they knocked him down, climbed onto his back like a spider monkey, and rode him around like a bucking bull using his horns like handlebars!!

It wouldn’t have been AS humiliating if they didn’t also keep shouting things like "Giddiyap!" And "Yee-haw!!"

It took him a whole month to be sure that any and all footage of that nightmare was erased and he STILL hates the MC quite a bit for it…. But he's too scared to attack them now, so…

The lesson here? It's not a fair fight when one side’s crazy... 😔😒

#obey me #obey me shall we date #shall-we-date-obey-me #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #obey me demigods

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to-know-how-it-ends · 2 years ago

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Hey fellow theater kids!

So, recently, as a tremendously generous birthday gift, my mom got us tickets to see the Phillip tour of Hamilton.

It was one of the most exhilarating moments of my life.

I had seen the Disney+ version, but watching it live is so different and so awe-inspiringly wonderful.

I could feel the music in my chest

Every pound of the drums, every sound of the violin

When the stairs came out, my jaw fell down

Nonstop was kind of insane. There are no words to describe the feeling it filled me with except extreme euphoria and ecstasy.

After act 1, I looked at my mom and asked her “Did you just see what I just saw?!”

I cried after every number, whether it was emotional or not. (of course, the emotional/sad ones had longer tears, but nevertheless)

The cast was wonderful, their voices superb.

Nikisha Williams as Eliza had such a wonderfully soothing and beautiful voice, like an angel on earth, her gasp at the end of the show was not as I expected but it may have been better - she looks out at us the audience, then up to the sky, her hand raised in the air. My holy goodness gracious G-d she was good.

Ta’rea Campbell as Angelica absolutely nailed Satisfied (and literally everything else she sang). Also her part in the Reynolds pamphlet sounded so raw, so powerful, you really really believe her.

Elijah Malcomb as John Laurens and Phillip Hamilton was truly something else. This guy. This tremendously talented guy. He has such a heartbreakingly beautiful and sweet voice. Both of his deaths absolutely punched me in the gut, he was so SO good.

I know for a fact the exact beat and note and number that Phillip got shot on.

That did not do anything to change my absolute and utter shock when it happened. I felt like I had no air.

The true star of the show, however, was Kameron Richardson (understudy) as Aaron Burr. Oh my gosh. He was incredible. His voice is a powerhouse. He put the most amazing riffs in Wait For It that truly showed off his insanely talented vocals, and his Room Where it Happened absolutely blew the roof off. I don’t know if I’ve ever been more impressed with an Aaron Burr than I have of him.

All the other actors were of course fantastic but these truly blew us all away. (pun intended)

I have looked everywhere for slime tutorials or videos of this cast. I have found nothing. I so wish I could listen to their voices again, because that was one of the most breathtaking experiences of my entire life. If by any chance you know of a recording of these talented people and cast please let me know, I beg you. Thank you.

(sorry this is so disorganized, this is just how my brain feels right now)

#theater kids #theater kid #hamilton #nikisha williams #ta'rea campbell #elijah malcomb #kameron richardson #pierre jean gonzalez #warren egypt franklin #jen sese #slime tutorials #please send if you can find #and thanks for listening to my rant

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bisexual-horror-fan · 2 years ago

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Bex's Blossom By Kate Winborne Annotations.

Hello, hello, hello! SO! This has been a project that I have been working on since August of 2022. I have been re-reading and annotating Blossom by Kate Winborne or @xmichaelmyers here on tumblr. I love Blossom, it is a fantastic book and when the hardcover update came out I just had to get it! So I did and when I did I thought why not write my thoughts out as I go? I have never annotated a book before. Kate didn’t ask this of me, I am not being paid, this is purely out of the sheer love I have for Kate, her work and these characters. So! Settle in and watch me scream in a spoiler heavy annotation of Blossom. Seriously I talk about spoilery things, if you haven’t read it and want to than please read the book first.

I am going to annotate the next book After The Lamb Bites Back in smaller chunks as I go when I start reading it soon and will post them here on my blog so you can experience my going insane as it is happening! I will give notice and give this a tag if you wanna blacklist for spoilers! Now, under the cut, let’s get into it! Warnings for me being horny on main and discussions of heavy topics and violence and gore. (P.S. Food is a big thing in this book so I outline what I ate before and during and after my reading sessions to be extra.)

—

Starting at 7:41 PM on August 5th. Blossom Re-read of the hardcover edition. Dinner: Chili lime fish tacos with pickled red onions, salsa and chipotle mayo, drinking whisky and ginger ale over ice, snacking on while reading, salted caramel caramilk bar.

What Kate wrote inside the cover is still so sweet. As is the foreword, so much love and so much excitement.

Prolog:

The opening of the women watching their daughters in the park, still hits. That is the first thing from the book I ever read when Kate started posting and it still stands out so well. I want white wine and cheese now.

It is wild how Kate can drop a fucking line about a throw away character, one we just meet, overdosing three hours later, someone we know nothing of and should not give a fuck about and are made to feel and care. Amazing, haunting, I feel bad for his son.

THE WHORE IS HERE.

THE TREES KNOW MORE THAN THEY DARE SAY INDEED!

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Chapter One

–

I love the description of us truly seeing him, it is so evocative. Also. I am weak. Professor Williamson, has such a good ring to it.

Henry in the showerrrr. All of that is good but the man just going for it and getting off. Amazing image, ten outta ten.

The man eating one packet of oatmeal and not even finishing it and whiskey for dinner while watching a nature show. This man. He needs someone to cook for him. I am that someone.

The first sex scene of the book, Henry taking home a woman from Happy’s is short but vivid. A great insight into him. Henry is not satisfied by this encounter, to me, when reading it, the impression that she is seemingly so into it, so close and intimate, doesn’t make him feel comforted or seen, but rather the opposite. It makes him feel more hollow, more aware of the hunger inside of himself. This is one of the parts I kept thinking about knowing this re-read was coming. Henry is entirely unknowable, this woman and her illusion of closeness only serves to remind him of that. No one can know him, there are things about him that no one could ever understand and so he has to hide them, forget about the fact that he does NOT have the ability to allow someone so close to him or tolerate such vulnerability and honesty and emotional intimacy. What a lonely fucking guy.

The detail of a single hair left behind that he curls around his finger until it breaks really stands out.

He’s got a new casssse!

—

Chapter Two.

—

The casual and consistent use and description of colours is one of my longest standing faves in this book. So effective!

Henry shoving the bible into the nightstand out of sight? Fucking same dude. My guy!

The man packing the alcohol in his bag so fucking neatly to make sure it is safe. To then get drunk and pass the fuck out. He is not okay.

Ahhhhh this discription of The Town is so fucking good!

“-residing alongside the trauma that coated her tongue like honey, sweet as ripe tangerines, but bitter against the back of her throat like coffee grounds.” I still think of this line often. It will pop into my head unbidden frequently.

—

Chapter Three.

—

Henry looking down at his medication with disdain before swallowing them down with cold coffee making me like, hey king you need to talk? Need your dick sucked? You know my number get at me.

I would eat at this hotel's breakfast. I really would.

Blossom is officially here! Vanilla almond milk latte, as someone who has worked in coffee shops since seventeen on and off, reads as a very her drink.

I have always really loved the description of Bethany. The detail of her avocado socks always stuck out. Considering the use of colour Kate applies throughout the whole book I know I should think of them being just the colour avocado, but part of me likes to think of them as printed with little cartoon avocados and that is cute as fuck and I love it.

Blossom sees Henry for the very first time! God, the excitement I feel from this is far too much!

“She wanted to crack him open like an egg, spool through his brains, his guts, burrow herself deep inside his roughness. As if there was a safety to it all. A home in all that damage.” The first line that really hooked me my first read and it still hits. It is a line just so full of, God, promise of so much shit to come.

Henry met Sophie and this time around, I feel differently about it just her saying that nothing bad has ever happened in this town is just, infuriating? On a deep level. Nothing bad has ever happened here? Really Soph? Not even in your own home? You fuck.

I am begging, begging the people in The Town to acknowledge the horrors in front of them as if I am Charlie Day in It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia ranting about Pepe Silvia.

Sophie seeing Blossom staring and being like “Please, for once, PLEASE-” and Blossom being like “Ahahaha, no! <3.” Adore it.

—

Chapter Four.

—

Norman has arrived. He wants a steak before seven thirty. This man is an animal and not in the good way. Henry’s reaction is appropriate for once, I too, am disgusted.

Stop judging Sophie! The man BARELY eats, he needs all the nutrition he can get! Let him have his fucking raspberry pie and ice cream!

Discussion of the first two murders. Henry is much too excited by the prospect of a serial killer, which bitch, same?!

Henry going into the detail of the first real gruesome crime scene he was sent to like damn, DAMN! FUCK KATE!

Henry talking shop! About the pattern, how confident, talking about the killer being addicted, the parallels. Mannnn.

PROLONGED EYE CONTACT!

Finished reading for tonight at 10:11 PM. 60 pages covered this first session.

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Wednesday August 10th. Second session. Starting at 9:20 Pm. Off tomorrow. Dinner: Peanut and sesame noodles with chilli oil and green onion. More whiskey with ginger ale over ice. Snacking on hot cheetos and a crispy caramel kit-kat while reading.

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Chapter Five.

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Oh the HOSPITAL! YES!

Tv is on a cooking channel because of course it is.

Henry just cutting the small talk short asdfghjkajshglakhdg, “Take me to the bodies FRANK-” And Frank being like “If you got the stomach for it.” Like Frank. Honey. You know nothing of this man.

Henry being totally unfazed by the smell of the dead. This man is not okay. (This will be said many times throughout this.)

Why, why, why do I love this passage so much? Talking about how Henry looks over the body? The image is so crystal clear. It is almost like I am in the room. Like I can smell the bleach as I look over his shoulder, watching as he inspects the cadaver below him, watching how the bright harsh lighting catches on the cold thick blood clotting between his gloved fingers? I can see Henry at this moment. Like I could just reach out and touch him. How can something like this be written in a way that is so telling, so intimate yet so detached? It is captivating as hell. Just like Henry himself. This was another moment during my first read though that made me want to know more about him.

“Coffee, yeah. Thanks.” That is such a human moment that just reeks of reality. A phrase I have heard uttered a million times in my line of work and I can hear how it was said perfectly. The little details really make this.

Shit coffee indeed, let me make this man a good cup of coffee PLEASE-

He needs a fresh body!!!

—-

Chapter Six.

—-

Man is so particular about his coffee honestly I love what it adds to his character. It says SO much by saying so little.

Oh my God and Mr.Clemmington was a cook.

Henry hating small talk makes so much sense. What an asshole. Love him.

Name drop! Blossom James ooooohhh.

“Anyway, I hope no girl in this town is capable of such a thing…” Oh giiiirlll. You don’t know shit about shit.

Henry taking his pills with leftover coffee with cigarette ash in it like SIR can you PLEASE take care of yourself even just a little?!

Henry, you need more than dry cereal for dinner.

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Chapter Seven.

—

Henry’s breakfast, coffee, cigarettes and fucking twizzlers apparently.

Watching him at work is captivating. Henry rattling off what should be done and in what order is justttt a sickening delight. What a freak.

Ethan is missing. And Henry is a little too defensive. “I didn’t say anything.” Mmmhmmm. You didn’t have to.

—

Chapter Eight.

—

Henry deadass like “We are looking for a body-” and Norman just, “Oh you’d like that sooooo much wouldn’t you?!” Uh. Yeah. Duh dude, he’s the worst.

Ethan and Blossom went out, eh? Oooh boy.

This chapter is short but so fucking gooood. I love how they haven’t even formally met and he is getting frustrated by her! The build up and teasing before we really get to know her is just so fucking delicous.

—

Chapter Nine.

—

The description of the hotel’s restaurant is another stand out. I can imagine myself sitting there, smelling the vanilia of the candles and partaking in the food, almost as if I can taste the vegetable medley myself.

I love Blossom's dress, periwinkle is an underrated colour and the meaning of her wearing it here, tonight, during their first official meeting is not lost on me and the impact is strong.

They are sitting, they are talkING-

Blossom clearly has thoughts about Ethan. I can hear the bite of the way she says ‘Golden boy’ and it is telling.

“Henry.” Whore. Him. Not her. He is the whore. Like call me Henry, the fuck IS that?! Asking her to use your first name? Mmm? Already so informal? Like a slut? Have you no shame?

“Picky with your food.” “If you’d call it that.” The TENSION! I’ve already read this before but I am still so like !!!!

“-he just didn’t fuck me anymore.” girl fucking say it.

“Do you like me Henry?” I mean fuck how could he not?

Oh mannnn another masturbation scene hell yeah baby! Unlike the first one this one lingers for longer and it is good. The idea that he doesn’t even necessarily enjoy the act of this, it is a means to an end, an annoyance, it’s a mix of anger, of disgust, of maintenance, of hatred, it’s this balance that is just so fucking right. The idea of hating the act of this is just, so interesting to me. Not just from a narrative perspective, not just for the way it lets us into Henry’s mind, but because it is so utterly different and conflicting from my own personal feelings about the act. Not even the act as he is doing it but my own relationship with it on a deep and personal level, the differences between he and I, they don’t divide me from his character, if anything, they intrigue me further, beckoning me to know him.

“The taste of her name as sweet as the frost-glazing of a strawberry filled cake, flowering in his chest until it choked him.” Pure poetry. Gorgeous. Perfect. Another stand out line. Makes me think of so much, the images of digging my fingers into a pretty little decorated cake, of ripping and tearing and splitting it open simply to destroy something beautiful, to mirror what Blossom is already doing to Henry in such a short time, to then just lick the mashed and sugary strawberry mixture of the filling from my fingers, just because, flit through my mind while reading this line. What is this book capable of? The things it can conjure up cannot be understated.

Hot, hot, hot. Love he was still half dressed and just spills himself onto the sheets.

—

Finished second session at 10:53 PM. 45 pages covered in the second session. Word count over 2K now.

—

Such a large break happened because of me leaving my previous job, moving into a new town and starting a new job, better late than never, I am back on it!

Starting this session at 11:02 AM on January 17th, a Tuesday, I have the day off today. Breakfast was cereal, I am having ice water and no snack because I will break for lunch soon.

—

Chapter Ten.

—

I adore the description of Blossom’s house, it is so clear that just like all things Kate writes, a ton of thought was put into every detail.

More food, this reminds me I should make meatloaf again soon,

“Seeing the Agent made her hungry.” I fucking LOVE.

“Breathing out with the softness of a flowering bruise, tender and hesitant.” Kate I simultaneously want to kiss and punch you for always doing this! You throw out just the best fucking lines so damn casually. As if we are roommates, I finished a long day at work, sitting at the kitchen table and you just stride into the room, drop one of the most profound things I have ever heard and then just waltz off back to your own space as if it were nothing and I am not left changed and struggling to contend with what you just forced upon me. That is what lines like this feel like and do to me. Does that make sense?

And here it is, another real heart stopping and revealing moment of what makes Blossom her. You just know from the jump that there is something more to her, and this passage makes it abundantly clear and makes you feel for her. While I personally have experienced my fair share of this sort of thing in my own life it is of course, like a lot of stories, different from what she has but my heart goes out to her. Why can’t Blossom use, abuse, and take from these men as they have taken from her? Why not?

This chapter isn’t long but it doesn’t need to be, it is honestly very necessary and I love the look into Blossom alone and at home.

—

Chapter Eleven.

—

Man fell asleep still dressed and cum covered. What a fucking whore, what an inspiration, what a guy. How down bad am I, do you ask? So bad that I read this and my first thought was, “I could fix that. Fuck the shower, I have a mouth-” With all the coffee he drinks, his alcohol problem and the smoking his cum must taste terrible. Still wouldn’t stop me.

I love this so much. Having Blossom showering in the last chapter towards the end and Henry at the next towards the start and difference in how they do even down to the temperature they prefer, amazing.

Back at the diner, another meeting, more tension and of course, more food. It is impossible to read this and not get hungry and also slightly nauseated at points, it is beautiful.

“-reached for more, satisfying herself in front of him.” I fucking canNOT.

I love any scene with them talking back and forth.

This is so fucking good, she is getting to him so easily and just how unapologetically she is eating. Also, “But you’re not sorry. Why would you be?” Might be one of my fave quotes so far, it stuck out my last reading as well.

Interrupting Henry when he immediately assumes the killer is a man and her fighting him on it.

“Don’t underestimate the rage of a woman, Special Agent.” YEAH HENRY! And maybe it WAS a threat. What are you gonna do about it?

Invite Blossom to the search part apparently.

—

Chapter Twelve.

—

I feel it is important to mention at this juncture that I cannot read in silence so I have on a thunderstorm in the woods audio going and it feels just totally perfect for reading this

Henry runs through the details of the practised lie of what happened between him and his wife with a shocking amount of detachment, but not that shocking for him.

Mr.Whitmore you should learn to like, I dunno, lie better.

The cropped tea and pink bell bottoms is unironically one of my favourite Blossom looks described in this book.

This conversation, the back and forth and talking about favourite colours, their characters really shine here, another stand out moment. After having read this once before Henry saying “Blue” and knowing what will come later, I had to put the book down for a moment, and not just to type up this annotation.

