#is that a decent enough explanation do I make myself clear idk

[gaybd1]

Here’s another one that is So Canon To Me that I forget I’m not on the same page as everyone else about it:

Katara gets elected Chief of the Southern Water Tribe and Sokka pretty much never goes back

Let’s please give Katara something permanent to do oh my god. Aang is the Avatar, Toph ends up a cop, Sokka is involved in the running of Republic City. Can Katara please get another role other than Avatar’s Wife Who’s Also A Good Healer??

We’ve seen in the show that she’s a very inspiring leader with a huge sense of loyalty. It seems to me like she’d be a natural at politics and strategically a great choice to lead because of her relationship with the world’s other leaders. Also as the last Southern Waterbender and a great healer, she’d have a lot of respect in the tribe as a warrior and as someone also knowledgeable about spiritual matters.

She’s always had a strong connection to her people and her culture and she’s still living there during Korra. I think she trained to be chief under Hakoda and she and Aang and their family split their time between Republic City and the SWT at first. She probably gets elected a few years later and they live there more permanently, then when her term ends they focus more on RC for a while. I think when Aang dies she’s so happy to move back permanently, having moved away due to duty but her heart has always belonged in the South and its next generation of benders.

Sokka meanwhile… We’ve talked about his trauma. I made a post about this somewhere before I think he’s one of those guys that definitely prefers to visit back home than to spend time there permanently. The memories of losing essentially both his parents and being responsible for all his people’s survival… I don’t think he ever fully deals with those. He’s always had a more global outlook on life and I think his skills in engineering and diplomacy would be better used in the Fir Nation and eventually Republic City. I know we hear him called Chief Sokka in I think S3 of Korra but it’s always made way more sense to me that he would be appointed chief of the Water Tribe folks living in the United Republic, which would reconcile the role we see him in on its council.

Also with his disability later in life… the cold weather in the South would probably not be great for him at all…

I do see a lot of stuff about Sokka being chief post-canon and then Katara just kind of fades into oblivion and I mean we know why that is but consider this instead.. ^^

[horangare]

my babysitter’s a vampire

pairing : vampire!hoshi x human!reader

content : smut (mdni), strangers to ???

in which : your parents hired a babysitter after deeming you as the “irresponsible” older sibling. when someone who isn’t junhui shows up in his place, you’re instantly captivated by this handsome stranger and his shiny white teeth.

warnings : grinding, fingering, finger sucking, big dick soonyoung, blood, mentions of a knife and minimal bodily harm (you cut your finger), unprotected sex (but mentions of birth control, be safe either way), cocky soonyoung (ugh i want him so bad), you threaten him with a fork, bff!chaeryeong, dirty talk, pet names, bulge kink (i think that’s everything but pls let me know if i forgot anything)

wc : 4.8K words

note : look y’all i am the youngest of four sisters so idk if my portrayal of a younger brother is a good one but…this is for u hoshi nation horanghae.

“What do you mean?! I don’t need a babysitter!”

Your mom sighed deeply, searching her jewelry box for her matching earring. “I’m sorry honey, but you do. Your sister clearly isn’t responsible enough.” You rolled your eyes, but remained quiet. “And I know Junhui’s mom. She says he’s a very nice boy who’s good with children.”

Ever since you and Chaeryeong shut yourselves in your room to rewatch Girl From Nowhere for the millionth time again and speculate if there would really be a third season, (Chaeryeong insisted there would be, while you thought the opposite) the fact that you were supposed to be babysitting your younger brother had completely slipped your mind. When your parents returned from their date, they pulled into the driveway only to find Leo out there screaming his head off.

After that, you were quickly deemed “irresponsible” by your parents and no longer allowed to be Leo’s babysitter. What did they want you to do? You couldn’t spend all summer break looking after the little brat. Anyway, it’s not like that was the part that bothered you, but the fact that you couldn’t talk or beg her out of it either.

“Mom, come on! I’m eight and a half now! I can pretty much babysit myself!” Leo crossed his arms over his chest, standing in the doorway so your mother couldn’t leave the room without giving him, in all his childhood glory, the explanation he felt he so richly deserved.

“It’s too late. Junhui is already on his way and we’ve already paid him.” She leaned down, kissing him on the forehead. “Promise me you’ll be good.”

Your brother glanced to the side, like he was actually considering not being on his best behavior, before nodding and smiling at your mom. “I promise.” What a little shit.

“That’s my boy. And the same goes for you, [Y/n]. Chaeryeong over but she cannot stay the night. Am I clear?”

You smiled, not even bothering to make it seem real or genuine. “Crystal clear, mom. Have fun with dad.”

“Yeah, yeah. We should be back at around eleven.” Your mom mumbled, making her way down the stairs and to the front door where your dad was waiting. You followed behind her, mostly so you could slam the door in a pitiful act of retaliation and lock it shut until your friend arrived, but also because you wanted to see what this Junhui kid looked like up close.

You’d seen him maybe once or twice before around campus or at the cute little coffee shop you frequented, but you had never gotten a close hard look at his face before. Some of your friends knew him, according to them he was kind of weird, but made up for it with his sense of humor. Maybe he could keep you some decent company before Chaeryeong showed up.

The boy on the other side of the door was not Junhui. At least, you didn’t think so. This boy was a little shorter, a little blonder, and a lot finer than you’ve ever seen Junhui look.

“Oh! Hello, are you…Junhui?” Your mom asked, raking her eyes over the boy standing before her.

“Hi. No, sorry, Jun couldn’t make it. I’m Soonyoung, I’m a friend of his. Can I come in?”

“Oh, sure. Leo? Your babysitter’s here!”

“He’s so hot. And he’s totally your type, don’t you think?”

“Chaeryeong, please!” You slapped your hand over her mouth, earning a dirty look from the girl standing beside you. She was right, this Soonyoung guy was super good looking, but she didn’t have to say it out loud. He was still a stranger after all. A hot one, but a stranger nonetheless, and it was only normal for you to have your reservations. “He’s not even the guy who’s supposed to be here. Junhui was supposed to be Leo’s babysitter. He says he’s his friend.”

Chaeryeong rolls her eyes, not understanding what your problem was. “I wouldn’t be complaining if I were you. Look, even Leo likes him.”

You and Chaeryeong watched from the kitchen island as Soonyoung helped Leo with his homework in the living room, and it’s the first time you’ve ever seen your brother smile while doing homework. Neither of you could hear what they were saying, for some reason you doubted it was about fractions—fractions were not funny.

The longer you observed them—mostly Soonyoung—the more you realized how right your friend was. He was fine. Really fine. It’s like there was some kind of aura around him, something almost otherworldly.

That’s when you started to stare. Like the hard, not even blinking type of stare. Soonyoung turned his head over his shoulder, the two of you making eye contact in what felt like the most awkward way ever. He smiled at you though, which made your cheeks feel embarrassingly warm, before giving his attention back to your brother. Chaeryeong, having watched the entire exchange, grinned while looking you up and down.

“You’re staring.” She mumbled.

Feeling like a stubborn child about to throw a tantrum, you narrowed your eyes and pouted. “Was not.”

Your friend was no doubt satisfied with herself, cooing at you and cupping your face with her hands to squish your cheeks together. “Denial is not a good look for you. Come on,” she released your face to pat you on the shoulder. “let’s go watch a movie before I leave.”

Looking back at the living room, you saw your brother sitting on the couch alone with no signs of Soonyoung. Some babysitter, you thought, leaving the kid he’s supposed to be looking after alone. How could your parents leave someone so irresponsible in charge of your brother?

Oh, wait…

“Just wait for me in my room. I’ve gotta use the bathroom.” She nodded, heading upstairs to your room while you made your way to the bathroom in the hall and swinging open the door.

“What the fuck?” Soonyoung shouted, tearing his eyes away from the mirror above the bathroom sink to look at you. Gasping, you took a step back from him.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t know—” You started to apologize, glancing behind him into the mirror and you froze. The spot where his reflection should be was empty. You took another step back.

“You didn’t know…what?”

If you weren’t so scared right now, you would’ve definitely been offended by the way he was speaking to you like you owed him an explanation for wanting to use the bathroom in your house. You looked at him, then the mirror once more, trying to make it as subtle as possible.

“Uh…nothing! So sorry again.” You said, laughing awkwardly to diffuse the tension and backing away from him far enough until you were close enough to retreat up the stairs and to your room. Chearyeong, seated comfortably in your bed, snapped her head away from her phone to see you clutching your chest and panting.

“Woah, what happened?” She asked as she sat upright. “Why do you look like you just ran a marathon?” With one of your hands, you gestured that you needed more time to catch your breath before taking a deep breath and stepping closer to the bed.

“He doesn’t have a reflection.”

Chaeryeong raised one of her eyebrows. “The babysitter? Are you sure?”

“Yes, of course I’m sure! He was in front of the bathroom mirror but the mirror was, like, empty!”

You could tell she wasn’t really sure whether you were telling the truth or not, making you groan and cover your face with your hands. “I’m really fucking serious! There’s something wrong with him, Chaeryeong!”

A heavy sigh sounded from Chaeryeong’s place on your bed. “I don’t know…what kind of person doesn’t have a reflection?”

“All humans have reflections,” you shrugged, your head tilted as your mind considered each and every possibility. “maybe he isn’t human.”

Chaeryeong snorted and rolled her eyes. “What is he then? A vampire?” The comment was definitely meant to be a joke given the way she’d said it, but the way your eyes widened and jaw drop was all too serious. “Oh my god, is he really a vampire?”

You looked around your room frantically, feeling the smallest bit of relief when you saw your laptop resting on your beside table. Chaeryeong made room for you in the bed, watching as your fingers flew over the keys.

How to identify a vampire.

“Asks to be invited into your home…no reflection…powerful presence or aura,” you skimmed over the first three bullet points shown before you and felt your mouth go dry. Soonyoung, so far, was definitely fitting the description of a vampire.

“Look,” Chaeryeong pointed to the next bullet point and read it aloud. “When a person is injured, make sure to find out if their focus is more on the injured person or the injury itself.” You looked at her, unsure of what his point was. Nobody in the house had been injured?

“Yeah, so?”

“So we’ve gotta injure you.” She scoffed, a little confused as to how you weren’t following her crazy thought process.

You leaned away from her. “What? Why does it have to be me?”

“You’re the one that wants to prove it so bad, aren’t you?” It was hard to argue with that one, you were the one who brought it up in the first place. You grumbled and slammed your laptop shut.

“Fine! But if we do all this and he ends up being just some guy I’m expecting a very long apology from you.”

Chaeryeong just smiled brightly at you. “Yes, ma’am.”

Soonyoung had brought Leo up to bed much earlier than he thought he would; your brother mumbled something about using all his brainpower on the fractions, and Soonyoung had laughed and tucked him into the covers. When he returned downstairs, he noticed the kitchen lights were on. Once he reached the bottom, he could see Chaeryeong holding your quivering body in the kitchen, a knife and an apple discarded on the kitchen island.

“What happened?” He asked, the faintest hint of worry in his voice.

The truth of what happened is quite simple; you and Chaeryeong snuck down here while Soonyoung was putting Leo to bed, she gave you a small (but still painful) cut on your index finger, and now you were standing here trying to sell it.

“[Y/n] was gonna split this apple with me, but I totally forgot how awful she is with knives. I think she cut her finger open, does it look bad?” Chaeryeong grabbed your wrist, holding your now opened hand closer to Soonyoung’s face. The blood had pooled where the cut was and started to streak down your finger. He sucked in a breath, struggling to look away from it.

“Y-Yeah, it looks pretty bad.” Soonyoung gulped, watching the red liquid falling down past your knuckles. He licked his lips, an action that didn’t go unnoticed by you, and you pulled your finger away. Then and only then did Soonyoung look at you in the eyes again.

“Everything okay? You seemed kind of distracted.” You tilted your head to the side. “You seemed really focused on the blood, don’t you think?”

Soonyoung scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest. “Oh please, I was not.” You and Chaeryeong exchanged a look, and you held up your bleeding finger in front of his face again. Soonyoung’s focus shifted once more, his eyes zeroing in on the streak of blood that was beginning to go dry. You turned away to rinse it under the sink and shook off the water once it was all washed away.

“Yeah, okay.” Chaeryeong said, reaching into her pocket and handing you a band-aid. “So you’re a vampire, right?”

To say the least, Soonyoung seemed shocked and offended that you had caught him so easily, as if he hadn’t been the most obvious vampire ever. “What? A vampire? Please, how could you ever think that?” It was almost pathetic how he was actually trying to convince you otherwise when the evidence was already there, maybe he actually thought he could wiggle his way out of this.

“Look, we already know. Just drop it.” You sighed, and Soonyoung did the same.

“Aw, mannnnnnn.” He whined. “What gave it away?”

“Do you really want us to answer that?” Chaeryeong asked him, her voice riddled with sarcasm. Soonyoung looked down and mumbled the word “no,” and Chaeryeong nodded pointedly. “Thought so.”

So you were right. Soonyoung was a vampire. He was also your little brother’s babysitter. It’s funny, you could’ve sworn you’ve seen a show like this before a really long time ago, one whose name wasn’t coming to mind right now. Whatever, back to the main point. Soonyoung was a vampire.

“Why are you here?” You questioned him, holding up a fork to his neck. “Are you gonna kill us?”

“Woah, um, first of all,” He closed his hands around yours and lowered it, and you noticed how cold he felt. Probably another vampire thing. You snatched your hand away, and he seemed confused, but shook his head and continued on. “That silver thing? It’s just a myth. Second of all, why would I wanna kill you? It’s not like your parents wouldn’t notice. Not to mention we don’t go feeding on people randomly, consent is a thing, you know.” You could’ve laughed at that. A creature that survived off of draining the blood of others caring about their right to say no seemed ironic.

“And anyway, did you seriously expect to kill me with a fork?”

Chaeryeong burst into laughter, though she tried to play it off by coughing when she saw you glaring at her. “Sorry…” She picked up the fork and the knife and dumped them back into the silverware drawer to prevent you from making any more threats against Soonyoung. Your parents also didn’t trust you with metal utensils for…reasons similar to this.

You rolled your eyes. “So what happened to Junhui? Why couldn’t he come?”

The blond shrugged. “I dunno, he said that he was feeling sick, so he asked me to come in his place. Does that really matter?”

“Of course it matters! I don’t want some freaky undead creature looking after my little brother!” You retorted, raising your voice just a little. He might’ve been against eating people, but that didn’t change the fact that he was still a monster.

“[Y/n], that’s kinda…” Soonyoung held up one of his hands, signaling for Chaeryeong to stop talking.

“How do you know Jun isn’t a vampire?” He tilted his head as he asked that, then pursed his lips while he waited for your answer.

So he was a vampire and a smart-ass. Great.

“I don’t know!” You turned your head away from him. “This is just…freaky. I didn’t know vampires could be so—”

“Witty? Handsome? Charming? I know, I get that all the time.”

“Stupid.”

Chaeryeong laughed again.

Soonyoung raised one of his eyebrows. “Stupid guys must be your type then. Well, according to Chaeryeong, if I heard correctly.”

You looked at him, eyes wide. “You heard all that?” Soonyoung nodded, smiling when he noticed the way you reacted.

“Every single word. You know, maybe you should do more research.” He flicked you on the forehead and grinned when you let out a yelp of pain.

“Anyway.” Chaeryeong mumbled. “It’s getting late, my sister is on her way to get me. Good luck with…” She gestured between Soonyoung and you. “whatever you’ve got going on.” She reached forward and grabbed the discarded apple from its place on the island and padded upstairs to get her stuff from your room.

A gleeful smile crept its way onto his lips as he turned his head to look at you. “She’s leaving. You know what that means, it’ll just be me and you once she’s gone.”

“If you try anything, I will go get the fork. I don’t care if it kills you or not.”

He laughed, and the sound echoed through the kitchen. It was weird, he didn’t sound or look like an evil blood-sucking monster. He just looked and sounded…normal. And a little shiny.

“Later [Y/n]! Bye Soonyoung. Have fun!” Chaeryeong waved to you from the stairs. You replied with a goodbye of your own, and Soonyoung hummed, listening for the sound of the door closing shut before turning you around and pushing you against the island.

You gasped. “What are you doing?” The way you squirmed in his hold was amusing to Soonyoung, acting as if you could get away. You were so cute, thinking you could get away from him. This would be more enjoyable than he thought.

“I don’t understand why you’re so afraid of me. I can make you feel so good, baby.” You scoffed, the sound turning into a low moan when he started grinding his hard cock against your ass.

“I’m not afraid of you,” The shakiness in your voice poked a hole in your believability, but Soonyoung didn’t think too much of it. He lowered his head to the side of your neck, pressing a kiss to your pulse point before licking a stripe up the side of your neck. You shivered with a horrible realization; you liked it.

“Mmm, then maybe you like me. Is that why your heart is beating so fast?” You could feel him smiling against your skin.

A whine echoed through the kitchen. Your whine. “Wait, my parents…”

You gasped a second time when Soonyoung turned you so you were facing him, and you watched him roll his eyes with that annoying smile plastered on his face. “Oh, them? They’re coming home late. Your mom locked the keys in the car, so they’ll be a while.” Just when you were about to respond, he turned you around again, the feeling of his breath on your neck making you shiver. “So just focus on me, got it?”