“How old are you, Blossom?” “Eighteen.” Old enough to legally...Vote. But on the real again the tension in this scene, sharing the cigarette, the closeness, just THIS.

A body has been discovered!

Blossom admitting she doesn’t feel anything upon seeing the disgusting corpse is just so fucking good.

Chapter twelve was fucking great, I forgot how much happened in this one chapter, a total fave.

—

Chapter Thirteen.

—

Blossom and Henry are just lying to police now, alright, alright.

Short but to the point, I enjoy the small details in this one. Describing the grotesque nature of the body especially was very effective.

Also the forgetting a clipboard and letting Blossom write on his back, cute, realistic, adore it.

Course you can’t pass up a fresh corpse Henry you fucking freak.

—

Chapter Fourteen.

—

The entertainment centre! I remember simply adoring this next chapter, I am excited!

Grilling Mr.Whitmore on why he works here occasionally. Henry you are so, so transparent and projecting really hard here. Being so critical with him being so close to the teenagers when what are you doing with Blossom? You woke up splattered in your own cum after passing out post-nut, post-jack sesh thinking about a certain eighteen year old blonde, remember?

More Henry and Blossom talking <3

“Oh, come on. You can’t deny that…You don’t look at all these…Preppy, skimpy seventeen and eighteen year old girls and don’t think about when you were that age with the impulse control of a twelve year old.” HENRY!

“No. I don’t. Because I’m not seventeen, or eighteen anymore, Henry. And neither are you.” “Doesn’t mean I still can’t look.” He is so fucking gross. And yet…

I do feel for ol Norm here but at the same time he really does need to let Henry do his damn job.

“We’ll see if the Coopers are ready to talk and resume the work on Monday. I’m sure the killer will understand.” What a note to go out on Henry damn.

A knock on the door? This late? Who could it be? I ask having fully read this book before.

I was right by the way, this chapter was so good and so engrossing.

—

Chapter Fifteen.

—

Of course it’s Blossom who is here. Obviously. Who else?

Naturally she comes in.

Absent mom and a dead mom. Gotta love two people with mommy issues getting together.

I find myself unable to pull away during their conversations, they are just still so engaging to read. That being said, “Why don’t you like white wine?” “I’ve always preferred something stronger. Something that bites.” Oh I bet you do.

She’s making the move, SHE’S MAKING THE MOVE-

The description of Henry here, hands up, not looking at her, trying very, very hard to maintain his composure and will and not touch her. Oof.

They are kissing! This is where it all starts to really go tits up and I am so here for it.

“We shouldn’t be doing this-” Oh but you’re gonna Henry, you are, we all know it just do it!

He really is trying here, and he does make a good point, they shouldn’t get involved with each other like this but that is part of what makes it so good!!!

She isn’t wearing any panties.

Man is done for.

And he gives in! Get it Henry! I wish that were me. Who in this scenario? Like a true bisexual. Both.

Just going for it and with no protection! Henry, you animal.

His garden. This whole section is phenomenal. People could learn a thing or two about writing sex scenes from reading how Kate does it!

Kate’s work is just mind blowing. It is incredible how she writes the differences between Henry and Blossom post their first time together. For him feeling like he can breathe for the first time in years and her imagining becoming one with the forest, consumed with rot and dying like the way they view sex and each other is so intensely fascinating. It just so interesting too because I have felt like Blossom has, chest feeling scooped out and hollow and empty but never relating to sex, reading this book with just how different my perspective on physicality with another human from there's never bores me.

“RISE AND SHINE, ASSHOLE, NEW DAY! AND LOOK AT WHAT YOU’VE DONE NOW!” That is just this book and Henry’s life all over, huh? A good alternate tagline.

Ahhhhh a dream sequence and such a fucking good one! The imagery in this is immaculate, the one that stands out to me the most is the mention of Blossom’s hair in a high ponytail tied with a pink ribbon, so fucking good and so clever. Blossom becoming a literal monster and tearing him apart, what do you think it means Henry? C’mon, THINK!

Another fantastic chapter, of course.

—

Chapter Sixteen.

—

He is making her breakfast. Also blueberry pancakes are in fact the best, I will not take criticism at this time.

“Colour me impressed.” My gesturing to a board covered with papers and tacked with pins, red strings connecting seemingly random things and moments, “It all comes back to COLOUR! IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT THE COLOUR! DO YOU SEE-”

“Yet, there was still nothing ever as tooth-rotting as Blossom James.” I am punching the air!

—

Chapter Seventeen.

—

Her being so excited to see him oh my GOD. “I missed you.” “You always miss me.” Things that happen between me and my husband all the time, no word of a lie.

Planning secret meetings ooooooh.

“I want you to do exactly what you wanted to do the day we found Ethan.” Blossom. Have I told you lately how much I love you?

Also I love the little jump here. The few weeks and the mention of just how many times and places they have fucked thus far, they have clearly been very busy.

Fucking right next to the scene of the crime, extremely risky but also, extremely hot.

This is all fucking amazing. The depth, the feeling, Blossom’s and Henry’s worry and doubt and hungry fervour for one another being so all consuming constantly. The question of how does this end is a good one to leave the chapter with.

How will it all end?

—

Chapter Eighteen.

—

Kate describes kisses in a million ways and I am here for all of them. Preppy and sickening or otherwise.

This man smokes. So fucking much my God. Third read I should do a cigarette counter.

Henry drinking and getting sloppy and good ol Norm comes to the rescue.

Bro. Dude. Asking for Blossom in your drunken stupor is not going to help anyone or anything my GOD DUDE!

He is such a fucking messss.

—

Chapter Nineteen.

—

Yeah you forgot your shit at the bar you fucking walking embarrassment of a man Henry.

I’m part of the Abby fanclub.

I really like Sophie and Norm interacting. It totally reads that they have known each other a very long time and I love the easy and playful air between them both very much. A joy to read.

The suspensions are not misplaced Sophie, not at all.

Blossom comes by to bring a lot more than just coffee in this scene that is for damn sure. Norm is really trying to give Henry the benefit of the doubt and struggling. I think he is almost trying too hard to convince himself but as he told Sophie before, what else can he do?

Another great chapter with more tension. I am stopping for now to break for lunch. I am thinking of an egg salad sandwich. It is 1:34 PM. I covered 110 pages this round, over halfway through the book. This has been the longest session so far and the doc is now over 4,000 words.

—

It is January 29th, a Sunday, it is 12:31 PM, I have the day off and the laundry going as I sit down for this session. I had a sleep in and a late breakfast of an open faced sandwich consisting of egg and honey ham with chive cream cheese and hashbrowns. Water and no snack again.

—

Chapter Twenty.

—

Blossom is having a party and again, I love the outfit described here, it is one of the first ones I think of, totally iconic and so her.

Blossom in the bathroom with some fucking guy and this guy, Kyle, God, I hate him. Hated him the first read, hate him this one too, what a complete shit stain.

I hate and love how real this is. It is just so fucking sickening because it is so common and happens all the damn time and has happened to her how many times? I wish Blossom would, I wish she would rip his teeth out, or scream or something but I know all too well what can happen in these scenarios and why she doesn’t. God, Kate, stop being such a good writer all the time damn it!

This is the kind of part that makes me want to reach in the pages and kill Kyle myself. Reminding myself he is a fictional character means nothing because Henry and Blossom are fictional too, you know? But the feelings they make me feel are real, what I get from reading this book is real and while they aren’t real living breathing people, Kate writes them so well they feel like they are. Even if they are fictional and I am real and I cannot touch them in a tangible way, this asshole, Kyle is fictional just as they are and therefore can and chooses to do harm and the threat of Blossoms hurt by him feels so sharp I could cut myself on it.

“Did you cum?” Kill yourself Kyle you pathetic rapist fuckwad.

Mr.Whitmore why are you at a high schooler’s party exactly???

“Rather, there was a tenderness to his bruising touch.” Kate. Girl. I am eating this line. Crushing it up and snorting it, need it in my bloodstream.

The drama of it all, neither of them can communicate properly at all like just please can you for once be normal. I say as if I don’t love them at their absolute worst.

—

Godddd what a fucking chapter, so good, so much happened but not enough to feel like overwhelmed by it, you know? Stellar as to be expected.

—

Before. Technically Chapter Twenty-One.

—

The wife is here. Cindy, poor, poor Cindy. Love the pjs tho.

Siiiigh, you too Henry? I say as I read him about to force himself on his wife as if I have not read this before.

This scene is so hard to talk about but I want to talk about it, you know? Like it is very intense how unintentional it seems to be, he didn’t come home planning to kill his wife, it isn’t a big premeditated thing, also I love how real this is. How he is so comfortable, so sure everything will be fine and cares so much about what he wants or feels he needs that he has no regard for her and pays the heaviest fine for it, her death, being the one that killed her. But also, even though we see him leaning on booze and pills and the rest, the man is still alive, he still goes on living, walking free after he did that.

RIP Cindy, we hardly knew you and you definitely deserved better.

—

Short chapter but it is deff supposed to be, gets across just what it needs to and it hit hard and is insanely effective.

—

Chapter Twenty-Two.

—

Blossom got into the car and now after a short but tense drive they are having a conversation and this conversation my Lord! Henry is totally upset that Blossom is right by the way, she knows he likes how she looks next to him and how she makes him feel but he’s all “oh I’m so much older, my job, my station, my morals-” WHAT MORALS HENRY?

Also Henry has a point, Blossom James does have main character syndrome and is just constantly inserting herself into the narrative but she is fucking interesting as hell and I wanna see her all the time so damn Henry let her live!

“You know nothing about me.” Mmmm don’t be so sure Henry.

Blossom is again correct, you wanted to fuck her from the moment you saw her, don’t deny it you mess of a man!

Him hitting her !, her nose bleeding and her smiling up at him with fucking red teeth, !!, the description I never get tired of reading ever of her being a predator of equal conviction !!!!!!!!!

Like I could go on and on about this section just it is so fucking good! Henry’s complex and swirling emotional state consuming him so thoroughly and being unable to control himself around her! The conflicting wants and feelings and him being just thoroughly unequipped to deal with it all! They are a car crash I cannot look away from, nor would I ever want to. I stare and let the images of them tangled up in a gory flaming pile burn into my retinas until the fumes of spilled gasoline make me literally pass the fuck out.

Me dancing in my chair as I read how Henry wants to kill and main Blossom, just a nice Sunday afternoon.

Henry saying he doesn’t want to fight her. Like I don’t believe you again Henry,

They are fucking in the carrr! Which like yes, hot, get it, but also, Blossom are you good?

Henry chasisting her over smoking, like, dude. For real?

Blossom calling him Daddy, him calling her disgusting and shotgunning smoke into her mouth, her being so fucking coy and pleased with herself, “And you love it.” Like yeah he does and so do I! Do it again!

Blossom asking him to the fucking dance! THE DANCE IS COMING! AH!

Henry of course you can’t go to the dance you old fuck but also her teasing him about going with a boy her own age and him getting so angry over it has me so amped, like the playfulness on display here it is just all a game to her!

—

I want to make this chapter breakfast in bed and then smash the coffee mug over its head before giving it a big ol kiss.

—

Chapter Twenty-Three.

—

Chinese food late at night in a hotel room sounds so fucking good right now it is unreal.

Okay but now I need a disgustingly detailed section of how exactly Henry eats pussy or do I gotta do that myself? I can do it myself! I just need to know, we know I can deliver it too. I just gotta think on it.

Blossom asking to get choked by him like girl you don’t know what you are asking of him! He CAN hurt you! He wants to! You are meddling in forces you do not understand!

Every little piece and look into Blossoms past is so fucking sad. She has been through so much I hate it.

Must every guy in Blossom’s life suck so fucking hard?

Also the milk and honey thing coming around and around again is so fucking perfect and apt and slots into this story fucking amazingly well.

Blossom making him breakfast! I would eat what she made, it sounds fucking good honestly.

Another amazingly described kiss that is so fucking perfect I ache.

—

Another banger of a chapter my God I feel so full and spoiled during this re-read.

—

Chapter Twenty Four.

—

Why are all the suspects older dudes? Hum. I wonder.

Also Henry dressed like a total slut today, we love to see it!

Someone who hangs around the younger guys and girls. Man, I wonder who he is thinking of!!!

I could listen to Henry go off about this kind of thing forever, Freud or otherwise.

Stacy do be Stacy though that is for damn sure Norman.

Norman inviting Henry for dinner and asking him for a smile that turns out to be so unsettling that he is just straight up like nevermind please don’t ever do that again oh my God. Perfection. Hilarious. Whenever and I do mean WHEN, not IF, the movie or tv series or whatever adapt of this happens, that detail needs to be left in.

Blossom out alone with a bunch of boys in the woods and drinking, a horrible idea really.

I can hear the “I wasn’t gonna let them do anything, I was just playyingg-” in my head and it is great. Also sure, Blossom.

This girl will not stop running her mouth to save her life. You are gonna get you and Henry in so much trouble!

I don’t blame Sopher for hating Henry, man is always acting suspicious.

And so it comes out again! Henry I think you do have it out for Whitmore and I think it is because you see an uncomfortable amount of yourself in him at times and refuse to acknowledge it. But also yeah Whitmore is really weird, keep an eye on that guy.

Ooooof. Norman laying it down, like he knows what is up! He isn’t dumb Henry! “I hope to fuck I don’t.” Hits so fucking hard.

Man I do not like Sophie but that is totally a ME and my issues thing because she is right about a lot of this.

—

Another fucking awesome chapter, the scene with her in the woods and Henry coming by is another stand out in my mind I find myself thinking of often.

—

Chapter Twenty-Five.

—

Henry finding the old pictures of Blossom on the fridge and wondering what made her so “hard” like man if you only knew.

God, the imagery you describe Kate everytime it gets to me. Reach into her brains and feel around, discover what is really wrong Henry do it!

The girl was just fucking waiting for him! Also the lingerie sounds cute as fuck.

C’mon Henry we both know you are gonna fuck her, just do it my guy.

The give and take between them both, the constant fight and unease and just inability to just exist without conflict. Man do I love it.

Blossom calling him daddy has me feeling some kind of way.

The choose to kiss me thing has my in knots just it is fucking fantastic Kate just truly something else.

The softness and the not wanting to be so vulnerable but being unable to help it.

—

Finished this session at 2:31 PM. Stopping at page 288. I covered 73 pages this time around. The doc is over 5.5K words. Less than 100 pages left to cover. The next annotation session might be my last. Excited to finish strong!

—

It is January 31st, a Tuesday, once again it is my day off. I have less than 100 pages left to cover in Blossom and I am going to attempt to complete the book and the annotations this session. For breakfast I had a fried egg sunny side up on a single slice of buttered toast, topped with green onion and everything bagel seasoning. No snack as I am planning on lunch today, perhaps mac and cheese? I am drinking a country peach herbal tea out of my mug Kate sent, “The Trees Know More Than They Dare Say” stares back at me as I put on more thunderstorms in the forest sounds at 10:56 AM and this new reading session begins.

—

Chapter Twenty-Six.

—

I don’t think I have mentioned it until now but Henry smoking Marlboro’s just makes like way, way too much sense. I can see him holding the classic iconic white and red and gold pack in his hand very clearly.

Henry staring into the forest and wanting to lie down and rot and let it all overtake him in many a similar way that Blossom has is so interesting. Also it makes me wonder like are they just this similar? Or is something up with this forest in particular? But then I remember all the time I have spent in forests and that they are just Like That.

Henry plays nice at the dinner with Norm’s family and I love the honesty of him telling Norm when asked, that he doesn’t give a shit what he thinks but what Stacy thinks actually matters. Good shit, consistent with his character and just an awesome detail.

Norm filling in Henry on the ‘rumours’ and him brushing it off as just that. Henry is understandably very upset as am I!

Another shower, him gripping the sink and staring at himself in the mirror, again, reminiscent and similar of Blossom earlier.

Talking about her perfume being on his coats and his pillows, and then this, “She was everywhere. Infecting him.” She so is! I love how slowly it happens but how clear it is here, how much she is burrowed inside him and has affected him so heavily, she has set up camp inside him and he isn’t even fully aware of how much she has. I am obsessed.

“He felt as if she was the biggest mystery of all.” Fucking cut, print, beautiful note to finish on. Another moment I can see put to screen.

—

A fantastic chapter, seriously so many good smaller details, thoroughly enjoyable yet again,

—

Chapter Twenty-Seven.

—

This chapter is only about two pages but what a two pages.

Two pages of Blossom breaking down after expecting Henry to reach out and him not, her sobbing, clawing at herself and drinking. The descriptions here at the end, of so desperate for relief you hurt yourself immensely in the process, willing to tear till you see bone just hoping for a moment’s peace, goregous.

—

Ethan, or, Chapter Twenty-Eight.

—

Another very short chapter, describing Blossom in the cemetery and Ethan following her there. The conversation is brief, him saying she shouldn’t be out like this, him affirming that it’s not girls like her that are dying, it’s boys like him and him assuring her that he can “bench 200” so the guy will have his work cut out for him. Okay, nice attempt to flex Ethan /s. But this last line is the stand out to me, “-and Blossom let her head fall back, snaking her arm around his shoulders and closing her eyes, engulfing him.” Phew. Truly a banger.

—

Chapter Twenty-Nine.

—

Oh my God this is it, this is the chapter, the long, extended dream sequence. I dunno if I am ready again! This part is so intense but so good. Okay, okay, be cool, here we go.

We kick off with a wonderfully descriptive scene of Henry eating, frantic, hungry, desperately trying to satisfy himself, right? Eating meat, drinking red wine, eating pomegranate, and it’s all fine until we pull away to see that he is actually eating Blossom. And not in the way we have seen before, we are talking full out, full on, raw, animalistic, cannibal style consumption.

It isn’t enough and it will never be enough as he feeds and eats until there is literally nothing left of her, going so far as to consume bone, marrow and cartilage.

He reaches back in and instead of finding warmth and hopefully more food instead he finds a nest of baby spiders and I get a chill every time I read this part ugh!

This image is the best. Henry trying to fight to get the spiders off, almost tripping and then Blossom, still dead, reaching out, catching his wrist and holding him there, mouth opening and dark legs of a much larger spider reaching out from the darkness just- my GOD. Horror, pure, horror, goodness.

Tea update, I have gotten so distracted reading and annotating it has now gone cold.

The dream shifts suddenly to Henry being in front of and then going into Blossom’s house in search of her, the hope that he will find her safe is one that I cannot share with him because Henry, awake or asleep she is never safe with you.

The description of the room in total disarray is fantastic and also again something that one can picture so easily.

Blossom is dead and Henry is holding her and sobbing and I am FEELING!

Him crying and apologising is everything.

But, it was all a joke because all of this is a big fucking joke to Blossom, even pretending she is dead all for him to discover.

“Does it make you feel good? Tearing those around you apart? Destroying those that care about you?” Go off Henry. But also yeah Blossom, does it?

“I’m sorry.” “No you’re not.” - “You never are.” Fucking snaps Kate.

This moment still fucks me up, Henry realizing that he is dead on the floor, has been watching himself this whole time.

“Are you going to hurt me like you hurt her?” She asked. “Do you want to hurt me Henry? Do you want to kill me too?” This whole scene, this whole sequence is indescribably good. I wouldn’t want them to cut a single moment or movement from this pure gold.

Words are failing me.

He’s awake!

The bitch is back and she is drunk.

I have read a few reviews that claim the work of Kate and this book in particular to be ripping off Gone Girl, calling it plagiarism, especially for this next part. Blossom, drunk and a mess giving a speech, a rant, going the fuck off about the awful treatment of men and expectations thrust upon her and all women and that just pisses me off. The reviews, not her speech, her speech is great. I hate that reviewers see a woman giving a speech about mistreatment, and the entitlement of men and look at Kate and her work and compare her to Gillian Flynn negatively. Because don’t you know there can be only one book like this? Only one story delving into the rage inherent to the feminine? Only one book can have this kind of character, this kind of story, everything else is clearly a copy, a cheap imitation, instead of insulting and making unfair and frankly incorrect claims, looking at the broader picture. These reviewers look at this and compare instead of seeing that both these stories and many more like them can have their own spot in the conversation, and can co-exist. And the biggest point of all, maybe, just fucking maybe, the reason there is multiple stories, conversations, rants, characters like Amy and like Blossom is because what they are talking about, what they preach has distinct truth and basis in the reality of the experience of tons and tons of women and that is why it hits and resonates.

Also Henry thank God you stopped yourself from saying that shit because holy fuck no one is ever asking for it ever.

Henry not believing female rage, like alright bud, sit down.

Blossom’s feelings are so valid here. The want for people who have harmed you to see how they have and understand it and share that feeling. It is fucking powerful, this whole section is!

“Would you kill to take back your power?” Henry, you are getting closer to getting it.

The way I need this whole scene filmed yesterday.

Blossom’s got a fucking gun. The first time I read this my stomach dropped.

This scene with her holding the gun to him is so tense.

Kate you could write about the issues with women only becoming empowered in media through abuse and hurt from men for hours and hours and I would eat it up. Oh shit, wait, I already have. I’d do it again.

I like to think for sure a part of Blossom wants to stop this, wants to be ‘normal’ wants to love as Henry describes but again, the constant mistreatment from everyone all her life prevents that. How can she just swallow back all this hate and not let it poison her? How can she just move on from that? It IS like saying that they won, she becomes another person standing idly by, a part of the problem.

Finally she falls asleep and the chapter ends.

—

This is my favourite chapter in the book by far. I could scream on and on about it more than I already have, the dream sequence I could read it and go line by line diving in deeper I swear to God. I gotta hold myself back in some places though.

—

Chapter Thirty.

—

A hard and tense conversation is had once Blossom wakes up in the morning.

Henry keeps on choosing her, she didn’t ask for it, true but he isn’t unreasonable in wanting her to choose him back and some proof of this.

She clearly doesn’t want him to go, but he does.

She usually has cold showers but takes a hot one in an attempt to understand. I could never take a cold shower so Blossom girl, I do not understand you in that respect.

—

A shorter but extremely emotionally driven chapter that hits the spot after the last one.

—

Chapter Thirty-One.

—

Blossom asking for some help with her photos.

Oh my God Mr.Whitmore you fucking creep. Yeah I will look over your photos for the end of year project, how about I bring a bottle of wine along?! You sick fuck I hate you.

She is eating once again, drinking once again, watching a nature documentary and wishing she as the wolf and the prey all at once and I am still just so fucking captivated by it.

Yeah those Barbie commercials suck, I’d turn off the TV too.

—

Chapter Thirty-Two.

—

We finally got another body hoooo boy!

Again tied with a pink ribbon, again many, many stab wounds, throat slashed this time, leaving him to choke on his own blood.

I afforded myself a ten minute break at this time to grab an ice water and make lunch, I sit back down with my mac and cheese ready to eat and read.

The killer is being unorganised and cocky, in broad daylight no less?

A school ID at the scene of the crime!

A frantic call from Blossom oh my God!

Mr.Whitmore is with her and when Henry gets there he is dead and she is holding the knife.

Her sobbing about how she lost control is haunting knowing what we know. Knowing how important control is to her and this is why she is doing this, convincing herself whenever she is being hurt or used she is still in control it is like what happened? The tension!

—

My mac and cheese threatens to go cold at this rate because this book, again even on the second readthrough, is so captivating.

—

Chapter Thirty-Three.

—

Blossom is in the hospital and Henry is there with her.

The girl has been really fucked up my God.

Norman is totally a bit salty and mad at himself that Henry was right this whole time about it being Mr.Whitmore.

Love Henry describing the motif of the pink ribbon representing Blossom, just, real good.

I really, really like Norm and Sohpie’s interactions, again the air of how long they have known each other hangs heavy.

Of course it actually happened Norm. Come on. What kid lies about that?

—

Another chapter in the books that I love, a big smooch for this one.

—

Chapter Thirty-Four.

—

We are finally at the dance hooo boy.

The theme of the dance being love, gag me.

Henry is here like she wanted!

Be still my heart she is wearing fucking blue. SHE IS WEARING BLUE!

It’s all like a dream, an actually good one for once Henry, a rarity for you I am sure.

They dance and yeah all the parents watching on like uhhh? Hilarious, like shut up you don’t know them like us the readers do!

And they leave the dance togetherrrr. God I love them way too much for how bad they are for each other.

Back at the hotel, much making out and getting drunk together.

He wants to rip away the blue and bury himself in her pink oh my fucking-KATE! I love you.

Blossom is that girl. Drunk all like, “I wanna go swimming!” And fuck I felt that.

Kate could write something just listing colours over and over and I would love it.

Of course he doesn’t want her in the pool. She wants him in the pool with her, so she drags him in, naturally.

The build up of what you think is going to be a steamy sex scene poolside ends up with Blossom breaking down and man my heart hurts.

—

This chapter is just so well paced AND well placed, you know what I mean, it is just mwah, amazing, very needed, tonally it flows so well.

—

Chapter Thirty-Five.

—

It’s summer, a month after the dance and Henry pays Blossom a visit.

We get to hear some of her statement and mannn. It is just, fucking pitch perfect, immaculate.

“I want to love you…So badly…” - “But?” - Blossom didn’t answer. I am ripping my own hair out oh my God.

Blossom is so empty inside, nothing there at all and so she instead of dealing with the internal pain, she seeks physical pleasure.

Okay this next sex scene, so fucking good, just I love the juxtaposition of the flowery language with harsher terms thrown in there, it is through the whole book and it feels like it sums up Blossom the character insanely well.

“In return, Blossom gave him exactly what he needed, at the same time, taking exactly what she wanted. A perfect balance.” Can I get this line tattoo’d on the inside of my eyelids as well as marry it?

—

Chapter Thirty-Six.

—

Post fuck our fave creep Henry Williamson watches Blossom shower and I wish that were me.

Oh he is smoking less look at him!

“He wondered if this could last forever.” Doubtful. A nice thought though.

You’ve been here how many times and you only look around her room now? Alright.

Of course you go for her underwear drawer you little freak of a man!

Henry finds an envelope and in it a series of pictures of the bodies, of the crime scenes but they aren’t copies, oh no they are originals and very different from the ones he has seen previously.

A delectable little cut back showing Adam Hall from the start going to the woods for a run and Blossom following after him oh my God.

—

And just like that the book is over. It is, amazing, truly a gripping read even the second time. I noticed more, picked up on more and really loved it even more. Blossom being the real one behind all this is fantastic, well played and woven without it feeling shoved in your face or obvious and reading it now after the first time knowing she did it was a trip! This book is fantastic, I could read it over and over and I intend to! It plays like a movie, I love the characters and it is just phenomenal. I cannot recommend it enough. Seriously everyone needs to read this and then review it afterwards I am begging! Kate, this book is just, ugh, so special and something so different and I am just totally enamoured with it and you and how you write. In case this 8.6K document didn’t express that already. Thank you again so much for this story and now I can’t wait to read After The Lamb Bites Back!

#Blossom #Blossom By Kate Winborne #horror fiction #BHF writing #annotations #I fucking love how this came out and hope it captures how much I love this book #my thoughts and just how insane it makes me #I LOVE YOU KATE #Fr there are spoilers in this tho so tread lightly #Henry Williamson

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kozykricket · 2 years ago

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Minecraft Thoughtdump: The Paint and The Canvas

This is a fairly unstructured ramble about my opinions on minecraft world generation.

So, off the bat... 1.18 was possibly the best minecraft update ever. while for a lot of people it may have been saddening to see C&C split into two, it was for sure for the better. A lesson of over-scoping was learned, and yet the update still reached its potential fully! Its insanely impressive how much 1.18 did. I remember being there during the experimental snapshots, with henrik (who has now left the team to pursue more) leading them, he was asking for feedback everywhere! I remember seeing a discord conversation someone had about the distribution of dripstone in the cave biomes Overall, it was a fantastic update. It truly shows the iteration and feedback process at its finest. How glad I am for 1.18... But to recap what 1.18 did for the sake of this post - one of the most notable things is that... we don't have "hills" biomes anymore. we just have... hilly terrain! heightmap and biomes are separated now, with them somewhat having influence on eachother but overall being completely separate things. This makes for a lot more variety in terrain shape! Its especially noticeable in single biome worlds, just how varied the terrain can be in a single biome.

However, I do think this is merely the beginning of a minecraft 2 of sorts. I think its fair to look at the heightmap and placement of biomes as the "canvas" that is painted upon, and the actual biomes themselves and features, from the grass to the trees, to the rocks and the flowers... as if those are all the "paint" Do you get what I'm gettin at? I think now that worldgen was torn out and redone entirely, we have an amazing canvas to work with. Truly, so many things can be put on top of it

But alas, the paint is still not quite up to date. Its like if you replaced a wall in a house that was crumbling down and pretty weak with a fantastic new wall, but kept the same faded paint color on it... Still works as a wall! its just... wouldn't it be nicer if the paint was also redone? That's what I think minecraft needs. I think oak forests in particular are an example of this - they're still the same trees as they were in alpha. I think the general shape is too iconic to change, but more height variety would at least be nice! More boulders, ferns, ponds!

Here's where my biggest idea comes into play, though. You know how they got rid of hill biomes because they were made redundant with Fancy Heightmap Technology? Well what if... we made biomes like old growth birch forests and sparse jungles redundant? What if... tree density and height was based on random noise? Imagine... every forest you find has a different variation of height, of density... some forests you find are towering and dense as heck, but some are fairly sparsely placed. Some, a nice inbetween... It would make multiple instances of the same biome far more unique to come across. Apply it to tall grass and flowers too, and you truly have an insane amount of variation The cherry on top would be for forest clearings to occasionally generate, with boulders or ponds, or big stumps in them... Also, fallen / hollow logs thanks Of course, this is all way easier said than done, and its clear mojang has different priorities currently, and... well yeah, its a lot more complicated. Worldgen is hard to make, and its even harder to make everyone happy. They don't want to break old worlds, they dont want to break expectations, they want to deliver quality...

Mojang are not the bad guys, despite so many people thinking that. Minecraft ideas academy on youtube has some good videos on the subject.

Anyways, i think we are merely in the beginning of the new age of minecraft worldgen. I don't think 1.20 will be quite it (I think 1.20 is a FANTASTIC future for minecraft though still thats my next post. and then a post about structures)

If we think of the world as a canvas... and the trees, grass, flowers... all of that as the paint? Well, I see a bright future for Minecraft

#minecraft ideas #minecraft #thought dump #mineblr #1.20 hype #but for different reasons

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spiltscribbles · 4 years ago

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Worth It

~Notes: Oof, I know I have so many prompts in my inbox and I appreciate them so much! But I wanted to write something after dinner in dedication and a gift to the lovely Remus-John-Lupin!!!!!!!<3<3<3 I love you RJ and I appreciate you and your friendship so fucking much, so this is just a strange little gift from me to you in thanks for how kind you’ve always been to me since I joined this crazy fandom, ILY and you’re my favorite slag!!!!

Sirius silently reminds himself that he in fact likes Lily, he thinks she’s a total knock out and is happy that his brother is finally getting to date the girl of his dreams. He likes her damn it,! And one does not commit battery to folks that they like.

Assured that his pure irritation won’t bleed through his words, Sirius tries again in his most charming of inflections. “All I want is his number.”

“No,” she repeats, casually steadfast while poking at her salad— Not even bothering to flick her gaze up at an increasingly irate Sirius.

“Why are you being so fucking difficult!”

“Why are you still bitching about this,” she counters, finally giving him her undivided attention, even if it’s her glaring at him like she’d like to skewer Sirius on a stick.

“Hey guys, let’s chill.” James tries to mediate, laughing awkwardly between the pair of them, hand raised in concession and glasses going a bit skewed.

They promptly ignore him.

“I like him. What is so difficult to understand Evans? Aren’t you like supposed to be some brainiac or some shit?”

“It’s been like two months Black,” she says pointedly, grip on her fork tightening while her mouth curls unpleasantly. “That’s way past your ordinary infatuations, so why the hell do you still even care.”

Sirius bares his teeth, pinning her with a glower that once made an old school yard bully of Regulus’s actually piss his pants. So of course Lily doesn’t even flinch. “He’s cute.”

“You’re a dog.”

“You’re being a total ass.”

“And you’re a bastard.”

“But you love me though.”

“Just barely.”

“So you’ll give me Remus’s number?”

“Dream on.” she says with a lofty sniff and haughty flip of the hair, discarding her barely eaten lunch before swaggering over to where a group of her friends from the STEM club are sat, including Alice Flores and Dorcas Meadowes.

“Guess you’re back to square one Pads.” James says, unhelpful as fuck, so Sirius only flips him off before snatching back his calculus homework from a pitiful looking Peter.

“Fuck this.”

Sirius thinks of himself as a reasonable sort of guy.

He isn’t one for holding grudges or obsessing over perceived slights. He’s brilliant whether he’s playing linebacker on the field or taking a exam in class.

For fuck’s sake, Sirius can be plumped down in any and all social situations without warning, and can have the room eating out the palm of his hand within the first five minutes.

In layman’s terms, he’s decent and driven and downright charismatic. Mix this all together, and well Sirius thinks he’s a pretty fantastic fucking package— if he does say so himself. He can have his pick of the lot, truly. Especially when walking down the halls flocked by his best friend turned second brother on one end and little Petey, who’s a great hype man, on the other. So its only poetic justice that the one person who’s been able to swallow up all his attention is the one person who doesn’t even give him a second glance most days.

And that’s fucking ridiculous.

This is ridiculous! He is fucking ridiculous! No, record scratch. Remus fucking Lupin is the most ridiculous part of this all!

Remus lupin with his delightfully disheveled hair the color of gold and his crooked grin that’s everything darling in the world, and his big doe eyes that sometimes flare with green specs when he’s especially passionate in class or when he’s chatting with Lily in the halls. Remus lupin who’s only just moved here to Murray Hill from a small town in southern Illinois and who toppled Sirius’s world upside-down while he was at it.

The first time they met was completely on accident.

It was the week before classes began, and Sirius had only just come back from his family trip to their villa in Rome, and he was only meant to meet James at the coffee shop that Lily was working at now. They were suppose to head to the city and go out drinking to celebrate the start of their senior year. Sirius was suppose to find a nice, college aged girl to fuck because he’s given up on the boring lot that infests Hogwarts these days. It was suppose to be easy and fun and he was suppose to stay stringless and unattached as ever.