His hands traveled over your body, stopping to squeeze your chest or your ass. You should’ve been embarrassed with how you reacted so eagerly to his touch, but he was actually making you feel good. Well, whatever. It’s not like you’d actually let him know—

“I can get rid of these, right?” He hooked his fingers underneath the waistband of your pajama pants, pulling them down along with your underwear the second you gave him a nod of confirmation. The fabric drops down your legs and pools at your feet and you kicked it aside. Soonyoung reached between your legs, collecting the wetness between them and holding it up to your face, fingers glistening with your arousal. “Look how wet you are for the freaky undead creature. You like this, don’t you?”

“N-no. I don’t like this or you.” Even though you said all that and shook your head, Soonyoung could tell you didn’t mean it. He reached between your legs again, this time to ease one of his fingers inside of you.

“The way you’re moaning for me says otherwise.” As he said that, he pushed another one of his fingers past your walls and eliciting another one of those not so subtle sounds from you that he loved. You didn’t even have to see him to know that he was pleased with himself getting you all worked up like this.

He was arrogant. He was full of himself. He was a smug bastard. He was all of that and more, and it was making you weak in the fucking knees.

Three of his fingers were inside of you now, stretching you so good that it made your head spin, and you bucked your hips against his hands like you’ve never been touched a day in your life.

God, you’d never live this down.

You bit your lip so that he didn’t get the satisfaction of hearing how you were falling apart over his fingers, or how good it felt when he curled them inside of you just right, or how he had your legs shaking every time he reached your sweet spot. As if he needed the vocal confirmation (he heard the noises you were making regardless), the way you were trembling was pretty much a dead giveaway.

“You know, you still owe me a little blood.”

“What?” You turned your head as much as you could to look at him over your shoulder. Soonyoung’s eyes were darker than they were before, his hunger evident through his gaze.

How could you owe him blood? What did that even mean?

“You owe me some blood,” he repeated. “Waving your finger around in my face and refusing me a taste. You have no idea how worked up you got me all over that flimsy little cut.”

Judging by how his dick was still poking you, you seriously doubted that.

You turned your head back around, not wanting him to see your face as you weighed your options. You didn’t really know what would happen if he did bite you. Would it hurt? Would it feel good?

Only one way to find out.

“Just…do it fast.” You tilted your head to give him better access to your neck. Soonyoung smiles wide—not like you could see it, but you were imagining that he was in this situation. He withdraws his fingers from their place inside you, much to your dismay, but he’s now holding them to your lips. He groans when you open your mouth and allows him to slip his fingers in and mumbling something that you can’t pick up over the sound of your thumping heartbeat.

“It shouldn’t hurt too much, but let me know if I need to stop.”

He pressed a quick kiss to the spot on your neck that he was sinking his fangs into no more than a second later, giving you no time to process his little act of intimacy. It stung for a moment, but what followed the initial sting of pain was the most intense and overwhelming sense of pleasure.

Soonyoung moans with absolutely no shame when your blood fills his mouth. He’s never tasted anyone as good as you, and he realizes that he could quickly become addicted to you. Your sounds, your blood, your pussy, each and every part of you inside and out was intoxicating.

You wrap your hands around his wrist and pull his fingers out of your mouth, wanting to have him hear your next words clearly. “Fuck me…please.”

He nearly chokes when you ask him that, forcing himself to pull away just so he can ask you to repeat yourself. He licks the remnants of your blood from his lips and your wound so that it’ll seal. “Anything for you, sweetheart.”

Clearly your expectations for him were still far too high, because instead of taking you to bed or at least the couch, he had you laid on the kitchen floor. Yeah, you’re definitely never living this down.

And yet despite all this, you can’t help but drool when you finally got to see Soonyoung’s cock beyond the confines of his sweatpants. He looks down at you, smirking, and despite your heightened arousal you still feel an urge to kick his cocky little ass.

“Can you get down here before I change my mind?”

He waves at you dismissively as if he hadn’t been the one all over you. “Need a condom. Got one on you?”

You roll your eyes. “I’m clean and on the pill. Come on, just fuck me already, oh my—”

Soonyoung happily lowered himself onto the floor, his lips on yours as he guided himself inside of you inch by inch. He tasted like your blood, obviously, but there was an also a faint taste of pink starburst too. Something he probably got from Leo, no doubt. The combination was weird, but somehow you figured it suited him.

“God. So f-fucking big, Soonie!”

Gone is the last bit of your composure with Soonyoung’s cock buried inside of you, blurting out any thought that came to your head against his lips.

“Shhh, not so loud, baby,” he whispers. “Wouldn’t want to have your bother wake up and find out what a slut you are, would you?” Yeah right, you think. Leo could sleep through anything, including you getting dicked down by his babysitter. But getting called a slut by him in that sickly sweet way had you clenching around him. “Fuck, warn me if you’re gonna do that.”

“Like I knew it would happen.” You hissed, making him laugh. He found this back and forth thing going on between the two of you fun, especially when he could get you so worked up and vice versa.

He waited until your body had relaxed to start moving, having to keep one of his hands over your mouth each time he thrusted into you because despite what he’d said earlier you just couldn’t seem to stop yourself. It wasn’t your fault that the kitchen was so echoey or that Soonyoung was giving it to you so fucking good.

“You’re such a cute little thing,” He laughed breathily into your neck. “I loved how much of a fight you put up for me baby. Now look at you. You’re mine.”

“All—ah—yours,” your words were muffled by his hands, but he understood you perfectly. The embarrassment you felt earlier was gone, completely replaced with thoughts of him and his cock splitting you open right here on the floor.

You felt him nod, “Mhm, you’re all mine, and I’m all yours. God, wish I could just fuck this sweet little pussy forever.”

A laugh managed slipped past your lips and he finally moved his hand away from your mouth. “You can say that?”

“God? Duh.” He sneered, becoming more and more aware of just how clueless you really were about vampire culture. “Can’t believe I’m having this conversation with you right now.”

You were just about to say something else when Soonyoung changed the angle of his hips, slamming into you even deeper than before. Your back arched, chest pressed to his, and a second later you let out a frustrated groan.

“You still fucking suck.”

“I’m glad you noticed.”

He opts for a faster pace after that, spurred on by the way you close your eyes and babble his name over and over again as if it’s the only word you can say. He’s so desperate to cum, to get you to cum, to have him be the only thing on your mind when you make a mess of yourself all over him. He whispers for you to keep your eyes closed, taking your wrist in his hand and bringing it to your stomach.

“Can you feel me? Right…” He moves your hand around a little before he finds the correct place, “here?” Blindly, you press down on the spot, and your eyes shoot open. He’s so, so deep, you can’t keep it together anymore.

“F-Fuck, feels so good,” your breath hitches at the end of the sentence. “Need more…”

“Yeah? Pretty baby needs more?” Soonyoung raises one of your legs over his shoulders and you swear you start seeing stars with the way he’s fucking you. “You’re so t-tight, sweetheart. Gonna cum?”

“Mmm, yeah, so c-close. Make me cum, Soonie, need it so bad.”

Soonyoung lifts his head so that he can kiss you, only breaking it to quickly mumble the words “me too” before his lips are back on yours and his finger is rubbing your clit until your body goes limp beneath his and he feels you squeezing him so tight it triggers his own orgasm, slowing the speed of his thrusts as he floods your pussy with his cum.

Your head feels fuzzy, and you barely register the feeling of him pulling out or lifting himself off of you while you lay there and catch your breath. “Soonyoung?”

There’s no immediate response, and it makes you confused as to why. You try to lift yourself off the floor but the soreness hasn’t quite subsided, so you’ve no choice but to stay put. “Yeah, just leave me on the floor. Not like I need your help or anything.”

“Well excuse me for not wanting you to be all sticky.” He huffs, wiping the insides of your thighs with a damp washcloth, then proceeding to wipe down the floor and the top of the island.

“I’m still on the floor, Soonyoung.”

Smiling, he helps you to stand and even manages to get you back into your underwear and pajama pants. He won’t stop looking at you like he has something to say. Maybe, for once, it’s something important.

“What?”

“You wanna go again? I’ve still got a ton of energy.” You rolled your eyes. Of course he did. “Oh come on, I know you liked it.”

“That’s it, I’m getting the fork.”

[bard-llama]

Belated Start of Mini Kinktober Week!

So the @witcherkinktober​ provided the great prompts for this week and then I completely and absolutely forgot about it lol. So I don’t have finished fics for yesterday or today, but I will share a snip from each and if I’m lucky, maybe I’ll finish one for tomorrow!

So, my plan was to write 1 rorveth and 1 throne3 fill per day, but uh... that’s not seeming likely. So instead, have snips (more like my entire WiPs shhhh) from 2 throne3 fills + 1 rorveth fill under the cut!

10/3 - Collars | Gags | Hypnosis/Mind Control Warnings for homophobia-induced painful backstory and chronic pain

Unfortunately, no porn here, because I got too caught up in the explanation of how they got here again 😭😭😭 But Reynard got drugged with a truth/babbling potion. That counts as mind control, right? 😅

If there was one thing everyone knew about General Reynard Odo, it was that he kept his thoughts to himself and carefully chose every word he said.