But that didn’t happen.

Instead, Sirius walked into the Howling Moon and was met by the sight of the most lovely, most gorgeous boy he’s ever met. Hand to God, it felt like one of those slow motion moments in a Romantic Comedy when the disgruntled, wayward lead first sets their eyes on that love interest— the one to out shine all others, the one who turns everything inside out and makes it all glitter gold.

“Hey there,” Remus had grinned like the fucking sun, slipping the pen from his ear and hand poised over the cups lining the counter. “What can I get ya?”

“Oh, erm— Yeah. Just a caramel macchiato, iced.”Sirius’s ordinarily smooth baritone almost fucking cracked while ordering, and Remus’s beautiful eyes had glittered.

“Would’ve taken you for a dark roast sort of guy.” He said, and Sirius swears that it was playful and flirtatious and a little mischievous too.

Sirius was in love.

“I’ve been known to partake in sweets, you know, if they catch my eye,” he replied, eyes lingering meaningfully up and down Remus’s slighter frame.

“What a come on,” Remus had laughed, head thrown back to show off his long neck and Sirius was so fucking gobsmacked at how it quite literally sounded like all the most splendid instruments woven together.

He had ducked his head, so unordinary bashful but so beyond pleased. “What can I say beautiful, you bring it out of me.”

“”Cute.” Remus had chuckled, cheeks going a fetching red and scribbling down the order. “Definitely one of the more interesting one liners I’ve gotten today.”

Sirius ignored the flare of jealousy over that, considering that he hasn’t gotten to even kiss him yet, and he should probably take this slow if he doesn’t want to screw it up. “Has anyone of those bastards mentioned how your eyes put the brownies on sale to shame?”

“No one as hot as you if I’m being honest,” Remus retorted, ringing him up and sinking his teeth into his plump bottom lip. And fuck, Sirius knew he was in trouble from then on.

They had talked for over half an hour about nothing at all in that tiny bistro while Remus was busy exchanging the coffee pots for a fresh batch and rearranging the baked goods, and it was amazing.

Sirius has always been someone who couldn’t sit still, who had to be fluttering all over the place to feel like he was actually headed somewhere, like he was getting something finished. But for the first time in too long, just sitting there, still and silent and besotted while Remus chatted about his hometown and moving half way across the country and his eccentric mother— Well Sirius felt completely balanced, completely calm. He felt like just as long as Remus was their chatting with him and smiling in that beguiling way of his, that Sirius could actually breathe without pressure. Like he knew what it meant to have a center.

So of course, right when he decided that he was going to snatch him up— to ask him out on a date before anyone else from their shitty class filled with degenerates and dick heads could— Lily of all people had swaggered in, and gave him a caustic sort of glower that plainly said, keep the fuck away.

Ordinarily Sirius would’ve completely ignored her warning, would’ve unashamedly and excitedly chased after the cutest fucking boy he’s ever laid his eyes on with an absurd sort of zeal. But he under estimated just how much sway Lily was able to cater with Remus in the few weeks they worked with one another before he had met him. So instead of starting off the year with a brand new, insanely pretty boyfriend wrapped around one arm, Sirius has just spent the past nine weeks pining like a fucking love sick loser. Like he was starring in some cheesy John Hughes movie from the damn 80s!

And this will not do, this is not all right, not okay at all.

Sirius needs to figure out a way to get close to Remus, and outside of Lily’s overbearing claws. Something that only Remus likes, that Sirius can partake in to prove himself worthy.

As he promenades down the hall towards his free period, Sirius creates a mental check list of the things he knows Remus enjoys.

Remus enjoys poetry, and Sirius knows that he’s part of the school’s award winning Forensics team. But they meet during the football practices so Sirius couldn’t even try to impress him in that arena until the spring. He also knows that Remus likes history, that he’s going to end up majoring in classics in University, but Sirius really doubts his ability to memorize the Iliad in the matter of a few hours— He’s good, but not that good.

“Jesus fuck is this hard,” he mutters nastily to himself, tugging at the ends of his dark hair before ramming straight into a display outside the southern wing of their preparatory school’s building.

He winces, not so much for the throbbing in his toes, but because of Marlene’s snappish attitude when he makes it so that the table shakes.

“Keep your head out your ass Black,” she scolds before going back to filing her nails. And Sirius is about to snipe right back at her— That is until he catches on the bright poster adorned with small rainbows and the words, GSA FOOD DRIVE spelt out in large lettering.

And oh!

“Eureka!”

“Pardon?” Marlene asks, nose wrinkled indelicately as she eyes him like he’s about to puke on her brand new Doc Martens again like last weekend. Holy shit, she should really get over it by now.

But Sirius is smart enough and tactful enough not to mention his thoughts on the matter, only smiles down at her with pure elation. “Marls, what if I said I had a brilliant idea to help our lovely GSA.”

“I’d accuse you to only doing it to try and get in Lupin’s pants since he’s our new VP.”

Sirius grapples for his chest, feigning indignant. “You pain me my old friend.”

Marlene snorts. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

“That’s neither here nor there.”

“So are your chances with Lupin.”

“You’re a sick fuck McKinnon.”

“What do you want from me you gnat.”

“Let me help with the fundraiser.”

“What’s in it for me?”

“I’ll tell Lily to get Meadowes to notice you?”

Marlene glares at him now. “We’ve been fucking for like a month you prick.”

“Oh— Erm, then for some of that good old Bi unity?”

Marlene suddenly looks so very shrewd and Sirius hates how every fucking woman in his life could eat him whole for breakfast. “Absolutely not.”

“Fine, what the fuck do you want.”

“You cover Fabian’s costs for the goods when we go to that rave for 2KBABY in January.”

“Eh, didn’t you guys use to fuck?”

“Yes. But I don’t see the connection?”

“He won’t even give you a discount on the good shit?”

“Oh he does,” she leers, blue eyes glinting wickedly in the hallway light. “But I’d rather see you pay full price for’m.”

Sirius glares down at her, and repeats himself. “You. Are. A. Sick. Fuck.”

Marlene just lies back in her seat and returns to manicuring her nails. “Well if cheekbones isn’t worth the bother?”

“Fine,” Sirius all but growls out. “But we do this my way.”

“Scout’s honor handsome,” she absolutely beams, and Sirius reminds himself that this is all for Remus and that’s worth it at the end of the day.

It’s a week later, right before Thanksgiving break hits, and Sirius is sat in front of the cafeteria, smirking at the line of mostly pink faced girls and a few others amongst their midst, who have all queued up in front of him. A dollar in each of their hands, though he does see that a few have fives and even tens or more, and he doesn’t know how to subtly tell them that all he’s promising is a quick peck of his lips, and absolutely no other groping— including of his legendary ass or admittedly perfect abs.

“You’re just really enjoying yourself, aren’t you.” James hisses besides him after the latest girl— a blonde sophomore who’s decked out in Lulu Lemon for their only non uniform day of the week— scurries off. “Just a ego trip.”

“Jealous Jamie darling?” Sirius boasts, tipping back on his chair while Marlene collects the cash from the next five in line so that they can clammer closer towards him.

“I can’t believe all of them want to kiss you,” Peter marvels, round eyes completely in aw.

“I can’t believe you think this is how to get Remus’s attention,” Lily interjects huffily, lips set in a moody pout while perched on James’s lap to Sirius’s left.

“I bet you would’ve been in line if you weren’t dating Jamie here.” Sirius counters, smug as all get out, and laughing when all Lily deigns as a adequate response is her middle finger.

Sirius is on cloud nine. He can’t believe he didn’t think of this sooner! Remus loves all this shit, from the club to the charity. This is perfect! This basically guarantees that he’ll finally get a good smooch on him. And once their lips finally touch, Remus will surely feel the swarm of butterflies in his gut just like in those Harleyquin romance novels his cousin Narcissa would always read with a dreamy look on her face during their various Family vacations.

“You’re not gonna get him this way.”

“He’s not gonna know what hit’m Evans,” Sirius retorts, completely self assured.

One should never bet against Lily Marie Evans.

Sirius knows this now. But he still hates it with the passion of a thousand burning suns.

By the end of the lunch hour, Sirius’s earned over sixty bucks to the GSA’s fundraiser fund, and absolutely zero potential boyfriends who look like golden angels and make Sirius’s knees weak.

“I told you,” Lily says in that sing-song sort of voice that is so not appreciated right now. “Remus is not the type to kiss you in front of a huge crowd and after like a bunch of others. That’s not his style.”

Sirius is moody as all get out, and he’s irritated that he’s just wasted five dozen perfectly fine kisses on folks who aren’t Remus, so he doesn’t bother to hide his irritation when he gripes back at her, “Then tell me what the fuck is his style.”

Miraculously, that actually proved enough to get Lily to slow down her stroll, and cock her head curiously at him. “You actually care.”

“What the fuck have I been trying to tell you Evans!” He nearly shouts.

“I just thought— You know. That it was a game.”

Sirius’s face goes stoney, and he juts his chin away from her. “It’s not always a fucking game, all right. It’s not a game with him— I like him. I like Remus.”

“Oh,” Lily says very quietly, her face pulled in a thousand different directions before settling on something akin to solemn. “You should go to the music room for your free period today.”

Sirius quirks a brow at her, frowning while he asks, “Why?”

“Just trust me S,” she says, reaching over her hand to squeeze his forearm.

Sirius watches her walk off, hand in hand with James, and he feels a strange twisting to his heart when he imagines a very similar image— only with him and Remus and punctuated by plenty of kisses to the cheek, and jawline and lips too.

The music room is towards the back of the school, in a separate building along with the theatre and main auditorium.

The early autumnal chill lashes against Sirius’s face while he makes the track to the room, continuously chanting to himself that he actually trusts Lily and this is gonna be worth it if there’s a merciful God up there.

Once Sirius clammers in doors, he rubs his cold hands together, and shakes out his hair.

The first thing he hears is the soft strumming of a guitar, and finds himself in front of the music room after following its melodic toon.

Through the window he can spot the form of Remus bent over the instrument, his thick curls getting in his eyes and his steady hands plucking a few chords as he sits cross legged atop the piano.

Sirius feels his heart lodging in his throat at the sight of him, so beautiful and perfect and warm looking in that scarlet sweater. And he knows in his bones that this is some sort of unspoken blessing that Lily’s given him, so with a deep breath, Sirius opens the door and strolls in.

Remus starts slightly, going flushed once his eyes catch on Sirius’s own.

“Oh Sirius,” he greets, the corners of his mouth tipping into a smile that doesn’t ring true. “You pulled away from the haram?”

“That’s a bit much? Calling them a haram,” Sirius says cooly, hitching up besides him and swinging his long legs. “I just did it to help you.”

“Oh— Yeah,” Remus nods. “The GSA appreciates all the help we can get.” His words are quiet, and he’s rinsing a hand through his curls, so Sirius can tell that he’s a bit nervous. And it’s impossibly cute, but also not on. He doubts that he’ll ever get his kiss if Remus won’t even look at him in the eyes.

Gingerly, Sirius sets the pad of his pointer finger beneath Remus’s chin, lifting his gaze upwards. “Not the GSA— Though I appreciate the club’s work and your part in that.”

“Oh,” Remus says again, lips pursed and his throat pulsing when he swallows down. “Then—“

“I did it for you Remus,” Sirius repeats heatedly. “I did it because I’ve been mad for you since ever meeting you in August, and I can’t get your fucking face or name or lips or ass out of my head. And I thought that if maybe I pulled a dumb stunt like that, you would actually kiss me along with the lot of those idiots who can’t even hold a candle to you.”

“M—My ass?” Remus questions, voice going pitchy and face bright with emotion.

Sirius laughs, booming and bombastic. “You have the best ass I’ve ever seen Remus Lupin and it’s really obscene.”

Remus shoulder checks him, looking down and then back up through his lashes at Sirius and it’s a sight Sirius wish he can keep with him for the rest of his days.

“So you thought I’d want our first kiss to happen after you’ve just made out with half the school?”

Sirius grimaces, bending down so that their lips are only inches apart. “Listen, I can be a complete dumb ass on occasion.”

“Don’t forget arrogant.”

“Okay, fair.”

“And brash too.”

“Right.”

“Also you tend—“

Sirius places a soft hand over Remus’s supple lips, glaring teasingly at the other boy, who’s grinning like the cat who’s caught the canary, his eyes teeming with laughter.

Remus Lupin is going to be the death of him, Sirius knows it.

“Listen Lupin, I’d like a shred of self respect here, so I can actually muster up the courage to ask you out on a proper date already.”

Remus perks at that, so Sirius moves his grasp.

“You wanna ask me out?”

“Depends…. You wanna continue that little rant until I’m blue balled and gutless.”

“Hmm,” Remus inches closer, setting his hand over Sirius’s on the piano. “Nah, I think I’d rather do this.”

He leans forwards and Sirius barely has enough time to gather his bearings when he feels Remus’s mouth over his own and it’s literally every starlit promise and sugar burnt secret and sunlit afternoon all rolled into one. And Sirius feels his heart thud an uneven staccato when he grabs for either end of Remus’s waistline and plunges his tongue into his own and he lets himself get lost in the overwhelming feeling of it all.

#WOLFSTAR #REMUS LUPIN #SIRIUS BLACK #MARAUDERS #HARRY POTTER SERIES #💜rj💜#SPILT INK

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peekbackstage · 4 years ago

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I'm new to the idol and music scene in general so other than say, a familiar pretty face/voice, I don't really know what I'm looking at when it comes to a performance. I don't see anything wrong with just watching the people I like but sometimes I want to appreciate good work where good work is done. Particularly behind the scenes where not a lot of acknowledgment happens unless something goes wrong. So, considering your extensive experience, I was wondering if you could recommend any stage performances or music videos that you would consider to be really over the top or on point. Or maybe just a few that you particularly enjoyed.

Hi Anon! Welcome to idol fandom!

When it comes to performances, I think what matters isn’t so much what other people think is good - what matters truly is what you enjoy. Some of the most amazing vocal performances are raw, stripped down performances without crazy production! But of course, there are also some pretty insane - and iconic - performances that definitely have pretty amazing production.

Some of the absolute best performances I can think of actually aren’t Asian idols, but since you’ve asked for idols, here are a few top-notch performances that I found pretty extra or ridiculous or otherwise just great.

Wang Yibo - “The Rules of My World”

youtube

Yup, I’m kicking it off with WYB’s 2020-2021 New Year’s Eve performance. This was honestly just a fantastic performance - from the way he used the stage, the wire flying rigs, the dance choreo, and overall performance! I was honestly pretty damn impressed! Good job!

CL - +HELLO BITCHES+

youtube

This was honestly super extra and over the top. Generally a great performance! The motorcycles were a nice touch.

BIGBANG - MAMA 2013 Performances

youtube

BIGBANG might not be the most amazing singers or dancers, but there is one thing they excel at, beating out pretty much everyone in Kpop - and that’s stage presence. They definitely know how to put on a show, and G-Dragon in particular really doesn’t give a fuck what you think. He’s pretty much a rock star in an idol’s body.

P.S. Can we get a standing ovation for T.O.P.’s absolutely insane costume and oversized microphone prop?

(Pro tip: watch the whole thing, even if you think the beginning is weird. Trust me.)

BTS - Boys Meet Evil

youtube

The blindfold! The lay-it-on-thick fanservice! The choreo! I mean, come on, it’s BTS.

(edit: oops. I actually meant to link to this performance for the lay-it-on-thick fan service)

BTS - Black Swan + ON + Life Goes On + Dynamite

youtube

This is honestly one of the most ridiculous performances I have ever seen. I mean, just when I thought it couldn’t get more fan service-y, they go and out fan-service themselves with the Black Swan dance. (The entire production of it is also honestly incredible.)

#live performances #idols #kpop #cpop #wang yibo #bts #cl #bigbang #recommendations #Anonymous #ask #peek answers

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dianaburnwood · 4 years ago

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HITMAN 3: First Impressions

This post is full of SPOILERS. Also, it is LONG, so.... yeah. Be prepared lol

HITMAN 3. Also known as: Diana’s Game.

Dear GOD I am in love.

I’m going to do my best to make this coherent. But. I am still freaking out. And I have SO much more to explore!!!! This won’t be very in-depth because I played each map exactly once so far. There’s so much left to see, conversations to overhear, opportunities to exploit - but, I DO have some first impressions, oh hell yes.

Menu:

That menu music!!! I was not expecting that at all. It was a mix of choral and classical with previous themes intertwined, and it reminded me of Blood Money. Speaking of Blood Money, this game is Blood Money.

Dubai:

Very, very beautiful. Kinda thought Grey made it all about himself lol of course he wanted to say “in your face” to the partners, but it was like 47 was just there to pull the trigger, like he’d not been hurt by them too. But, I really liked it. Trapping them in a room and watching them freak while Grey watched me kill them?? Helloo??? Popping off HARD from the start and I love it.

So - here’s the thing. I don’t get the timing. Diana tells them then that Edwards escaped. Did he escape just before the boys got to Dubai? Or were they unavailable to reach until then? It seems that the message Grey got at the end of HAVEN was after Olivia hacked the HAVEN servers, and then the boys were out of reach so after Diana discovered Edwards was gone, she couldn’t tell them until Dubai? And it was shown to us in a different order to leave us hanging? I dunno. Maybe? It seems weird.

THE CUTSCENE here omg - once again establishing that 47 and Diana are ride or die. “Diana will make it right, she always does” - BABE. BABE. SWEET BOY. His little face when Grey doesn’t trust Diana. OMGGG.

Dartmoor:

I went the murder mystery route, of course. I figured it was Emma from her conversation with her husband, but I got all the clues after just to be sure. Can’t believe Carlisle just handed 47 the file on Edwards and then went out alone on the balcony like I wasn’t gonna kill her??? Bitch????? do you forget who i am?????? Anyway, the murder mystery was SO much fun, but I can’t wait to infiltrate this manor in other ways. Lots of Beldingford vibes here.

THE CUTSCENE bdsfgafhlsjfah WAHT????? Ok so HOW did Edwards know where they were? And - ok, so it made for an amazing scene, but Grey is a badass. He is a mercenary genius that duped the ICA and brought Providence to its knees. How did he get himself surrounded in the woods by CICADA? But he did, and it was beautiful, and he literally only shot himself to save 47, and the LOOK in 47′s eyes on his balaclava face - I just bfjKSFasad. I can’t believe he died so early tho. I was very sure he’d die somehow, but SO early. WOW.

Berlin:

fucking hell. Berlin. fuck. fucckkkk.

I wanna shout out to Mini (not gonna tag you in case you’re avoiding spoilers) but hot damn girl if you’re reading you were BANG ON about 47 wearing Grey’s coat. I really didn’t think it was his. It was. It is such a beautiful way for 47 to express his emotions about this death without actually saying anything. Omg. It was perfection. I’m crying thinking about it.

BERLIN was where this game really upped its... game. Like WOW. 5 targets, and it’s the ICA. Clearly Edwards went to the ICA board at this stage and was like uhhhh so you need to take these ppl out. HOWEVER I am amazed that the ICA is like “oh, ok”. DO you not remember what happened in SOUTH DAKOTA.

But going after the ICA is a fucking trip and I love it. I love how 47 says each agent’s name to himself. I love how he listens in and the team handler realises it. I love how she pulls the rest of her team out once you get 5. I love that the ICA agents use disguises too!!! This is truly APEX PREDATOR and I love that they named it that. Y’all think you have the balls to go up against 47??? bitch?????

But the fact that you have to find the targets and none of them are marked is so fantastic. I found 6, but I have no idea how many are actually available - but I’m gonna find out!!! The club is HUGE as well, and lots of throwbacks to Contracts, especially with the biker gang. Amazing. Amazing level. I’m so excited to replay it.

Also they really addressed the elephant in the room with the ICA agents describing 47 as a caucasian male, bald, average height and ppl being like uh that’s every man here, and then he said yeah but he’s got this big tattoo lmao

Chongqing

ok this is where I started to think this game was my fanfiction. Inside the ICA? Showing off how truly international it is, and high tech. Hidden in plain sight. Ready to dismantle in 12 hours if needed. SO perfect. This lore builds on Absolution and Blood Money ICA lore in wonderful ways.

Also, I don’t know why the IOI and DK of the logo looked different in the trailer, they must have been just hard to make out. Cos in the game, the ICA logo is the same as all previous games.

Also, analysts do client vetting? Intrigue. Always assumed that was part of the handlers’ job. I take it all back Diana, you have never done anything wrong in your life, ever

I killed Royce by firing the ppl she recommended so she’d get trapped in the data core cleaning. I killed Hush (what a name I love it) as his patient.

Working with Olivia is really fun. I missed Diana, but Olivia brought a whole fresh perspective. I also really like how neither Grey nor Olivia are as good as Diana - they both fucked up while guiding 47 at least once.

47 saying “...I will leave you to prepare” to Olivia, I yelled fdagsfa

Also I love how 47 decided to expose the ICA exactly like Diana did in Absolution. Those two. One of a kind. My heart. And his desire to protect her. I love that the files showed their start together. Olivia saying “I can see why you...” and then she stopped herself. We all KNOW what she was gonna say.

AND AND AND AND

the cutscene - I screamed

“47 has one weakness. Me.”

I swear to fucking GOD, IO has seen into my soul. I’ve said all along that Diana is 47′s weakness, and he is hers. But to hear it said, aloud, by my girl? WHAT???!!!!!

Mendoza

Ok. OK. OKKKKKK. OK. I can’t even write about this one. This was where I was pretty sure I was hallucinating the entire level. This is my Diana and 47 dreams come true. This is insane. This is EVERYTHING.

So we have OUR MOMENT IN THE SUN. She puts her HAND on HIS HAND and he looks in fucking wonderment at it. ahugarhiewEG;FEJGHEFlejlhsgfes;gjrsgt. I can’t. I can barely get through writing about this.

Diana - the dress, the Jolie thigh slit, the jewellery, the hair (they finally fixed her fucking hair), SASS. “I have tango fever” omg.

How do these ppl not have a pic of 47 by now lol

I followed Diana and Vidal around cos I was entranced by my girl. Diana was fucking amazing each time. So much sass. Little did I know I interrupted them enough times for Vidal to say “ok son let’s talk”. I saw the tango and I was like omg imagine if I could dance with Diana.

well.

WELL.

Anyway, got to kill Vidal via her own setup for me, and that was amazing. I wasn’t expecting it at all. I snuck into the house to kill Yates, and overheard him calling Edwards’ voicemail. Also, it is April 2021?? So, yeah. My previous dates were way wrong lol.

And then, ALL MY DREAMS CAME TRUE. Diana and 47 fucking dancing the tango? I was pissed that I was in a security guard outfit, next time I play he will be in his tuxedo baby.

Diana’s comments to 47 when he’s in disguise tho, I was freaking. As security “you look like a true professional. I feel so much safer with you gentlemen around” aaahhhh

UH HE FELL TO THE GROUND COS OF POISON fngjfagfljgnsdfa

I am so glad I was right about my baby girl tho. She even told him “you didn’t have a choice” about her parents. Good. I’m so glad I was right about that. But omg it broke my heart to have 47 so, SO, SOOO sure of Diana all along, defending her to Grey and Olivia, knowing, KNOWING that she was on his side, and then, he eventually started to doubt it.

I was screaming at my screen - this is BLOOD MONEY! SHe is doing what she did in BLOOD MONEY!!!!

But, for a second, 47 wasn’t sure anymore. And Diana played her part well.

Carpathian Mountains

Ok, what I love most about Contracts was how it gave us an insight into 47′s psyche, and this game upped that tenfold. Him seeing all his targets surround him? Him imagining Diana and the Constant dancing together? Him imagining her say terrible things about him, things he’s thought about himself deep down, always, omg, but he finally snapped out of it. Ironic that thinking about Grey snapped him out of it, when in life Grey had not trusted Diana. But 47 came to the realisation on his own. Diana would never betray him.

opening that door and finding out you’re on a fucking train?????? I screamed.

I am a bit disappointed that it turned out Romania wasn’t significant, they just happened to be passing through. But omg the fact that you are “subject 47″ again. I freaked. This is 47′s worst nightmare.

I love that you have a free pass to kill everyone in this level. I did it in stealth anyway, cos it felt wonderfully tense to sneak through that train. But wow. This is another BIG risk that IO took. The train was straight out of Uncharted, and crafting a silencer for your pistol??? Hello The Last of Us????? But I don’t care. They used those elements super well.

I think some people will be angry at this game because parts of it (especially the last level) were a departure from how HITMAN and HITMAN 2 worked. But I love it. I love that they took risks to tell the story they wanted to tell, and those risks paid off.

47′s undying loyalty to Diana, omg. Telling Edwards bye bitch, I’ll never forget who I am again, and Diana thinks you suck. <3<3<3<3<3

ENDING

OH MY GOD. ONE YEAR LATER????? 47 obviously took some time off cos he fucking needed a break. But he’s back, baby. Ending on “it’s good to be back” was wonderful. The game ended where the 2015 trailer for HITMAN started, and I’m crying. He’s ready to continue with Diana, and not because it’s what he was made to do, not because he doesn’t know what else to do, but finally, because he CHOOSES to do that.

But one year later? What does that mean? Has Diana rebuilt the ICA like in Blood Money, or will she and 47 work together without anyone else? They’ll need the infrastructure that an organisation like the ICA has though. Diana said she would dismantle Providence from the top down once Edwards was gone, but how? Does that mean dismantling what’s left of the ICA? They were one and the same by the end of the game. All that didn’t just disappear. I’m left with so many questions.

I was disappointed Diana wasn’t in the cabin when 47 got there. And I wonder why she wasn’t. She knew he was coming, but they are clearly still on good terms. Maybe she wasn’t sure what to expect. But does that mean they hadn’t spoken in a year since??? But she didn’t sound surprised to hear him, and he had coordinates that he was following, so I think they arranged to meet. But her phone was in there when he arrived, and she wasn’t. Maybe he was tracking her phone? Did she come back there to him after?????

BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT

the game

ended

with 47

smiling

And for that I will be forever grateful.

Ok bye, I need to play it again. RIP work tomorrow lol

#hitman 3 first impressions #hitman3spoilers

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kareofbears · 4 years ago

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persona 5 strikers thoughts and feelings

This is going to be a long post. Like, the type of post you’d only really have time to read when you’re trying to sleep but you’re not ready to be unconscious yet so you’re just looking for something to do to spend your time with minimal effort.

So in 2018, a masterpiece was born into the world: Into the Spider-verse was released and it was amazing—it’s honestly the best spiderman movie we have without a doubt, and it’ll be very far into the future before Spider-verse is beaten as the best spiderman movie. Them’s the facts. Then in 2019, Spider-man: Far From Home was dropped. It’s a great movie! Great characters, great continuation of who these characters are and works fantastic as a continuation of a story. It’s really hard trying to take the torch of a previous movie (or in Marvel’s case, juggling twenty something movies) and come up with a new movie that both works on its own, as well as being the next step in this series of films. Thus, with that idea in mind, I think it’s kind of unfair to judge into the spiderverse and far from home, because these are two movies with two completely different objectives in mind.

Okay, so this is still a persona 5 strikers post, I promise, but the idea is the same: Persona 5 could basically do whatever it wanted—new story, new characters, new everything, and it’s just plain old awesome. However, Persona 5 strikers did not have that sort of freedom. It was bound to the original game, and it had its own rules and stuff it had to keep intact, characters they had to work with, and on top of that, it had to justify its existence as a sequel (lets pretend money doesnt exist lmfao).

SO, the big question is: did it do that? Did it justify its existence?

And my answer: holy fuck did it ever do that

I came into this game knowing the extreme bare minimum. I knew there was someone named Sophia, and i knew there was roadtrip, and i knew there were Personas. That’s my knowledge of it before i played it on the Switch. I should also clarify like, early on, that i was not expecting anything from this game. At all. I was the world’s biggest cynic of this game—if you scroll down my p5s tag far enough, youll just see me complaining about a game that hasn’t even come out yet. I was fully expecting to have this be a Waifu show, and any male character that isn’t Akira to just be shoved aside like some kind of nerd in a high school hallway, and i have never been more pleased to be wrong. In fact, i actually owe it an apology, because of how fucking rude i was for no reason!!! Because this game deserves everything to be honest.

Persona 5 strikers is, frankly, insane. Insane in the sense that it got to pull shit off that just would never have existed in the original game, because the original game is scared. It had to be as impressive as possible and garner as much attention as possible. Strikers does not have that problem—every single person who bought that game does not need to be convinced that persona 5 is a good game. They already played it. That means Atlus can just fuck around and have a good time, and man did they have a good time. There’s still scenes that still shock me if i think about it too hard, because i’m used to atlus having to follow this sort of rule set when it comes to persona 5 (or any of the main games im assuming, but i havent played them.) And on top of that, there’s still shit that’s Atlus Trademarked Branded in a good way. The style of story of story telling, and revealing the mystery that is so integral to what p5 is, is still there.

So, to make this even a little bit comprehensible, i will make a list!

First of all, What is this game?

In short, this game is an OVA of an anime. It’s bonus side content that has one thing in mind: to showcase these lovable characters more by putting them in fun situations. That’s it, and it is just phenomenal. That was the main point of, i’d say, like forty hours of the game. It’s just fun times with fun characters.

But to get deeper of what i think is happening, or what they were thinking during the development, is that this is a second opportunity. Persona 5 (as we all know) had a lot of problems, and we were not quiet about those problems. We yelled it all out, made posts, made complaints on every social media platform ever. And Atlus heard all of them, and Strikers is a way to mitigate those mistakes. Aside from being a fun OVA, Strikers also works to be a deeper exploration of these characters—more specifically, the characters that did not receive much in the original game. Creating this sequel is having the ability to redo what they felt (or to be more specific, we felt) in the original game while adding new ones. I will get to that in a second.

The format of the game

Absolutely brilliant to throw them on a road trip. P5V already forced us to experience Shibuya for 200+ hours, and im so glad that they didn’t do that again. Going from town to town, making us experience these new places alongside our favorite characters is so good, and it just makes sense. It’s fun, it’s lighthearted, and it’s actually shockingly good. But one thing i do want to talk about early on is the way the story unfolds and the villains that they use, and what they do with it because it’s very interesting.

So as we explore japan and stuff, we encounter jails, and with those jails comes an antagonist. This antagonist works to be a parallel to one of our characters. That character will find it in their hearts to feel bad for the antagonist, because the antagonist could have been them had the original game not happen. At first I thought all of the thieves were gonna get an antagonist, and i was really hyped for the ryuji one. And then came to hour forty of the game where i realized “yeah that’s not gonna happen. There’s just not enough time.” And i was right, and the game ended. But i am not salty at all, honestly, because the people who got a direct antagonist were: Ann, Yusuke, and Haru. (we wont count zen and sophie).

Is there a trend??? Yes. these are all characters in the original game that have received the worst treatment by atlus. The three of them are basically cast aside the minute they finished their original arc, and its horrible! BUT that’s why this is the path that atlus chose for them—to give them more depth, and screentime, and a way to show their inner self. That isn’t to say that the ones who aren’t those three (makoto, futaba, mona, akira, ryuji) didn’t get anything. Futaba still has her thing at the end with ichinose, and she was very prevalent and animated during the rest of the game. Mona and Akira have to be a focal points, that’s just the nature of the game. The other two though, I will talk about in depth in a second.

Makoto

Y’all i poke fun at shumako fans sometimes cause its kind of easy and fun, but i honestly love makoto. In my very first playthrough of p5 (my first ever jrpg game, first persona game, i had no idea what i was doing), i had only maxed out two characters: ryuji and makoto. And i know she had a lot of screentime and love in the original game which is great, but i truly felt like she was dissed in this game. Her only roles were

A driver

Someone to tell them “we don’t have a choice. Let’s keep going and see where this takes us.” (seriously, if you replay this game, you will see how much she does this)

Idk, i just wish she had more to do, especially compared to how much love they gave the other characters.

But let’s talk about some of the new characters!

Zenkichi

Damn you atlus. Damn you and your insistence at bringing in cop characters. I was fully on board with hating zenkichi, i was fucking ready for it. I was convinced that there was nothing they could do convince to like zenkichi. I was immune to their copaganda.

And then i ended up loving him, which makes me sad a little bit. I didn’t realize how desperate i was to have an adult who has a persona. Someone who wants the world to change just as much as they do, while still having that aspect of them that makes them adult. Like??? As someone who is technically an adult, its a breath of fresh air. An adult. Who fights. For justice. Using a persona. And god i love akane so much, and her obsession with the thieves (that scene is probably in my top ten fave scenes of the game). Also what i loved about zenkichi is that he fucking hates the cops!! He hates the system of the cops!! And thats why i actually really started to love him!! Because i thought it was atlus saying that the systematic problem of the police cannot be solved by one person, and zenkichi threw away his badge. I actually cried at that part!!

But then he became a cop again, and i was just :/ but as a character, i really love him to bits and would love to do a study on him, or at least use him as an outside pov. But! i absolutely love his persona, since im a les miserables fan hehe

Sophia

she’s probably my favorite new aspect of the game. I was ready to not like her—again, i just suck like that, lmfao—and when i saw her, i was scared that she was just another waifu. I mean, she was very cute after all. But then as the game went on, i thought she was a little too cute. And even further into the game, i finally slapped myself in the face and realized oh my god shes not a waifu. Shes a sister.

That blew my mind, im ngl to you. A female character that isn’t supposed to be romanced? By jove, what a miracle!

And she…is an amazing character. Im sorry, i just love her so much. I love her so much that she probably ranks as my fifth or sixth favorite character which is surprising even to me. Everything about her is delightful and invigorating. She’s funny??? Her comedic timing is amazing, and she has such chemistry with the rest of the team. She’s actually useful to the plot, and while her character design is a little too on the nose for me in terms of cuteness (i mean, good god she’s wearing oversized sweater to show how cute and tiny she is, and her hair has literal hearts in it), she is absolutely lovable.