Which is why Gascon knew immediately that something was wrong, because Reynard was surrounded by soldiers and waving his hands in a surprisingly uncoordinated way and, most significantly, openly shittalking people.

“Fuckin’ Reggie,” Reynard slurred, which set off about a billion alarm bells in Gascon’s head, because what the fuck!? First off, Reynard didn’t swear. Certainly not in front of his soldiers. He was meticulous about that kind of thing. Propriety mattered to Reynard and being proper in front of his men even moreso.

Secondly, nicknames and Reynard did not mix. Well, technically, Gascon was always giving Reynard new insultingly affectionate nicknames, but Reynard himself? Gascon had never heard Reynard shorten a name ever. Even the really long ones! Even the ones that everyone else used! Hell, there was one of Meve’s guards who even she called by their nickname. But Reynard? Never. It was always Lieutenant Razzah Ozzell, never Razzell like the rest of them.

Thirdly, who the fuck was Reggie?

“He was a right prick,” Reynard continued, snorting at his own words. “Didn’t know a damn thing about the military. I mean, he was always getting people’s ranks wrong, and who’s gonna correct him? He’s the fucking king!”

Gascon’s face blanched. Reggie as in King Reginald as in Meve’s late husband?

Yeah, he needed to make sure Reynard stopped speaking immediately. Whatever was wrong with him, clearly the General’s extensive control could not be relied upon at the moment, so Gascon would just have to have enough control for the two of them.

Nodding to himself, he wove his way expertly through tangles of soldiers and slipped his arm around Reynard’s, pulling the General up and pushing him towards the edge of camp. The soldiers groaned in protest, but Gascon ignored them, more concerned with the way Reynard was both still talking and did not seem at all bothered by Gascon’s grasp on his arm.

Only once they were a decent distance from camp did Gascon let go and whirl around to demand what the fuck was going on.

“What the fuck, Reynard?” he hissed. “What is wrong with you!? Why would you openly shit talk the King!?”

Reynard’s pupils were wide as the General snorted, “I didn’t even share the worst shit!”

“And it should probably stay that way,” Gascon spoke over him. “Seriously, what is wrong with you!?”

Tilting his head, Reynard leaned too far to the right and flailed for balance. Gascon was officially unnerved. Where the hell was the close mouthed and tight-lipped General Odo?

“I feel fine,” Reynard shrugged. “I don’t even hurt!”

“Yeah, that’s ‘cause you’re probably high as a kite on something. What did you eat? Drink?”

“Mmm, jus’ the ale. They’re – hic – they’re always inviting me, you know. To drink with them.”

“Yeah,” Gascon said uncertainly, brow furrowing, “you always say no.”

Reynard sighed, slumping as though all his energy had abandoned him. “Yeah,” he agreed. “They already have to put up with me all day. ‘M not gonna be so selfish as to ruin everyone’s time.” His lips twitched, “I’m Lyria and Rivia’s profesh – profess – pro-fesh-shen-al wet blanket, remember?”

Gascon winced. He hadn’t realized that jab had stayed with Reynard like this, but even worse was that Reynard seemed to think it was true.

“I was being an asshole,” Gascon protested. “You’re not a wet blanket. You’re – I mean, you’re very stoic and uptight and stuff, but like, that’s not always a bad thing! If you want to drink with your soldiers, you should!”

The laughter that fell from Reynard’s lips was haunting. “No one truly wants me there. It’s better to keep from intruding.”

Something about that made Gascon’s heart hurt, but he swallowed hard, refocusing. “Reynard, there must’ve been something in the ale you drank, ‘cause you may feel fine, but you are definitely not. Honestly, when you sober up, you’re probably gonna hate that you told me any of this.”

Reynard hummed, nodding in small movements. “Hate being sober. Hurts too much.”

Gascon blinked. “Wait, really? But you practically never have more than a single ale!”

“Of courshe,” Reynard wiggled his jaw like that would make his lips form the right shapes. “I have a resp – responc – re – ah, fuck it. Duty. I have a duty to Her Majesty.”

“Yeah, but – wait, why does it hurt?”

Snorting again, Reynard shrugged. “It always does. Though, not right now. Like, I can do this!” He shrugged his shoulders once more, seemingly engrossed in the miraculousness of basic movement.

“Can you… not usually shrug?” Gascon tilted his head, considering that. Had he ever actually seen Reynard shrug?

Reynard shook his head emphatically enough to make himself stumble for balance again. “Pulls on my back.”

Gascon’s brow furrowed. “Your… back? I don’t remember you having any particular back injury?”

Snorting through his nose, Reynard hummed. “Wasn’t an injury in battle. Nothing so honorable by far.”

More confused than ever, Gascon opened his mouth to say something, but Reynard didn’t seem to notice and talked over him instead.

“Fuckin’ Reggie,” Reynard muttered again, digging the toe of his boot into the ground.

“Reginald… hurt you?” Gascon asked cautiously. Usually Reynard was the first to insist that no one speak out against their rulers, past or present.

My vague thoughts were that somehow Reynard ends up dirty talking to Gascon on accident ‘cause he can’t shut up, so Gascon gags him? Aaaaand... idk how the collar comes in, but I like making life difficult for myself, so I wanna try to include all 3 prompts.

(throne3) 10/4 - Overstimulation | Monsters | Temperature Play Warnings for monsterfucking, rough sex, and serious size kink

“Troll want mate!” the massive rock troll declared.

Having been sent out scouting near the base of the mountain, General Reynard Odo found himself regretting having chosen to explore this cave. 

“Reynard,” he said loudly, pressing a hand to his chest, “wants to leave.”

“No leave!” One humongous fist smashed into the ground far too close to Reynard for comfort. “Want find mate!”

“You… want help finding a mate?” Reynard repeated uncertainly. Where the hell was he supposed to find a mate for a troll!?

The troll nodded emphatically with a sound like rocks scrapping together. “Us need mate! ReyRey help find!”

Reynard winced at the atrocious nickname, then frowned. What did the troll mean ‘us’?

As he watched, the rock formations behind the troll materialized into more trolls. A lot more trolls.

“Uh,” he started, “why do you think I can find you a mate?”

“Humie no come here before!” the first troll he’d spoken to said cheerily. “You be special!”

Well. That was encouraging. “Where would I find you a mate?”

“If we knew, we no ask!” Another troll huffed. “Is season! Must mate! But where mate?”

His frown deepened. “So you don’t need a mate as in a life-partner, but more… uh, for one-time use, so to speak?”

The trolls hummed and groaned, looking at each other in confusion. “What humie mean?”

“Uh… I guess that you,” he cleared his throat uncomfortably, “you need to physically mate with someone. Urgently. Yes?”

“Urgent, urgent, yes!” One troll waved its leg up and down and Reynard’s brow furrowed in confusion. Except then the troll wrapped its hand around the leg and Reynard realized that it wasn’t a leg at all. “Need mate soon!” the troll said, stroking the massive cock that hung between its legs.

“I don’t know where to find you a mate,” Reynard said. “And I have urgent business I must conduct for my queen–”

The first troll he’d talked to cut him off with a low grunt, hands punching into the ground. “Need mate now!”

“ReyRey,” another troll – he really couldn’t tell them apart beyond size, but this one was a little smaller than the others, and troll dicks must have been retractible, because this one didn’t have a huge limb hanging between its legs. But there was the start of something peeking out where the troll’s underbelly met its legs.

Reynard found himself oddly entranced, watching the troll’s cock slowly protrude and grow larger and larger until it was around the length and width of Reynard’s entire forearm. If these things were proportional to the troll’s size, then this was the smallest one.

He swallowed, unsure why his mouth was watering, but he still couldn’t look away and the smaller troll grinned.

“ReyRey want mate?” it offered. 

Choking, Reynard flushed scarlet and shook his head. “I – no! We aren’t – aren’t compatible. You’d break me!”

Why did thinking that send a shiver of interest down his spine. These were trolls! He was absolutely not mating with trolls!

Except when he finally managed to look away from the smaller troll’s cock, his eyes got stuck on the one beside it, their cock slightly bigger than the other troll’s. 

“ReyRey want be broken,” the smaller troll said confidently. “ReyRey get hard like troll!” So saying, the troll reached out and poked Reynard’s pelvis where, to his great shame, his cock was getting hard.

“I–” he fumbled for words. Surely this was not going to happen. It couldn’t happen! What would his men think of him, getting railed by a rock troll!? By several rock trolls!?

It was ridiculous that this question should even be raised! Of course he wasn’t going to let himself get fucked by a bunch of trolls. He couldn’t!

So why did he kind of want to? Why was he thinking about what it would feel like, getting stretched so wide. And deep! These trolls were huge, and that should make him scared, but instead, he was… kind of getting excited.

Gods, what was wrong with him? He was – he was genuinely considering mating with a troll! That was most definitely not normal or in any way appropriate.

But… who would know? He’d only left camp about half an hour ago, so they wouldn’t expect him back for several hours yet. And it wasn’t as if he would ever tell anyone just what he was contemplating doing. So really, who would ever find out? 

And it had been so long since Reynard had last been fucked. He would – he would have to prepare himself thoroughly before even considering taking the trolls, but…

He really actually wanted to do this.

Biting his lip and shifting his weight, Reynard looked around the cavern. “What,” his voice cracked and he coughed, trying again, “what exactly would it mean? To – to be your mate?”

The trolls let out excited hums and rumbles and the smaller troll grinned at him. “ReyRey look good on cock,” it said brightly. “We mate. Means ReyRey takes pearls.”

“Pearls?” his brow furrowed. Was that a euphemism for ejaculate?

“Lil trolls,” the troll nodded, “pearls. ReyRey say yes?”

“I…” Reynard swallowed and for once in his life, let himself do the improper thing. “I’ll need stretching first.”

“Trolls help!” the smaller one said enthusiastically. “ReyRey take off metal shell? No good for mating.”

“Right,” he cleared his throat, and even though part of his mind was screaming in horror, he actually did start to pick at the buckles on his armor. “Uh. We’re gonna need something slick. To – to open me up,” he blushed. 

“We slick ReyRey!” one troll proclaimed loudly and as soon as Reynard’s armor was removed, they grabbed him, manhandling him with an ease that made his heart beat fast. Then, before he really knew what was happening, they bent him in half and something long and wet was prodding at his ass as stone-encrusted fingers held him open.

He yelped in surprise – and then moaned as the troll’s tongue pushed into him with no warning, thrusting deep and wiggling inside him the way nothing ever had before. “Oh, fuck,” he gasped, gripping his own ankles tightly. He hadn’t even realized he could bend down so far, but with the trolls holding him, it was somehow easier than anything to just let himself go and let them have what they wanted of him.

“Me turn!” another troll grumbled and Reynard suddenly found himself empty and moving, until a different tongue thrust deep into him, fucking him rapidly.

He couldn’t help his whine, cock already very interested. And folded in half and angled down like he was, when his cock leaked, it dripped down onto his face in a way that made him feel both embarrassed and horrifically turned on. 

“Oh fuck, please!” he heard himself beg before he’d consciously decided to.

“Good humie,” a troll praised before something larger prodded at his hole next to the tongue rocking into him. “ReyRey take troll like meant for it.”

Reynard shuddered, the praise making his face warm as it flushed red.

Should I tell you where the story is going next? ‘cause it decided to get long, dammit, so who knows when I’ll finish it. So I guess if you don’t wanna know, then spoiler warning Additional warnings for breeding kink, oviposition, extreme oversensitivity, and extremely bad attempts at acting casual

Okay, so this was supposed to be some basic monsterfucking, but instead, romance had to happen lmao. So Reynard gets fucked by troll after troll and he discovers that unlike his assumption, “pearls” was not a euphemism, but literally trolls laying ‘eggs’. Each one gives him about two dozen pearls, so he’s huge and hella sensitive and just kinda losing his mind. But that kinda fucking takes time, which means Meve and Gascon are worrying over where their crush general is. They’re not together yet in this, but I think all three of them kinda recognize that, were the world different, they could have something special together.

Anyway, Meve and Gascon go searching for him and find him in the cave getting fucked by trolls. And they’re about ready to go charging in and cutting off heads of all sorts when Reynard begs for more. So then they’re confused and far too intrigued and they watch Reynard take another twenty pearls and he moans orgasmically and unlike Reynard, Gascon is not known for his self-control. So he darts out and gets his mouth on Reynard’s cock, making Reynard shout. Then Meve comes out and Reynard is freaking the fuck out and the trolls have all kinda frozen (and no, no one is distracted by the way cum drips out of his stretched out hole) and then Meve kneels and pets through Reynard’s sweaty hair and pulls him up to pillow his head in her lap. and Reynard is very confused, but like, weirdly, they seem to not find this as suuuuuper weird as it was and seemed to even like it.

So the trolls all finish with their mate while Meve pets his hair and Gascon explores his rounded belly and his cock. When everything is done, Gascon and Meve work on cleaning Reynard out - which is when they discover that the pearls can’t be ‘laid’ yet. They need to incubate for a couple of days, and obviously they can’t just leave Reynard with the trolls who didn’t realize that that sort of thing should be mentioned beforehand. So they decide they’ll take Reynard back to camp and hide him away for several days, giving the men a chance to take leave in the area. 

Except Reynard’s armor can’t fit him anymore, so Meve covers him in her cape and Gascon carries the armor (he thinks he got the shit end of the deal here) and Reynard attempts to stumble back to camp when he’s filled with like 700 pearls. But he can’t really walk and every movement nudges the pearls inside him and he’s ridiculously sensitive and he would be horrified at being half-carried into camp by his queen while wearing only her cape and stuffed full of fucking troll eggs, but tbh he can’t think much beyond feels so good and oh god, do not come, do not make a noise! Fortunately, Meve and Gascon are more than aware of how much it would bother Reynard, so Gascon creates a distraction while Meve sneaks Reynard into her tent. 

When Reynard realizes he’s in his queen’s bed, he tries to jolt upright - except he really can’t move much and his attempt just sents pleasure sizzling through his veins. So of course Meve, being Meve, decides she wants to see him mindless with pleasure again. So she kisses him and presses against his belly and explores his cock. By the time Gascon arrives, Reynard is already halfway to another orgasm (dry by this point, though he might’ve recovered a bit since the trolls) and Gascon is absolutely delighted to join in. 

So basically, they spend a couple of days making up ridiculous excuses that none of their men believe about why they quite suddenly have leave time on their urgent march to free Lyria and, more importantly, driving Reynard out of his mind. Then, after the pearls have incubated long enough, they bring Reynard back to the cave with the trolls and hold him and soothe him as he ‘lays’ the pearls, shuddering and moaning with every twitch of a muscle.

And then the throne3 talk lmao. They get together properly and give Reynard some much needed aftercare, ‘cause dude took 700 fucking pearls!

(Also, the men definitely go wild with rumors as to what happened and why Meve and Gascon and Reynard remain shut in the queen’s tent. Some of them are even partially right, but I don’t think anyone calls the troll bit lmao)

(rorveth) 10/4 - Overstimulation | Monsters | Temperature Play Warnings: implied desire for a noncon gangbang, but Roche shuts that shit down quick and between Iorveth/Roche, there is enthusiastic consent 

I actually started this one for the Rare Pair Bingo, but I still haven’t finished it 😭 But it works pretty well with the prompts. Also, inspired by this art. 

I cannot find the article/study, so it’s probably bullshit, BUT the ongoing joke that I will use to death is “arousal smells like candied watermelon”

When Vernon Roche was a child, his mother used to tell him tales of the majestic creatures of the ocean. Gain one’s favour, it was said, and they would do anything for you.

Of course, then Roche actually went to sea and it turned out, the only creatures around were fish or monsters, not the fabled legends his mother had spoken of.

Or so he thought. After all, everyone knew that monsters were mindless, driven purely by instinct like any beast. Right?

Roche had always thought sirens were just another category of beast, but now… now he was starting to wonder. Because the creature they’d accidentally caught in their net was anything but a beast.

It looked like one – its skin was green and blue, and luminescent in a way that was wholly unnatural. Its torso was shaped like a man, but large bat-like wings protruded from its back and instead of legs, its bottom half had fins to swim through the ocean. But its face…

The skin may have been a lovely blue-green and its eyes were unlike any human’s Roche had ever seen, but they looked at him with intelligence, hatred and fury exuding from the creature’s snarl like they would from any other man’s.

It was… actually kind of beautiful, except for the part where it might try to slaughter his men and his crew. It squirmed, trying to free itself from the net before they could haul it onto the deck, but its fins and wings were tangled in the rope and there was no way it could break free.

“Heave!” he ordered his crew and with one last back-breaking haul, the creature sprawled onto the deck of the ship, net wrapped around it as effective as any trap. 

There was a moment of relative silence as the crew stared at the creature and the creature snarled back at them. Then Thirteen, the lookout who’d spotted something worth throwing their nets out for, stepped closer and the creature lashed out, long talons on the end of its fingers shining in the sun.

“Whoa,” Thirteen reeled back. “Jeez, was just trying to help. Can it talk, you think?”

“It,” the creature growled, voice reverberating oddly across the deck, “is right here and if you do not free me, I will kill each and every one of you.”

Roche and his crew frowned down at the creature and it glared right back.

“What even are you?” Roche eventually asked when their stare off was getting them nowhere and some of the men had started shifting uncomfortably.

It scoffed, “I’m a siren. Obviously. What kind of sailor doesn’t recognize a siren!?”

The creature squirmed around to face him, its finned pelvis pressing against the wooden planks in a way that was suddenly drawing Roche’s attention. It was almost as if… did he smell something sweet? Like candied fruit, almost, and he took a deeper breath, inhaling the scent. Yeah, it was definitely like candied fruit. And it appeared to be coming from the self-proclaimed siren.