But what i actually really wanna gush about for a second is sophia at the last stage of the game. You get the idea, i dont really like to get excited over things, so at this point i figured that there was nothing this game could do to shock me.

And then sophia had a persona awakening.

Like. holy fuck did i yell. I didnt realize what was happening until the music had already kicked in. and its just so fucking smart!!! Sophia??? The ai?? With no heart?? gOT A PERSONA???? AWAKENING??? BECAUSE SHE LEARNED WHAT THE HEART IS AND THE PASSION THAT YOU NEED IN ORDER TO GET A PERSONA??? I started crying honestly, because it was just so smart. And looking back on it now, its obvious!! Of course it would lead to this, it only made sense that the culmination of her character arc leads to her getting a persona, nothing else would have been as good. Also, her voice actor is just amazing?? When she was talking to ichinose at the end, i actually got incredibly emotional because of the line reads. Its just so spot on and it really captures the essence of sophia.

Muah. five stars Atlus. You got me.

Ryuji <3!!!!

Oh man. Oh boy. Okay. so where do i start.

Yall know i love him. Hes probably my favorite fictional male character of all time, and he is the one i was the absolute most cynical about in this game. I was expecting literally nothing. Nothing. Like. nothing. I thought he was just gonna keep being used as a joke, or a gag, and he’s gonna be super horny all the time for the other girls and it was gonna make me mad and there was gonna be some insane homophobic/queerphobic jokes in every other scene and i know i was being unfair, but i cant help it.

And then i played the first two hours of the game, and i cried the entire time. Because ryuji has never been better than he is in this game. Its crazy.

The ryuji in persona 5 strikers is who ryuji should have been/how he should have been treated this entire time. From the actual funny jokes (for example, the gold bar joke + his reaction to it in the beginning of the game), defending his female friends instead of being the one people need to defend from (natsume arc), and the fact that he was the one to be there with morgana and akira in the very beginning of the game. Its such a small thing that they didnt even need to do, but it was such an integral part of the original game for me, that i just was convinced that nothing like this was going to happen. But then it happened. Its just small stuff like that that could have been overlooked but it wasn’t because this game? Persona 5 strikers? Fucking loves ryuji.

The actual respect they gave this boy is insane and i wasn't ready for it. Like, they gave the shujin trio lunch, they gave the little charm of the katana when they were in natsume’s jail, and, in my opinion this is the second-best thing that they could have given ryuji is sophia. Ryuji and sophia are the pinnacle of a brother & sister bonding relationship in the game that isn’t akira & futaba. And its really prevalent too?? Small stuff from the beginning of the game (pulling her out of a jail, calling her shorty), but then you have the iconic “shut the fuck up” scene, and that scene was so well characterized and written and voice acted, that somehow him saying “fuck” was the least exciting part of that scene to me. Ryuji is an older brother to her, like its undoubtable, and its only further cemented at the end of the game where Ryuji helps out ichinose because he knows how much sophia cares about her. This game. Love ryuji. And i love. This game.

You know what else i love? Akiryu.

Guys. i was fully prepared to starve in terms of akiryu. But theres just. So much of it. I wont get too deep into it, because i think this aspect of the game for me still needs marinate a little bit. Like, what was that last shot when EMMA died and Ryuji walked to approach Akira so they could relish in their victory together?? And the smile from both of them??? What the fuck. That was amazing. Also Joker being saved by Ryuji when he was about to fall from the cliff to save sophia??? WHAT. The LEADER AND HIS RIGHT HAND MAN? WHAT. anyway. If theres anything i want to keep for myself in my own brain, its the akiryu aspect of this game, so i wont talk too much about that part of things (instead, itll probably manifest in fic lmfaooo).

Sure, there’s tidbits of stuff i dont like that they gave ryuji: sexualizing ann in that one cut scene and making him touch the jails even though it hurts, and i recognize those and frown at them, but for the most part, i am blown away with how they treated him.

Basically, Ryuji has never been better. From the opening of the game with him being the first text message and the one to sling his arm around akira, to the very last cut scene where it was ryuji wordlessly leaving because he’s so confident that they would never be separated for long, this game adores Ryuji and i am so so happy to say that.

The Royal aspect of things

Yeah, i had to talk about this, but itll be a short thing i just wanted to point out. Because the last part of this game...is persona 5 royal. Which is curious. Like taking reality and giving that power to someone else so you dont have to experience suffering anymore? And even like, the final section just looked a lot like the top half of maruki’s palace?? And whats even crazier is that we had a boss fight with sophia, just like how we had a boss fight with sumire? Royal and Strikers have like, the same thesis statement. It’s kind of uncanny.It’s interesting, it’s like atlus came up with these two ideas, and then just decided they liked both of them so much that they just did it twice. I don’t mind though—actually, in terms of how the last Palace/Jails go, i probably like them both about equally.

Though i did love the final battle in this one more than i did in royal. Splitting into teams?? Thats cool as fuck, and really innovative and i didnt see it coming. It also kicked my ass. A lot.

Now for the last stretch: the small stuff!

The music — bomb as fuck. In my heart, Daredevil is ranked the same as Rivers. Axe to grind is also amazing, but Daredevil owns me

Akechi — i really debated whether or not to talk about him, but i figured a bullet point should be enough. Im really shocked that he wasnt in this at all. Like not even a name drop. If this is an OVA, and the point of the game is to please the fans, and akechi is arguably the fan favorite character, i was really ready for something. But there was nothing, except for the pancake hallway if that even counts as a reference. Thats it. Thats all i wanted to say about him.

The humour — FUCKING HILARIOUS im convinced that in my fifty hour playtime, five of that is dedicated to me laughing and unable to continue the game

Akira — so much personality! His lines of dialogue are crazy sometimes (like. Whats up with him saying Ryuji has ‘nice abs’ when they were in bath? Im crazy and even i dont know what the fuck that could mean)

Battle system — oh my god i almost forgot to talk about this. I love it! I kind of miss the turn based aspect just because i found it very comforting for some reason, but this hack and slash style of gameplay is so invigorating because i do feel like it justifies shit like the baton pass and huge attacks. This battle system fully encompases how the Phantom Thieves are supposed to fight, you know what i mean?

Anyway, thats my thoughts on strikers. Loved it. Amazing. 9.3/10, wouldve been higher but Konoe’s Jail almost bored me to death. Also im a monster and i didnt do any requests that isn’t a fun one, teehee. As if i play persona 5 for the persona aspect of things.

#cant believe im done #but you know what?#i was actually at peace when i finished it #so i consider that a good healty thing #p5s #alex plays p5s #mine #p5 #my moon and stars #the leader and his right hand man

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recentanimenews · 3 years ago

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FEATURE: The Top 10 Fight Scenes Of 2021 According To YOU!

When writing an article reviewing any aspect of a medium in review, it’s hard not to come away with the impression that “this year was a good one” for whatever the subject of your piece may be, but nevertheless, I believe 2021 has treated us quite well when it comes to animated battles. Black Clover and JUJUTSU KAISEN’s respective climaxes, BORUTO’s manga arc, One Piece’s build toward the Onigashima conflict, and a ton of smaller offerings meant we had huge battles to look forward to every month! With that in mind, a Top 10 article covers nearly the entire year?

Much like this article’s companion pieces on 2021’s OPs and EDs, what follows is a list of the Top 10 fight scenes of 2021 as determined by viewership on the Crunchyroll Collection YouTube channel, weighted at 30 days so anime from earlier in the year don’t get an advantage and to balance flash-in-the-pan popularity vs iconic moments that will continue on in the fandom’s consciousness.

What follows is 2021’s top fight scenes as determined by YOU!

10. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime - Hakuro vs Kyouya

youtube

I knew Tensura was gonna make it onto this list but gotta say I’m surprised this is the fight that did it. My money would have been on Shion delivering an entire knuckle submarine sandwich to the back of Clayman’s head. I suppose there is something to say for this fight being one of the first to finally break an excruciatingly slow build-up to the hotly anticipated Tempest counterattack and watching the slimey Kyoya, in particular, get torturously put down was a major shot of cathartic schadenfreude after watching his group sadistically set the stage for the attack on Tempest. Hakuro’s revenge collected 1M views in 30 days!

9. Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S - Tohru vs Ilulu

youtube

Kyoto Animation can do it all, delivering one of the best comedy slice-of-life series of the year that also has some truly spectacularly animated battles. After the insane “roughhousing” and dodgeball scenes from Season 1 we all knew to expect awesome fights in S. Although Tohru’s long-anticipated battle against Elma may have been the most destructive, it didn’t carry with it the same anticipation as the introduction of the new antagonist dragon Ilulu. Ilulu getting her house burnt down hit 1.2M views in 30 days!

8. My Hero Academia - Himiko Toga vs Liberation Army

youtube

Much like Tensura, I gotta say I’m surprised this is the fight that caught popular attention although Himiko has always been a fan favorite (are you all OK?) among MHA fans and one who hasn’t really gotten a proper fight. While I’m still not sure this exactly counts, this might be the single biggest body count created by a single attack in My Hero Academia up until this point and it was done copying the Quirk of a character firmly in the “support type” category. Himiko also awakening her Quirk is a big character moment so maybe it was that? Maybe it was just the title? The race between these next three was mega tight, with each hitting 1.3M views in days.

7. To Your Eternity - Fushi vs Oniguma

youtube

While To Your Eternity is unquestionably a masterpiece of fantasy and dramatic storytelling, I didn’t expect Yoshitoki Oima’s meditation upon mortality to make this list. Nevertheless, it seems Fushi’s battle as an immortal wolf vs the god bear Oniguma attracted interest for some reason. Although almost tragic in the manner in which the mighty bear is worn down by the relentless attacks of a wolf that instantly heals a variety of fatal wounds, Ryo Kawasaki’s amazing musical accompaniment deliver the impact of the scene as it irrevocably changes the course of fate for all who witness it.

6. Black Clover - Asta and Yami vs Dante

youtube

Part three of my year in review article, and also part three of me talking about how great 2021 was for Black Clover, a series that was always fantastic but took a while to draw the attention that it deserved. When the power scale of the anime started increasing all the most important battles got tremendous fights which developed a strong visual language for Black Clover’s style of combat that some other battle anime never quite nail down. Yami is one of those characters that always got the A+ treatment from his very first battle against Licht, so Asta stepping up to fight alongside the captain of the Black Bulls as an equal was a huge moment that got a huge episode-long battle that blew out the choreography from the manga and displayed Asta growing from a liability in the early battle to the key to victory at the very end. If anything, this should be higher.

5. Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles - Rio vs Assassin

youtube

Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles isn’t slacking in the fight department but something about his first battle definitely stands out. A small child receiving a fantasy position that instantly downloads martial arts into his brain Matrix-style to embarrass a magically-boosted assassin is definitely up there in the embarrassing one-sided beatdown department. Since most of the first season was setting up major villains Rio will likely battle later on, this quick skirmish definitely stood out against his more muted conflicts building toward true action of the story (although him fighting his own imaginary girlfriend was also pretty funny). Rio beating up this sorry guy got 1.4M views in 30 days!

4. TSUKIMICHI -Moonlit Fantasy- - Makoto vs Demon Army

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I’m gonna level with you: I have watched every single isekai without exception for the past five years. This genre holds very few surprises for me, but TSUKIMICHI -Moonlit Fantasy- still found plenty of ways to charm me. Maybe it was nostalgia from the Tenchi Muyo! energy of the two disasters Tomoe and Mio or the Tensura-esque homeliness of Makoto’s monster village led by the ultra-charming Saori Hayami-voiced Emma. The series threw me a curveball when it became a fantasy mercantile adventure and then ANOTHER curveball when it suddenly busted out this insane fight scene in the final episode featuring Makoto dropping the proverbial weights to deliver an attack so devastating the collateral damage destroyed an entire demon army I’m not entirely certain he was even aware was present. Definitely looking forward to Season 2. Makoto grabbed 1.5M views in 30 days!

3. JUJUTSU KAISEN - Megumi Fushiguro vs Special Grade Curse

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My fellow Fushiguro fans, it’s our year. Although the second half of JUJUTSU KAISEN included Itadori and Todo exchanging supernatural high fives while doing battle with a flower monster and what can only be described as an anime music video of Itadori and Nobara going back to back against Kechizu and Eso, Fushiguro’s battle against the special grade curse took the top spot for this series this year. Sukuna knew all along Fushiguro was destined for greatness and seeing Megumi test himself by expanding his shikigami summoning powers into a giant inky pool of nightmare beasts was an awesome moment that promises some stellar fights in the future. The numbers start ramping up from here with Fushiguro collecting 2.7M views in 30 days!

2. One Piece - Roger vs Whitebeard

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The Wano arc has been a revelation for One Piece fans. The series has been accelerating upward the past few years with a noticeable uptick in quality over the course of Whole Cake that also introduced a number of novel art styles — Wano came in with a whole visual overhaul and countless indulgent battle cuts during the early skirmishes of the arc. Oden’s backstory turned this up to 11, and rightly so, as it featured two of the world's greatest pirates in their prime. Although not a conclusive battle, One Piece had to show the titanic collision of power that was Roger and Whitebeard simply crossing weapons to let us all know what the power ceiling of the Grand Line really looks like. This titanic clash hit 5.3M views in 30 days!

1. BORUTO: NARUTO NEXT GENERATIONS - Kawaki vs Garo

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BORUTO was a shoo-in for best battle of the year, 2021 being maybe the best year of a franchise that indisputably delivers the best battles of its genre. In fact, if I didn’t limit this list to one fight per IP, 9 out of the top 10 would all be BORUTO. One might expect the excellent hand-to-hand battle between Baryon Mode Naruto and Otsutsuki Isshiki to stand head and shoulders above all others. Nay. While I personally believe that will be the more enduring battle, it’s Kawaki vs Garo that takes the top prize, and y’know what? Good. This episode dropped to triumphantly kick off the BORUTO anime’s return to the manga storyline with a movie-quality episode featuring Kawaki showing us what karma can really do climaxing with one of the most merciless executions the Naruto franchise has ever seen. Kawaki’s entrance into the BORUTO universe scored 5.7M views in 30 days!

Those were the best battles of 2021 according to you and, consequently, the last of this series of Top 10 lists for the year. Next year is looking bright with Onigashima having made its way to the roof, more BORUTO manga content on the horizon, and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Entertainment District Arc heating up! Not to mention new titles like Chainsaw Man and SPY x FAMILY and returning champions such as Attack on Titan promising some beautifully animated battles!

That does it for 2021. Hope to see you all at the same time next year.

If you feel the fandom has missed a great moment, feel free to share it in the comments below!

Peter Fobian is an Associate Producer at Crunchyroll, writer for Anime Academy and Anime in America, and an editor at Anime Feminist. You can follow him on Twitter @PeterFobian.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Peter Fobian

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 4 years ago

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Michael in the Mainstream: The Dark Knight Trilogy & Its Negative Impact on the Superhero Genre

Superhero movies have come a very long way in the past couple of decades, cementing themselves as a genre unto themselves rather than the odd action movie here or there. Almost every year a few new ones of varying quality pop up that incite equal parts excitement and derision. It’s definitely a genre people feel very strongly about, but even people who tend to not love superhero films will admit that Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy is fantastic.

From 2005 until 2012, Nolan reinvisioned Batman in a way that grounded the character in reality. There’s no fantastical elements, there’s no insane science, there’s no superpowers… Everything in these films could happen in the real world. In a post-Batman & Robin world, this was seen as a breath of fresh air, and the critics loved it. In particular, The Dark Knight helped to usher in the modern age of superhero films, releasing the same year the MCU kicked off and widely being hailed as one of the greatest films of all time. That’s right, not even superhero films, films period. These films were impressive, groundbreaking, and… they fundamentally ruined superhero movies for quite a while.

Look, I don’t particularly hate these films. I think all of them are pretty good, in their own ways. But they have a lot of glaring issues that really hamper them a fair bit and yet, somehow, they became the blueprint that studios decided to look at for what they thought a successful superhero movie should be. Nolan’s films are serious, brooding, dark, and lack the whimsy and creative insanity that makes comics such a fun and engaging medium, and I think this right here is what has hurt comic book movies the most over the past decade. These are films that feel absolutely ashamed to be comic book movies, and they desperately want to seem like they’re “mature” and for “adults.” And, unfortunately for the rest of us, this shame translated over into a lot of other films, something we’re only just now recovering from.

Looking at the greatest strength of the trilogy shows this issue pretty well, that being the villains. Nolan’s films gave us truly iconic portrayals of characters like Bane, Joker, and Scarecrow, and you’re not gonna hear me say much bad about them. Cillian Murphy, Liam Neeson, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Aaron Eckhart, and Heath Ledger all do fantastic jobs as the insidious rogues of Batman. But the issue I have is that by grounding these characters in a realistic setting like this, it kind of misses the point. Joker isn’t using exploding cakes and laughing gas, Ra’s al Ghul isn’t an immortal warrior, Bane isn’t a drugged-up super soldier… They’re all just Guys. They’re Guys With Gimmicks, yes, but at the end of the day they aren’t what should be looked at as the be-all, end-all of the character’s portrayals.