Weren’t sirens the legendary creatures that could ensorcel men and send them to their deaths?

“Stop that,” Roche snapped and the creature blinked up at him in surprise. 

Around them, Roche’s crew was growing restless, clearly smelling the same delicious scent that he was – and wanting more of it.

“Whatever you’re exuding, stop,” Roche ordered. “Seriously, unless you want this to end with a whole lotta humans vying for one siren, you need to stop.”

The siren ground sharp teeth together, lips pulled back in a snarl. “I can’t,” it grunted and Roche blinked.

“Why the hell not?”

The siren shot him a look, but it was quickly distracted by assessing the crew around them. Several of the men had bulges in the fronts of their trousers and Roche could admit, he was feeling oddly horny, but it was nothing he couldn’t control.

The same, apparently, could not be said of his sailors, because one man – Roche totally hadn’t forgotten his name, but if he had, it would be totally understandable, as the man had only been with them for 3 weeks so far – stepped forward, towards the creature, who snarled and growled and bared its teeth and raised its claws, but who was also, Roche noticed, unable to move terribly much, not with the net tangled around its wings and fins and it not having legs.

“Cap’n,” the new guy said, “I’ve – I’ve heard that hauls like this sometimes get shared with the crew. Could we–?”

Roche saw the creature freeze at the question and something sour built in his chest.

“No,” he snapped. “Get back to work!”

“But what about–?” Thirteen asked, now keeping his distance from the siren.

“I’ll take care of it,” Roche decided. If it was doing something to make his crew horny and it couldn’t stop, then Roche needed it to not be out in the open, distracting his crew and making them far too likely to do something unforgivable.

There were a few huffs and laughs. “Enjoy, Boss,” Fenn muttered, returning to swabbing the deck. The others dispersed shortly thereafter, though they were definitely still distracted, glancing over at the creature.

“Can we–” the new guy started, “can we watch?”

Roche blinked. “Watch… what? Just – get back to work,” he shook his head, pulling his knife and beginning to cut through one of their best nets. It was snarled beyond repair, so they would need to weave a new one anyway.

The siren growled at him as he approached, but he felt oddly entirely unafraid. This creature was dangerous, certainly, but the way it was posturing hid the way that it was entirely helpless. As long as Roche was actually helping, he was pretty sure the creature wouldn’t attack him.

“What, you want to stay tangled?” he asked rhetorically, trying to lighten the mood. 

The siren narrowed its eyes, watching him come closer and closer to the knots around the siren’s left wing.

“What do you want?” the siren demanded.

“Well, let’s start with keeping you from distracting the crew from their duties,” he let his voice carry across the deck and more than a few people looked away guiltily. “Uh, I guess you don’t exactly have a lot of options to walk. Can I – uh – carry you? Just into the captain’s cabin where we can talk and whatever it is you’re doing that makes everyone,” he waved his hands in demonstration, trying to say ‘really fucking horny’ without saying it, “if you can’t turn it off, then let’s start with getting you away from the crew, huh?”

The siren frowned at him, head tilted to the side. But when he motioned to pick the creature up, it nodded, though very clearly reluctantly.

Roche lifted the siren with one hand under its lower body fin and one around its back below the wings. As he rose, most of the netting that hand tangled around the siren fell away, but not quite all of it. He’d have to take care of that, but first–

“Back to work!” he ordered and more than half of the crew jumped, looking away quickly and pretending to be busy.

He shook his head, carrying the siren into the captain’s quarters and setting it on the bed. Then he withdrew, very deliberately stepping away, even though that smell was incredible and made him want to–

Well, it didn’t matter what he wanted, because he was not going to let his ship become the kind of place where ‘hauls got passed around’.

“So, uh… do you have a name?” he asked belatedly. It was probably kind of offensive to keep calling it ‘it’ in his head. 

The siren stared at him for a long minute, then its head dipped in a nod. “I am called Iorveth.”

“Vernon Roche,” he introduced himself. “I’m the captain of this ship. Um. No offense, but I’ve sailed these waters for decades and I’ve never caught anything like – well, like you before. How did you end up caught in our net?”

The creature – Iorveth – huffed in irritation. “I was distracted,” it – he – said. “I’m – the reason I can’t make it stop,” Iorveth hesitated, looking at Roche and biting his lower lip.

“What?”

“I’m – um, I don’t think humans deal with this, but I’m – I’m in heat,” the siren’s cheeks flushed green as Roche watched and he found himself oddly fascinated.

“Uh… okay. So… how does that lead to getting caught in a net? Shouldn’t you be – I dunno, enticing lovers to, uh… deal with it?”

“I was… avoiding potential ‘lovers’ when your net tangled with my wings,” Iorveth admitted, still looking at him with eyes that blazed. 

“Oh,” Roche blinked. “Well, that’s unfortunate. Uh… should I just like… let you go find someone to – uh, to mate with or whatever?”

“You would let me leave?” Iorveth asked, surprise clear in his voice and on his face.

“I… yes? Why? What am I supposed to do with a siren?”

Iorveth tilted his head again, frowning at Roche. “Your crew had an idea about that.”

Roche blanched. “That would be entirely inappropriate!”

The corner of Iorveth’s lips ticked up. “I’ve heard tales of other sirens caught by humans. Many would disagree with you.”

“Well, fuck them,” Roche growled, suddenly infuriated. “My ship is not somewhere things like that are acceptable!”

“Hmm,” Iorveth hummed. “You really mean that, don’t you?”

“Of course!” It was possible a hint of offense leaked into his tone, but really. “You’re clearly an intelligent creature. Your refusal should be respected, no matter by what species.”

Iorveth’s smile grew. “What makes you think I’ve refused?”

Roche blinked at him, taken entirely off guard. “What?”

“Well, technically, you haven’t made an offer for me to refuse. But are you so sure that’s what I’d say?”

“I… yes?”

Iorveth licked his lips, leaning back on the bed and running his hands down his body until he reached an area just below where his hips would be if he were a human. The scales were darker there and it took Roche a moment to realize that that was because there was an opening there. A wet opening.

Mouth suddenly watering, Roche licked his lips, wondering what Iorveth would taste like. But he didn’t move, even as Iorveth dipped the tips of his own fingers into the slit. Then Iorveth hooked both pointer fingers inside the slit and pulled it open, making Roche gasp as the dark cavern inside was exposed to view.

“Don’t you want me?” Iorveth asked softly, smirk confident and coy. “Don’t you want to fuck me?”

“I…” Roche swallowed hard, staring at that slit. “Why… you’re asking me to mate with you?”

“I’m asking you to fill me and fuck me through my heat,” Iorveth murmured, removing one hand and bringing it to his lips.

When Iorveth’s tongue flicked out to lick his finger, Roche couldn’t help the punched out moan that escaped him.

“Why?”

Iorveth smiled. “Because you let it be my choice.”

“That’s just basic decency!” Roche argued, but he did take a step closer. Then another. “You’re sure you want–?”

“I’ve never had a human before,” Iorveth said, half-lidded gaze locked with his. “Don’t you want to play with the prize you’ve captured?”

Roche gulped. “I – you – is that what you want? To be – to be treated like stolen treasure?”

Iorveth’s eyes lit up. “Yes,” the siren breathed, “steal me. Take me.”

Stepping up to the edge of the bed, Roche looked Iorveth over for any sign that this wasn’t truly what he wanted. 

Iorveth rewarded his scrutiny by dipping his fingers into that slit again, then holding them out. “Have a taste,” Iorveth invited and Roche was lost, leaning forward to wrap his mouth around those fingers, tongue eager to taste everything he could.

He moaned as Iorveth’s flavor spread across his tongue. If he’d thought about it, he might have expected Iorveth to taste briney from the sea. But instead, his tastebuds quivered with delight because Iorveth was slightly salty and slightly sweet and slightly something else altogether on his tongue and he immediately wanted more.

“You’re sure?” he asked one last time, missing Iorveth’s cool fingers as soon as they moved away.

Iorveth smiled, touching his face lightly. “Fuck me, Vernon Roche.”

Roche couldn’t help his moan, but while Iorveth probably expected Roche to pull out his cock and go for it, there was something Roche needed first. 

He licked his lips, crawling up the bed until he was hovering over Iorveth’s lower body. Then he leaned forward and swiped his tongue along that wet opening, enjoying the way Iorveth gasped sharply.

He moaned again, tongue delving into that opening like he was a starving man and Iorveth was a royal buffet. Iorveth’s taste and scent overwhelmed him and Iorveth knocked off his hat, tangling fingers in his hair and pulling him closer.

After a while of that, Iorveth’s muscles started twitching, close to the edge, and Roche thrust his tongue as deep as it could go.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Iorveth began to swear, slipping into another language as his hips rocked up into Roche’s face. Roche devoured him, licking and sucking and generally dedicating himself to thoroughly exploring Iorveth’s opening.

“Gods, your cunt is delicious,” Roche groaned, lips moving across the slit in Iorveth’s scales.

“It’s not a cunt,” Iorveth said. “It’s a – it’s – oh fuck,” Iorveth gasped, body arching and twitching as Roche’s face was soaked. 

Roche did not stop the attention he was paying to Iorveth’s not-cunt, continuing to lick and suck and devour Iorveth.

Iorveth clung to his head, hands clutching desperately at his hair as the siren’s hips continued to buck and overstimulated whimpers filled the air.

Still, Roche did not stop and Iorveth cried out in that other language as he came for a second time, far too close to the first to not be painful.

And again, Roche did not stop.

Iorveth’s crying was agonized, but his hands were still tangled in Roche’s hair, holding Roche against him.

“How many more can you give me?” Roche asked, lips moving against Iorveth’s slit.

“Nnnh,” Iorveth arched, “f-fuck me, dammit!”

Roche smirked, lips curling up against Iorveth’s scales. “Is that not what I’m doing?”

Iorveth let out a strangled sound, fingers tightening in Roche’s hair.

“Unnh,” Iorveth gasped desperately. “Your cock! Fuck me with your cock, gods dammit, or I’ll–”

Roche pulled away, still smirking, and the noise Iorveth made was unhinged. 

“Vernon,” Iorveth growled, and Roche just grinned, kneeling up and unbuckling his belt. He stripped his shirt off with minimal ceremony, then reached for the waistband of his trousers, which were mostly being held up by the very hard cock inside them.

Iorveth licked his lips, a quick flash of tongue, and Roche swallowed hard, debating if getting his boots off was worth moving away from Iorveth.

Meeting his gaze squarely, Iorveth sent him a hot look. “Fuck me, Vernon.”

Roche moaned, deciding that nothing mattered except giving Iorveth his cock, even if that meant his trousers tangled around his boots. He gripped the base of his cock, teasing it around Iorveth’s slit until the siren snarled again.

“Vernon!”

Tilting his head, Roche smiled. “I think you can ask nicely, can’t you?”

Iorveth’s glare was impressive, but when your second glared at men as if they should apologize for existing, you became rather impervious to such intimidation tactics.

Plus, Iorveth wasn’t as scary as Ves. Nothing was as scary as Ves.

“Gods just – fuck me!”

Clicking his tongue, Roche ignored his own urgent need. “That wasn’t very nice now was it?”

Obviously this is just an excuse to explore nonhuman genitalia lmao, but my vague plan was that Iorveth begs, Roche finally fucks him, and fucks him through like 3 more orgasms and he’s crying and hoarse from screaming, but he needs Roche to come in him and Roche has been holding off to give him so much pleasure and he wants to make Roche feel good too.

Then they pass out from too much sex lmao

[sheirukitriesfandom]

Hi all,

After being inspired by @littlegalerion‘s rant about the College and her ideas for a rewrite, I’ve decided to try my hand at a rewrite myself. Some of Littlegalerion’s ideas have found their way into my rewrite as well because they are just that good. Many thanks for letting me use them. Warning: this is a very long post and it does contain spoilers for the original questline.

For this alternate questline the original situation remains the same (Savos is archmage, Mirabelle master-wizard and Ancano remains a thalmor), however, there are way more "trivial" quests early on. 

For example, before the first lesson with Tolfdir, the DB has to recover his alembic (Tolfdir just can't live without the damn thing idk). Then the lesson goes as planned, but the DB isn't yet sent to Saarthal. Instead, they're approached by Onmund for his personal quest.The DB doesn't have to complete it for the next lesson to start (thinking of a 12 or 24 hour cooldown), but due to the cool down why wouldn't they? 

This pattern repeats for each of the magic schools, each requiring a quest for the professors (Missing apprentices for Phinis, Bullying Nirya for Faralda ir getting the two to end their feud, etc.). After the destruction and illusion lessons, the player is approached by J'zargo and Brelyna for their quests. Each lesson also advances the respective skill. Once the lessons are done, the students are invited to Saarthal where the quest proceeds as usual except that Quaranir doesn't appear. So the DB discovers the eye, informs Savos and is sent to retrieve the books.

For this quest, the DB is joined by Ancano, who claims to be interested in the Caller's studies (it's hinted that he's after the books too). Once the DB returns to the college, time stops and a psijic appears saying that by removing the eye a chain of events has been set in motion and that the eye mustn't be used by anyone and that they should seek out the Augur. The DB returns the books to Urag. Also, the DB gets a dialogue option to ask ALL staff about the psijics AND/OR the Augur, with answers ranging from "I don't know" to the answers we get in game and maybe some explanation of the psijic order as keepers of dangerous magical relics. When it comes to the Augur most people will also mention that the archmage made it clear that the subject isn't to be talked about. 

Tolfdir will still be the one to direct the player to the Augur.The player speaks to the Augur, who reveals that Ancano also sought information about the Eye and that the Staff of Magnus is needed. Once the DB returns to inform Savos they're stopped by Ancano, who has been watching the DB and knows they've spoken to the Augur. Ancano is suspicious of the DB and reminds them that he'll be watching them closely. The DB then proceeds to inform Savos, but is stopped by Mirabelle coming from the archmage's quarters. She says the archmage is deeply immersed in his research and doesn't want to be bothered. Here, a speech check or a small distraction courtesy of your J'zargo will allow the player to pass. 

Savos isn't just reluctant like he is in the game, he's in outright denial about the staff being important. However, with enough speech checks Savos eventually reveals that the Synod were asking for it. Should those speech checks not be passed, the player will have to ask around. In that case, Mirabelle will inform them eventually. 

The expedition to Mzulft is left entirely unchanged.Upon returning from Mzulft the entrance to the Hall of the Elements is blocked by a ward, with Mirabelle and Tolfdir frantically discussing how to break through, all the while a very indignant Ancano demands to know what's going on. 

As it turns out, Savos shut himself inside the hall trying to "do something" to the orb.Tolfdir and Mirabelle then attack the barrier asking the DB to help them.The spell needed to take down the barrier would also be at least adept level. 

Together, Tolfdir, Mirabelle, the DB and Ancano storm into the hall. Mirabelle approaches Savos, asking him why, after all those years, he would betray the college and his friends like that, pleading him to stop. Savos' response doesn't make much sense. Something about it being necessary, about correcting a mistake.He asks Mirabelle to leave him be, desperation clearly audible in his voice, but when she refuses he attacks her and the explosion happens. And so, Savos ends up killing his loyal friend and master-wizard. Tolfdir needs a moment to recover and tells the DB to look for Ancano. 

Eventually, they find Ancano outside reporting the events to the rest of the faculty until he's interrupted by a Winterhold guard storming into the courtyard while yelling about the town being attacked by magic anomalies.

Quickly, Faralda takes the sceptre into her own hands, instructing the teachers to contain the barrier as she and the apprentices head for the town. The DB gets the objective to help them, but is stopped by Ancano, who reveals the information he got from the Augur: the eye may be capable of rewriting or even unmaking reality. He sees the eye in the hands of the archmage as a threat, so Savos needs to be stopped. 

The DB helps their fellow apprentices fight back the anomalies. When they're done, they're joined by Ancano. Once the DB mentions Labyrinthian Ancano reveals that Aren kept something in his chambers of that he was very protective, almost obsessively so, and that it may well be linked to Labyrinthian seeing as it used to be a training ground for future archmages.

The DB is tasked with investigating the archmage's quarters. There, the extend of Savos' planning, his research into the eye and his growing paranoia regarding the DB become clear. Eventually, the DB recovers the torc of Labyrinthian and heads off. 

Back in town the apprentices ask to join the DB on that dangerous journey. At this point, the DB can choose to take Onmund, J'zargo or Brelyna to Labyrinthian or go alone/with a non-questline companion. 

Labyrinthian remains the same story wise, but the dungeon itself contains way more wards and magical traps, requiring the DB to use a decent amount of spells. Oh, and no Estormo, sorry.

When the DB returns to Winterhold, the barrier has enveloped the entire college. The faculty have gathered outside, along with the remaining students and an injured Ancano, whom Colette is taking care of. Tolfdir, having recovered, explains that they were not strong enough to contain the barrier any longer. He is then interrupted by Faralda asking whether you have the staff.

Upon confirmation, the DB begins to dismantle the barrier layer by layer using the staff of Magnus, being thrown back every so often. With each destroyed layer, the DB receives a “vision”, a fragment of Savos' mind, though twisted and erratic.Those “visions” fill in the missing gaps: He was trying to undo his mistake in Labyrinthian by using the eye's reality bending powers. When the DB finally destroys the last ward the last vision is just an amalgamation of various ways to say sorry, a last cry for forgiveness. 