And yet everyone acts like no one should ever play Joker again, because Heath Ledger’s Joker was just so good, guys! And he was good, but I don’t think Ledger’s Joker should be the absolute final Joker ever. Quite frankly, I prefer Phoenix’s Joker, because even if that version is also in a rather grounded film missing the overt weirdness of comics for the most part, he still dresses in a colorful costume, acts weird, tells jokes, and is in general more Jokery. Out of all of these villains, I think Bane and Scarecrow at least come within the ballpark of being close to how they should be, but Scarecrow is horribly underutilized and Bane is given a rather undignified sendoff.

Then there are the bigger issues. Batman himself is really downplayed throughout the trilogy, getting fairly little screentime compared to villains and side characters. This was a huge point of contention when The Dark Knight Rises came out, with most of the film featuring Bruce Wayne, and in hindsight it highlights how unwilling Nolan was to engage with the comic book trappings of what he was adapting. I like Christian Bale a lot, he’s a great actor, but I don’t think he really carries any of the films; in fact, it’s usually the villains carrying the movies. Bale is certainly not as bad as Val Kilmer in the role of Wayne/Batman, but he’s no Keaton, he’s no Clooney, he’s not even an Affleck. A lot of the time, he also just feels like… a Guy. And Batman should not ever, ever just be a Guy.

But perhaps the most egregious fault of the films is what it did to Gotham City itself. In Burton’s films, you really get a feel for the Gothic atmosphere of the city with how it’s designed, and this goes for Batman: The Animated Series too. And even the more cartoonish, colorful Gotham of Schumacher’s films pops and leaves an impact. But Nolan’s Gotham? It’s very much just a City. There is nothing distinct about Nolan’s Gotham, it’s literally just a generic city, and if you even have the faintest knowledge of Batman you will know that Gotham is not just a city. Gotham is pretty much a character itself, a dark, imposing landscape in which Batman does battle with his costumed foes. Every other adaptation I can think of knows to make Gotham feel unique and distinct, but this one just absolutely drops the ball. You might as well just have the city be New York if you’re going to put no effort into giving it personality.

And that all brings me to this: every reviled superhero movie of the past decade, from F4ntastic to The Amazing Spider-Man to Dawn of Justice, all have their genesis in Nolan’s trilogy. He laid the groundwork for these films to exist, and a large majority of the blame needs to be put on Nolan for sapping the fun out of comic book movies. Now, to be totally fair to Nolan, he’s not entirely responsible for what happened to the comic book film landscape; prior to him, the X-Men film series was giving all of the heroes dark costumes and being a bit more serious. But despite those films playing a bit of a part, there’s one major reason I don’t fault them nearly as much: The X-Men films never once felt ashamed to be comic book movies.

You have to understand, people loved grit and edginess in the 90s and had just violently rejected Batman & Robin a few years prior to the original X-Men film, so it’s hard to really fault it for wanting to avoid being too campy. But much like Blade, the films never tried to act like they weren’t still crazy comic book films. Scott still has eye lasers, Mystique is still blue, Nightcrawler looks like a demon, there are Sentinels and Apocalypse and even Dazzler shows up at one point! The X-Men franchise wasn’t always good, but it managed to balance between being silly and taking itself seriously pretty well for the most part. Magneto is still a Holocaust survivor, his relationship with Xavier still has impact, there are still emotional moments here and there, but then you also have Deadpool movies and the multiple comic book style retcons to the timeline that leave the continuity a mess, and something about that just feels right. And all that makes Logan less egregious despite being the sort of brooding, angsty superhero drama Nolan would make, because even if it is those things, it still centers around a dude with metal claws coming out of his hands trying to stop his best friend from wiping out everyone with psychic seizures. Nolan could never make this superhero film.

Nolan’s films, on the other hand, did. These films did not feel like they wanted to be comic book movies, they felt like they wanted to be serious crime films but Nolan was stuck with Batman so he just mashed the two together. And honestly, I’d probably be more forgiving if it weren’t for the hugely negative impact these films and their critical success had on the superhero genre even until this day. The first decade of superhero films as a major contender in cinema were colored by these films. People outright balked at silliness in superhero movies for quite some time, with a lot of criticism levied at the early phases of the MCU for being too goofy; in fact, at times it seemed as if the MCU was going a bit too far in the goofy direction without striking the proper balance, with films like Age of Ultron having most of its tension defused by constant wisecracks. And on the DC side, Nolan’s grounded approach lead to Zack Snyder’s flaccid filmmaking with dark coloration, moody atmosphere, and not a shred of joy to be found. Nolan is essentially the peak of dark, grounded superhero films, and Snyder is the nadir, but Snyder’s awful DC films wouldn’t exist if not for Nolan.

It was a slow crawl getting to what superhero movies should be. Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man were films tossed out only when Marvel was certain they could take risks, because absurd concepts like those would just not have been able to survive if not for years of good will beforehand. That’s not even getting into some of the more bonkers elements of later films, such as Ego the Living Planet and basically everything about Doctor Strange. In fact, Doctor Strange, for all its issues, is still a massive step forward for a genre that outright rejected magic for a long time, instead for a time turning Thor and his costars into a cast of hyper-advanced aliens, with later films having to clarify that there is magic and zombies and so on. The recent WandaVision was able to further clarify this by making Wanda unambiguously magic and not an evil Nazi science experiment.

Superhero animation didn’t suffer quite so much, but that’s mostly because, much like comics, animation is still seen as “kid’s stuff” by way too many people. And even then, they didn’t escape the shadow of Nolan totally unscathed; one need only look into the infamous Bat Embargo, which limited Batman villains so there could only be one given incarnation of said character in media. For instance, the Scarecrow being in Batman Begins meant he could not appear in the animated series The Batman. This lead to such things as no Batman characters appearing in Justice League Unlimited. It was truly a stupidly frustrating time to be a Batman fan when some of his most iconic foes were relegated to only certain appearances because it “might confuse kids.”

Let me again clarify this: I mostly like the Nolan films. I usually like Nolan, though he has become unbearably, obnoxiously pretentious these days. I think a lot of elements of them are great, I feel like they mostly have strong villains, and I don’t disagree that The Dark Knight is a fantastic film. But the thing is these are only good as AU stories, as their own thing; they should not be the template every superhero movie should follow, or any superhero movie for that matter, because they lack the ability to engage with the things that make people love comics in the first place. People love wacky, off-the-wall concepts, superpowered aliens, magic, talking animals, evil living planets, alcoholic ducks, and all that fun stuff.

People desperately want the fun, camp, and wacky stuff back in comic book films, as the success of the goofier DC films like Aquaman, Shazam, and Birds of Prey as well as the success of shows like Doom Patrol in comparison to the critical and audience revulsion of Snyder’s films, with Shazam in particular giving us such bonkers concepts as an entire family of superpowered children and Mr. Mind, the evil alien caterpillar. Thor: Ragnarok and the Guardians of the Galaxy films have become some of the most beloved MCU movies despite being weird, wacky, and wholly embracing the joy of comics to the point the latter films feature Howard the Duck and the aforementioned Ego alongside bizarre characters like Rocket Raccoon, Groot, and Taserface. And the thing with all of these films is that they’re able to balance the weirdness and wackiness of comics without losing sight of human emotion, moving storytelling, and drama. They’re both fun and deep, goofy and yet meaningful. This is what comics are, and what they should be, and anyone who thinks comics should be grim and gritty really needs to think about why they think an entire genre needs to be colored in with only the dullest colors.

I think what I’m trying to say here is this: Make a Detective Chimp movie, you cowards.

#Michael in the Mainstream #mitm #review #movie review #the dark knight trilog #the dark knight #batman begin #the dark knight rises #superhero movie #christopher nolan #DC

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bisexual-horror-fan · 4 years ago

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"Crescendo." Warwick Wilson X AFAB!Reader.

Hey! So I know, I know, I still got asks in my box and am commited to those but it has been a minute since I have done something fully for me and totally self indulgent! So that means some Warwick Wilson. I have always wanted to do a follow up to this piece I did back in Feb, Upon His Table, that, as well as this are movie spoiler free so read away with no fear if you haven't seen the movie! Hope you all dig this and enjoy this follow up!

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Rating. Explicit. Length. 6.4K. Warwick Wilson X AFAB!Reader. Warnings. Teasing. Dirty Talk. Edging. Asking For Permission. Asking For Forgiveness. Punishment Play. Fingering. Public Shenanigans. Oral Sex. Blow Jobs. Road Head. Vaginal Sex. Creampie.

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Crescendo.

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You wanted to kiss your friend.

You wanted to thank them profusely, take them out for dinner or at the very least send them an edible arrangement for the part they played in this. If it wasn’t for the fact that your friend was late that night at that art exhibit you might not have ever met him and that was simply unthinkable now.

You fit together so well, couldn’t be happier with him honestly.

He was drawn to you inexplicably that first night and struck up conversation over the painting you were looking at and it was a fantastic choice on his part, you had impressed him with your knowledge and insight. You looked great and your opinions were incredible, the conversation continued as you both viewed more art and he had such a great time. He was into you and if the way you were looking at him was any indication you were very much into him in return. Just when he thought you couldn’t get better, you surprised him. He had to run, unfortunately, but wanted to get your information, more than just your name and instead you suggested something totally wild and out of left field, suggested as you called it a serendipitous act of faith, call it for now and if you run into each other again to hold on and not let go.

He never could have anticipated you saying that but he was so utterly enamored by you that he simply couldn’t turn you down, as much as he wanted to do everything possible to get to know you at that very moment he decided listening to you was imperative. He agreed. And so you both bid farewell and while it took a few days for you to be kicking yourself for not getting his number, for him it was that very night when he was back at his job that had so cruelly cut your first meeting so short.

Luckily he ended up finding you. It was over a week later, he was out grabbing some lunch and on the way back to work when he saw you, he had to pause, looking at you sitting at that table outside. You were drenched in the afternoon sunlight, pouring over an open book, drink and pastry in front of you and he knew he couldn’t wait a moment longer as he strode to you and took the seat opposite, unable to stop his smile as he said simply, “Found you.”

And thank God he did.

That was the start of you two dating and it was kind of unbelievable how well you two meshed and got along, bonding over art and literature and food, it was wonderful.

And speaking of wonderful, that first night that he brought you to his house with the offer to cook you dinner fit that word perfectly. The food was amazing, the conversation was mentally stimulating and painfully fraught with ample flirtation and it escalated so the first time you got truly physical beyond basic kissing happened on his dining room table. He ate you out with care and skill that made your head swim, edged you beautifully and one hundred percent on purpose, you used your own mouth on him and were a bit too cheeky and ended up bent over the table. You were treated to the simply exquisite feel of him sinking inside of you for the very first time, stretching you beautifully, you were made to hold on as he fucked you and it was better than you ever could have dreamed of.

You might have gotten just a bit too into it however, hands gripping that white table cloth, twisting and tugging on it and in the throes of ecstasy you pulled too hard and tipped your wine glass, spilling the sweet pink alcohol and making such a mess.

He stopped with you on the bleeding edge of what promised to be a mind melting orgasm, calling you out on the mess you made and wondering out loud just what he should do with you. What he did to you really sealed the deal that yes you two were in for something special in being together, that this was the right call and utterly amazing, that you were compatible on every level, not just mental and emotional or on interests but on that oh so important physical frontier.

He told you that if you wanted to make a mess then he might just be in the mood to make a mess too, and what better thing to make a mess of than you? He held still, cockwarmed you and made you apologize, beg for his forgiveness, barely moving at all in you, one of his hands snaked around you, fingers pressed to your aching clit and if it weren’t for the table supporting your weight surely your legs would have given out. You begged as he wished, pleaded, and finally when he deemed it good enough, truly believed your words he set to it again, he fucked you and made you come for that first time and you nearly sobbed, his name the only thing on your tongue.

Once wasn’t good enough.

On it went and by the end of it you were three orgasms deep and your legs wouldn’t stop shaking and he came over your ass and let the sticky evidence of his pleasure run down your ass and over the backs of your thighs as you feebly attempted to catch your breath.

He checked in to make sure you were fine. You were more than fine, you fucking loved every second of it and made sure he knew. You loved how he was so seemingly proper and could carry on conversation about the most intelligent of pursuits and cook the best food and then fuck you like that; insanely well and with heat and a dominative aspect and nigh reckless abandon.

He proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that you really could have it all.

And all of that and more is what led you to wanting to find some way to thank that friend of yours for setting you down this path with him. You’d been seeing each other for a couple of months now and couldn’t be happier. The physical aspect was still fairly new, you two didn’t rush into it, taking weeks upon weeks to reach that point but now that you had? Keeping your hands off of each other was essentially impossible if you were in private.

Tonight was a big deal.

Your dates so far have been an amazing time but you hadn’t done anything crazy, most of your first dates were day dates, sightseeing and lunches and things pertaining to art and culture and history, lunches and walking in parks, all more casual and freeform. Until that dinner he hosted just for you of course but even still you hadn’t gone out together at night, just had some admittedly very fun nights in. He told you he had taken care of everything and knowing him you were positive he planned it all with as much finesse and care he put into everything he did. All he told you was to not eat and to dress up, like really dress up and so you listened, the tone he used on the phone with you was delicious and you couldn’t help but let your mind run wild wondering with thoughts of what he might have planned.

He was coming by your apartment for the first time in order to pick you up. You had made the trek to his place instead of him coming over thus far and you were so fine with that, I mean he actually owned his own house and while you loved your apartment his place was much admittedly nicer.

You were practically vibrating with excitement as you got ready. You hoped that what you had was nice enough, you might have gone out and gotten a new dress just for the occasion, what could you say? You wanted to impress him as much as he impressed you on a constant basis.

You weren’t planning on staying here but you cleaned up all the same, it was the first time he was seeing your place after all, and just as you were making sure you had everything in your clutch and slipping into your heels, almost as if it was on cue, there was a knock at your door. You strode to the door and pulled it open to find him there ready and waiting, perfectly on time as expected, even more dressed up than usual, which for a man like him who seemingly lived in suits was saying something. He was looking away and upon opening the door he took in the sight of you and the smile that crossed his face as he looked you up and down, you were so curious about what he might have to say about how you were dressed and he didn’t keep you waiting as he spoke, “Well look at you. Making me feel underdressed.”

How did he always know just what to say?

“You’re one to talk you big flatterer.”

You reached for the lightswitch near the door as you asked, “Ready to go?��

“What? Aren't you going to invite me in?” He asked it in a tone that read as being mock-offended and you were tempted but you knew it could go one of two ways, you knew yourself and you knew him and if you invited him in that you might not end up leaving at all tonight, might get too wrapped up in each other. Or the alternative, you could invite him in and allow him to tease you relentlessly and rile you up and THEN go out while making a mess in your panties and not get any relief until hours later, after whatever he had in store for you both tonight.

So you took the third option, not allowing him inside at all. “And let you mess up my outfit and make-up before we even go anywhere? Not a chance.” You teased him in return, turned off the light with a smile and stepped out, door shut and locked. He snapped his fingers as he said, “Damn.” and after putting your keys in your bag you took his hand and said, “Maybe next time Warwick.”

“Promise?” He asked hopeful and you nudged him with your shoulder and a light laugh, a nod as you said, “Promise.”

Soon you were in his car and on your way, he still hadn’t eluded to what you were going to do tonight, he did however have much to say about how good you looked and you loved the attention from him. You were sure to make your own thoughts on his appearance crystal clear and he took those compliments graciously, after that he asked if you wanted to know what he had planned and you told him of course you were dying to know. He told you to open the glove box and take a look, you did and fished out an envelope, he encouraged you to open it and you did so, pulling out two tickets and you gasped upon reading them, “Warwick! Are you kidding me?! I thought these were sold out for months! How’d you get your hands on these?”

He was grinning and glanced from the road to you, “Oh I have my ways, certain connections. So I take it you’re excited?”

Excited was an understatement. He managed to score seats to this amazing, professional symphony concert, one you had been simply dying to attend but of course had sold out near instantly, the fact he got his hands on them was astonishing, you knew he wanted to attend but also knew that he had definitely got them mostly for you, if his intention was to impress you then he achieved that.

“So excited! This is amazing, thank you!”

You would have to come up with some way of showing your appreciation and thank him properly. He said that you were welcome and he had been really looking forward to this, but first things first it was time for dinner. He picked the restaurant, naturally, and the dressing up made perfect sense, not just for the symphony but for this too, it was by far the nicest place you had ever been in. He assured you it was his treat and to not worry about how much it would be and you weren’t about to argue, you knew it would be futile so why press the issue. You were looking over the menu and noticed the lack of prices but tried not to let that bother you, he said he had it covered and you trusted him.

Speaking of trusting him you asked for his opinion on what to get and he brightened at that, he had good taste and you made sure he knew that. Once the food arrived asking him was obviously the right call, it tasted fantastic. Spirited conversation started over dinner, you had found your way onto the topic of one of his previous dinner parties, you inquired what the best one he felt ever hosted was.

There was this look on his face, kind of wistful as he recalled it to you, he talked about the food he made and how his usual friends were in attendance and how that dinner party escalated into drinking and dancing, and general revelry, but part of what made made it really special was this one guest who was in attendance. You asked about this guest and the way he talked about him only made you more curious, “His name is John and he is without a doubt the best guest I have had, he made the night so exciting, utterly unforgettable. He had such panache.” Hmm. Good word. You couldn’t help but wonder what made him use it, what made John have such panache.

“Oh don’t tell me all of that. I am already nervous enough for when I finally get invited to one. All of your friends sound so interesting, however am I supposed to measure up?” You pulled your glass up and took a sip, damn the wine he picked was again, fantastic and had the added effect of soothing your nerves just a touch. You were genuinely excited to get to go to one of his dinner parties but everyone he regularly invited seemed so damn put together, you were worried about fitting in, every time it came up you got a little nervous.

“Don’t tell me that little miss serendipity herself is worried about being interesting enough for my friends.” His hand was on yours and you gave a small nod, smiling however, you didn’t admit it but you liked the nickname he had given you based off your first meeting, “Okay, maybe just a little.”

“You have nothing to worry about, I am sure they will be just as smitten with you as I am.”

And that made you smile wider, ‘smitten’ he used the word smitten to describe his feelings for you and it certainly did something to bolster your confidence. The rest of dinner was lovely, conversation had continued and moved on and over dessert, creme brulee, his suggestion, you were looking down at it, “Good choice. Been years since I have had it.”

“One of my personal favorites, why’s it been so long since you have had it?” He asked, spoon coming down and cracking his open in a rather satisfying manner and you figured since he shared earlier you could recount a memory of your own.

“Reminds me of someone no longer in my life. First guy I was ever really into made it for me. I was at this theater camp, working in the kitchen, he was lead cook and I helped, we became friends and then more than that. It happened over the course of one summer and I totally fell for him.” He had his spoon in his mouth as he was listening to you and once you took a pause he removed it, “Sounds like a very lucky guy. What happened then?”

You let out a sigh and a slight shrug of your shoulders, you couldn’t tell him what really happened, so you edited, “Summer ended, so did our little romance, we both left camp and lost touch. Creme brulee always makes me think of him so for the longest time I just didn’t partake in it.”

“Too many memories.” He said and you hummed with a nod and finally brought your own spoon down, splitting the sugary crust and scoop some up, bringing up that first spoonful and when it hit your tongue you couldn’t help your eyes falling closed or the moan you let out around the dessert. “Damn.”

You realized what you said and opened your eyes, looking to him and he gave you a particular look, a small warning, ‘damn’ was a pretty inoffensive curse word but still one all the same and you were at the table. Sharing a meal. You knew better. You bit your bottom lip and knew he wouldn’t do anything here, not out in public like this but you thought you just might end up paying for it later, you did your best to look apologetic and he had his arms crossed on the table in front of him, leaning forward on his forearms as he asked, “Good?”

“Very good.” You admitted, “Don’t know why I waited so long.” Were you talking about the dessert or about being with him? He was smiling wide and with a nod said, “Well eat up then, enjoy it to your heart's content darling.”

You couldn’t say no to that. Seems he was dropping the fact you swore for now and you finished the dessert with gusto. Drinks were finished and he paid and soon you were off again.

It felt good. Being actually out and about with him, on his arm, you felt great about it, felt important and special and more. The seats he managed to get you were pretty damn nice you had to admit. You were so excited for this, nearly thrumming with energy and barely able to believe you were really here and getting to do this, share this experience with him.

It was his hand that pulled you out of your thoughts, starting on your knee and your attention pulled down to look at his hand, his fingers started to trail up your leg, he was leaning over and whispered to you, “I really love this dress on you.” His touch as light as he traced over your skin, dragging up your leg, your eyes glanced up to see his own eyes down, watching as he moved, “The skin it shows is simply divine.”

God the way he said that word, it sounded nearly sinful, you were glad you knew his taste so well already, when you tried it on you knew the slit that ran so high up your thigh would please him. His gaze caught yours and while you were distracted with that his hand didn’t stop, his touch was so bold for being in public, fingertips dipping under the fabric of your dress, he could feel the soft and delicate lace of what you had on underneath. The lights dimmed and it was about to start and your eyes widened and your hand made a move to grab his wrist and he said in a firm tone, “Don’t.”

“Warwick…” It left you rushed and very quietly, trying to beg him quietly to not do this, not here, not now. He leaned in closer to make sure you could hear him and only you could hear him as the music started he told you, “If you didn’t want this then you shouldn’t have said what you did at dinner.”

God.

You knew you were going to pay for it but you didn’t expect to be paying for it so soon or so publicly. It was dark, no one was looking at you and now with the music starting there was no way that anyone could hear you if you made any sounds. But even with all of that, you still didn’t want to do this here. His eyes were still looking into yours, “I’m sorry.” you mouthed to him and he smirked, his fingers moved closer between your legs, another attempt, “Please?” and a small shake of his head told you that no, you were simply going to have to endure this.

He was leaning back comfortably in his chair, his hand still on your thigh, fingers curling over soft flesh, resting so close to your heat, right fucking there, the pressure was apparent. You were sitting back in your own chair, hands on the arm rests of the chair, just anticipating, waiting for it.

You got swept up in it. The music was fucking amazing. You were utterly enraptured listening to it, you actually managed to forget about the threat of what he was going to do for now.

Until he started doing it.

He was unfairly good with his hands. He was still only over your underwear but it felt incredible all the same. The movement wasn’t even intense, it didn’t need to be, he was well aware of how much of an effect it was having on you, the fact of where you were was what was amplifying it. In such a public and fancy setting, the way you were dressed too, looking so fucking proper and put together and here he was, touching you with no one else aware of it even though there were people seated all around you.

His fingers traced over you, fingers slipping over your clit, slow circles with decent pressure, it made your grip the arm rests hard, knuckles nearly white, trying to control your breathing and your face, not giving away what he was doing.

He didn’t touch you through the whole performance. It was on and off and purposeful. You could only hide so much from him, he could feel how much you tensed, the ways your thighs pressed closer together and other small signs, knowing just went back off, hand going back to resting on your thigh.

Your heart was racing, chest rising and falling, breathing harder than you probably should but the music was loud, no way you could be heard, your eyes fell closed and your hips tilted forward slightly, pushing into his hand, trying to get some more contact, it wasn’t dignified but you were desperate, you wanted more. He continued, pressure increased, bottom lip tugged on with your teeth, you were getting so close, he had stopped and started so many times now it didn't take much for you to hit the edge again.

He wasn’t stopping.

You were wondering when, or IF he would stop this time, what his goal was. To rile you up, make you a mess once again in this public setting or to actually do that, take you all the way there and make you cum out in the open. You didn’t think he would do that before but right now he wasn’t slowing at all, and you didn’t want him to.

He pressed on and you got closer still, toes curling in your nicest pair of heels and the intensity of the music rose as did the pleasure inside and you realized that yes, the bastard had every intention of doing that, and he did it with impeccable timing too. As the music hit its crescendo, so did you, you managed to suppress your shaking but unable to stop yourself, you knew no one could hear you, were sure not even he could hear you over the music, even if it was for you and you alone you gasped his name in awe and reverence.

It was entirely unforgettable.

He had given you so much already by bringing you here and giving you this wonderful experience you had wanted so badly and in typical Warwick fashion he found the best way to elevate it, improve upon it and make it something truly unique.

You had barely come down from your orgasm, still heaving when the applause started and his hand was out from between your legs and instead on your arm, you were pulled up on your heels, legs still trembling and eyes opening to see everyone else up, a standing ovation. Your smile broke out as you joined in, clapping and just trying to stay upright, you glanced at him and he looked very pleased with himself and damn right he should, he had a plan and executed it beautifully, you were pretty pleased yourself.

After the excitement had died down and people were beginning to leave you retrieved your clutch from under your chair and when you came back up he had those fingers he used on you in his mouth. You swallowed hard and asked, “Do you want to go back to your place?”

You left pretty giddy and hanging off his arm, excited for the rest of the evening you had ahead. The second you were in the car you playfully smacked his arm with the back of your hand, “I cannot believe you just did that!” “Really? Because I think it totally seems like something I would do.” He teased and you conceded, “Alright, alright-” “Besides I think you loved it.” Your seatbelts we’re done up and he was pulling out of the spot and you teased, “How can you be so sure?”

“I was looking at you.”

What?

His eyes were on the road and yours were on him. He continued, “Everyone else was looking ahead, watching those musicians play and I couldn’t do anything but watch you. I saw every little way it played out on your face and even though I couldn’t hear it, I saw it.” He glanced at you, “You gasped my name. Am I right?”

Fucking hell. You were falling for him way too fucking hard and way too fucking fast. You couldn’t say it, weren’t about to pull a Schmosby and risk ruining all of this, not a chance.

“Yes.”

Is what you said instead and you wanted to do so much and then the realization hit. Why not? Why couldn’t you. What was holding you back? He was so good at it and did it constantly, teased you amazingly and the way you were feeling, how much he had riled you up was totally his fault, he deserved some of his own medicine.

Your hand was on his inner thigh but it didn’t stay there for very long, dragging up and you caught how his grip on the steering wheel tightened, he asked, “What are you doing?”

“Nothing. Just focus on the road.”

Easier said than done. You palmed him through his pants and felt him shift under your touch, he kept his eyes forward and you kept yours on him, he was normally so good at playing it cool but you knew what you just did back there got to him too even if he kept his composure outwardly. You wanted to make him break apart, crack the facade, you needed it, you teased him until he felt painfully hard under your touch and you haven’t even gone skin to skin yet.

You leaned in closer to him and asked softly, “You okay Warwick?” He cleared his throat and gave a short nod, “Yes, fine.”

Your other hand joined the first and you started to undo his belt, “Just fine?” A hum from him and you continued, “Well I think we can do a hell of a lot better than just fine.” And once your hand was in his pants, closing around him, grip decently tight you watched his lips part a quiet gasp and you felt power in that moment and it was delicious.

You started to stroke him, slowly, grip tightening and you could see him start to struggle a bit, focusing on the task of driving was a getting more and more difficult and you really shouldn’t be doing this, it was dangerous and stupid but it was just so fun. So enjoyable and you decided to push it even further. Your seatbelt was adjusted and you shifted in your seat, tucking a loose bit of hair behind your ear and leaning down, you were a mere few blocks from his place so he wouldn’t have to endure this for long. You had no intention of finishing him here but you wanted to up the game, try and match this even a little bit with what he did to you earlier. Your tongue left your mouth and licked over his head and you could already taste pre-cum, you must have gotten to him more than you had anticipated, you heard the harsh intake of air above you, a soft groan of your name and you pushed onwards.

You had never actually given road head before and weren’t sure if he had received it but even if he had he still seemed to be really enjoying it, why wouldn’t he though? Of course he did when you did it like that. Even with the off angle you really were giving it your all, and if how tense he felt under you and the way he groaned when you pushed him as deep inside as you could manage was anything to go by he was having a hard time handling it. In a few short minutes of you bobbing up and down his cock, messily sucking and allowing hums and moans around him to slip out, he was unable to stay still, bucking up slowly into your mouth.

You felt him make a turn and believed that was the last turn onto his street, your hand on his inner thigh, squeezing as you decided to really push it. You increased the pace, fucking your mouth on him and the choked moan of your name from him made you press your thighs together again, you were drenched and wanting. You lost yourself in the motion of it, you knew you were good at what you did and took pride in it, as you rightfully should. Soon you felt the car stop, he put it in park and turned it off and you were coming up, mouth wet from the effort of what you did to him and with you so close his hand was on your neck and pulling you to him, his mouth crashing into yours.

So there you were, furiously making out in his car, hands grabbing onto each other, desperate for more, in between kissing and rushed breathing he told you, “You’re terrible, you know that?” That made you laugh, pulling back to speak and instead of giving you space he instead leaned further forward, his hands were on your back and he pulled you closer to him, kissing your neck making that same laugh break off in a moan, “Me? Wha-what about you?”

Your hands went to his shoulders and pushed on him lightly, he pulled back as he repeated the same sentiment of what he said earlier, “Don’t pretend you didn’t love it.”

You couldn’t argue and so you didn’t, hand on the collar of his dress shirt, pulling him closer as you said, “Shut up.” Another deep kiss that he didn’t protest as he tucked himself back into his pants and you needed to get inside already, you shifted your hips and it was a reminder of how soaked you were and you needed to deal with that already. You were surely both looking a little disheveled as you exited the car and made your way up the walkway, not able to keep off of each other, but it was dark and late and who the fuck cares, it felt too good. You did have to actually pause for a moment to allow him to unlock the door, bless him he tried but you were quite the handful at the moment and didn’t make it an easy task. Second the door was open and you were both inside that was rectified, Christ he was a good kisser, dinner was hours ago and you only had a glass of wine but you felt drunk off of him.

After all the build up, the fact that you were now fully alone meant there wasn’t a single thing left standing in the way. You still had so much time, no reason to rush but with how turned on you both were it was impossible to stop, couldn’t even make it to the bedroom. He had this sitting room that was right near the front door, it was a nice room, fireplace, hard wood floors, tastefully decorated but most important for right now, a couch. He was the one to lead you there, you were the one to push him back onto the cushions and straddle him, back to kissing him and the possessive way he returned it made you melt just a little, hands on his jacket, helping him remove it. Jacket is thrown aside and he is loosening his tie and you are reaching back, hands pulling your heels off and letting them drop to the floor and you move your hips forward and back, grinding on him and it makes you finally break your heated kissing, your head falls back with a soft moan. He took advantage of his opportunity. Hands on your waist, grinding up onto you and you responded immediately, hips moving with him, feeling how hard he was and you felt almost painfully empty right now.

“Warwick. Fuck. Pl-please?” You sounded wrecked already, desperate and he loved that he could get you to that point, do that to you. He was feeling a little drunk himself at the moment, looking up at you in the moonlight coming through the window and the way your lipstick had smeared, hair out of place, grinding on him and weakly begging him to ruin you, break you open, so in need you couldn’t wait to get down the hallway to his bedroom or for either of you to fully get your clothes off. “Please?” he repeated and you nodded frantically-

“Please, God, please-” and his grip tightened on your waist and he moved you, soon you were on your back, he was on his knees on the floor. His hands slid down and caught the hem of your dress starting to push it up and you aided him, tugging the bottom of your dress up and as soon as he could see them he took a moment to admire what you had worn just for him before ripping them down your thighs, thrown aside.

The tension was ridiculous, you watched as he removed his belt, dying to get him inside of you already, thankfully the wait wasn’t long until his pants were far enough out of the way, his hands on your hips, tugging you further down the couch. Your legs were spread for him, and he was on top of you, lined up and finally sinking inside of you and the relief made your breath catch before moaning his name. He was seated inside of you, he breathed your name in return and his hands were on your thighs, your legs wrapped around his hips and he started to move. There was this moment, this shared gasp upon him pulling out before driving back in fully, you both felt it, something different about this, electric felt like a fitting word, far better than it had any right to, one of your hands scrambling for purchase on the couch cushion below you.

“Oh my God-” You moaned, eyes closing, his breathing was heavy, your other hand reached up and wrapped around his loosened tie around his neck, tugging on it, pulling him closer, you were practically on fire for him. How into it was really driving him forward, he wanted so much more, to pull every possible sound he could from you, he fucked into you harder and you gave him just what he wanted, rewarded his efforts with those beautifully melodic moans and sweet gasps, rocking with him, legs pulling him closer still. You felt incredible wrapped around him, soaked and so hot, writhing under him, it was too good. You were too fucking good, no way could he last like this but who said this would be the only time this would happen tonight?

Your hand tugged on his tie, leaning up, kissing him again, messy and with tongue, he returned it with equal hunger, a groan into your mouth, you tasted amazing, better than the dinner you shared earlier by a mile. It was getting to be too much for you too, getting close again, you tugged on his tie again, breaking the kiss with a whimper, “Close.” his forehead rested on yours, the only other sound was skin on skin from the pace, how hard he was fucking into you, nearly panting, “Me too-”

“Inside, Warwick pleas-ah!” And you cried out as your second orgasm of the night overtook you, legs locked around him, back arching as he didn’t stop, fucking you through your high and as yours was ending his started and his name was on your tongue as he came inside of you. God it was good, he slowed and finally stopped still buried in you, both of you breathing so hard, you kissed him again, softer, sweeter and let go of his tie, you started to slowly untangle from each other. He pulled out and the excess of the both of you spilled forth, thank God the couch was leather, could be easily wiped off or you were sure you’d be paying for that and not financially.

You spoke first, “You are too good at that.” A light laugh from him, he was sitting up on his knees, finally removing his tie fully as he asked, “There is such a thing as being too good?”

You propped up on your elbows, “There is such a thing as having a mouth that is too smart.” “I can give you that. But you just won’t stop talking.” Again that playful way he said it, before you could retort he was speaking once more, “You better be careful leaving tomorrow by the way.”

“Oh? And why’s that?” You asked and he was smirking, “That way too nosy neighbor of mine caught a pretty good view of us on the way in.” Your hand came up to your face with a groan, “Goddamn it.”

He had leaned over and grabbed a box of tissues so he could clean up the mess on the couch as he said, “You know she wouldn’t be a problem if you had me over to your place.”

Fuck. He was right. Maybe next time you should have him back to yours.

#BHF writing #AYYYY!#I am SO happy with this!#Hope everyone else vibes!#Warwick Wilson #Warwick Wilson X Reader #The Perfect Host (2011)

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