At this point, Savos is too far gone, having been consumed by the power of the eye. The DB and friends fight against Savos, with him using summons, locking allies in wards or frenzying them, etc. A real wizard battle ensues. At the end of it all Savos lies on the floor, broken and dying. When the DB approaches him, a dialogue begins. In a final moment of clarity Savos realizes what he has done. He resigns himself to death, knowing that he tore down all he sought to build, just because instead of trying to move forward, he wanted to redo the past. In his final moments he asks the DB if Morokei was defeated, if Hafnar and Atmah are free. The DB gets the option to either give him some closure or let him die without it.

Savos dies.

Just as the hall begins to fill with students and teachers, time freezes and Quaranir appears again, voicing his disappointment at the eye being misused, but also relief to see it put back into "sleep mode". In this state, it can be moved safely to Artaeum. Quaranir recovers the eye and time continues. The faculty are shocked by the events, there's chatter about the future of the college.

Eventually, Tolfdir speaks up and suggests a vote for the post of archmage, which the DB, having helped all teachers and apprentices as well as having ended the threat to the college, wins. Ancano approaches the DB, telling them in his usual "I'm-better-than-you" way that he's impressed the DB was able to save the college, and that he, at first, actually suspected they’d misuse the eye. As thalmor advisor to the college, he'll of course be at the new archmage's service, though if pressed with a speech check, it becomes apparent that Ancano isn't as sure about his position anymore and that he doesn't know how the order will react to the part he played in saving the college.

The end.

A common complaint is that Ancano is a villain without a motivation who only serves to hammer the point home that yes, the Thalmor are bad. 

So I thought: what if Ancano's and Savos' places were switched? 

That way you could have Ancano as a nuanced portrayal of a Thalmor helping the player to save his own hide and preventing a disaster that could've affected the Thalmor as well. Yes, the Thalmor actually want to unmake the world, but would a common agent know that too? That, frankly, seems like information for the higher ups only, especially since it's hard to come by even outside the games. Actually, not being forward with that would help them safe face with the Empire as well as the Bosmer and Khajiit. Also, why would Ancano even know that in the original game? Everything we know about him (being posted at the end of the world with nobody taking him seriously; him not appearing at the  Embassy, when someone like Ondolemar does) suggests that he may not be as high up the command chain as he thinks he is.

Anyway, I think it would be ironic if Ancano ended up stopping the very thing his order wants to accomplish.

As for Savos, I think this way he would play a greater role in the narrative and actually have some connection to the Eye in a way that his death by it makes sense. 

Savos' greatest flaw, in my opinion, is not apathy -that's the symptom- but a crippling fear of repeating his mistakes; the last time he was an active leader (excluding the prima guide here) 5 of his friends were killed because of him. 

Now that the Eye of Magnus is found, a design Savos would probably recognize from the staff, I think he would enter panic mode as it all threatens to come out. He, before all others, would know it's linked to the staff, so he'd know where to start his research and could come to conclusions about the Eye's metaphysical nature in a way that's more believable than "Idk I just shot lightning at it". It also adds a layer of tragedy to Savos' backstory; by trying to undo his greatest mistake, he ends up killing his most loyal follower, Mirabelle Ervine, thus repeating the cycle. 

It also solves the leadership problem in a less transparent way. I think it would also fit thematically with the other leaders. All of them have motivations, except Savos, his motivation is … well, what is it? Mercer wants to enrich himself while hiding his crimes, Astrid clings to her power, Kodlak wants to change his future, and now, Savos' motivation is changing his past.

[mrpenguinpants]

hello deaaaar. All of your xiao fic is soooo ❤️❤️❤️ I love all of them

but can I ask u something? (you don't need to answer if you don't want it) Did you write the reader as Lumine/MC or as the 'reader' itself??

TLDR: You can read it as Lumine/Aether/MC or as the ‘reader’ itself. I personally write it as if ‘reader’ is a separate character. Not necessarily ‘myself’ or the ‘viewer’. You can kind of think of it as an OC if that’s easier to understand but I don’t consider the ‘reader’ as an OC. 

---

Hi! (❤´艸｀❤) aww thank you, I love that you love them! Xiao is precious and we believe in Xiao supremacy. 

This is actually kinda interesting to answer and I’m about to write way more than I should but I believe I touched on it on my NSFW post so I’m just gonna restate it here. 

“I don’t treat “reader” as myself, just a separate character. The only time I get uncomfortable with it is if I, myself, am the one that’s doing it. But since I treat reader as a separate person it doesn’t bother me.”

I’m asexual so just the idea of being in a relationship with someone is not my thing. Which I know might seem weird considering what I write but if it’s not me that’s doing it and I don’t think of it as the ‘reader’ being me, then it’s fine. Similarly to how we watch shows or whatever. We don’t imagine the characters on screen to be ourselves but we still like watching the relationship and their moments. I’d like to think that people can relate to me on this but in any x reader fic, I never read it as if reader is myself. I’m not placing myself into those situations. Even when I see things like [y/n] I never insert my name, I just pretend [y/n] the the characters name. 

So essentially, I treat reader as their own separate person. I try and use “you” a lot and I don’t know if this was that noticeable but I never write [y/n] in my fics. I think the Childe fic I did is a good example where I made him call you by a title instead of writing [y/n]. Which will probably never happen since I don’t like writing [y/n]. Similar to how genshin says “traveler” instead of Aether/Lumine. 

I suppose thinking of ‘reader’ as an OC might be easier to understand even though I never think of ‘reader’ as an OC since it is suppose to be the reader. I can’t suddenly say “oh btw you have wings now lol”. That’s also why I try to keep things gender neutral and only use “you” as the “pronoun” (if I mess up please let me know). Honestly, I’ve never dealt with OCs or made one myself and this is just stemming from writing fics for a decent amount of time, not that there is anything wrong with OCs. I think they are really creative and fun to do/see. 

In a sense, I do take liberates by giving the ‘reader’ some sort of backstory but it’s usually either me trying to mix in story relevance since that’s just how my writing process goes (idk if we really want to go into that) or I’m just trying to make things cute. I’d like to think I’m not the only one that writes like this and considers the ‘reader’ as their own person. Even when I try to explain this and when I type [’reader’] I don’t ever consider the term referencing the person reading. That’s just a character name to me now. 

I’m kind of wondering how this got brought up but I’m assuming its because of my tags but basically, you’re free to read it as whatever you want. It could be Lumine, Aether, MC or reader itself. I can’t really stop you lol. I might take some story plot relevance which might make it seem that I’m writing Aether/Lumine but it’s usually just for easy explanation. 

But yeah, idk if that was interesting or not but hopefully this was clear enough haha. 

[inkofamethyst]

April 8, 2021

Ayyyy got denied from the first internship I applied to!  To be fair, my primary reason for my attraction to it was its location, not even the projects, and they’re online anyway, so I ain’t all that bothered~

Also I was perusing the syllabus of my chem lab last night (while procrastinating) and found out that you’re only docked 10% if you turn in a lab report up to a day late.  Honestly, wish I’d known that back when I turned in that lab report half-finished all those weeks ago (also I could’ve asked for an extension), but hey, you live and you learn.  Also,,,, I probably needed something like that to humble me anyway.

Wanna know something that makes me kinda frustrated?  No, very frustrated?

The fact that my professor for my organismal biology class never posts videos on time.  Like, she’s teaching, what 150 students over the two sections of her course and is consistently a day or two behind on lecture videos.  Now!  I understand that she fell ill early in the semester, and like, that happens!  And she’s super nice and her explanations are generally pretty clear and stuff it’s just that, like, it throws me off my groove dude.

We had our exam 2 today and like,,,,,, ugh.  Like the only reason it wasn’t too bad was because I have a half-decent system for searching through my notes for answers (Notability + powerpoints + decent note-taking) and it’s not cheating because everything is ~open note~, but there were four powerpoints that were posted without video lectures, and one of them was posted the first day that people started taking the exam like ?????  Y’all.  If I was a conspiracy theorist, I’d say that the professor realized that she’d made it in her syllabus that students could take the first two exams and skip out on the next two if they wanted, so she decided to make getting a decent grade on the second exam really difficult so that students have to pay attention for the rest of the semester and at least take the third exam.  But I’m not a conspiracy theorist (though I do think I could think myself into circles like one if I wanted), so I think she probably just got behind after she got sick (and for some reason didn’t use spring break to catch up?  idk).

All that may be frustrating, but she did post a lecture for today, so I’ll probably get started on that... tomorrow.  I’ve watched hours worth of lecture within the past 18 hours for that class (all at 2x speed, mind you, but it actually worked out pretty well because the professor speaks clearly (and slowly) enough that it was effective), so Imma need a bit of a break.

Also,,,, I went to a webinar on getting a job in archaeology today and like,, I know I haven’t done it yet, but I’m not sure if it’s for me.  I might’ve just romanticized it, I think.  Now, my plan is more related to bioanthropology than material culture, but I did want to try archaeology just to see if it clicks, you know?  Maybe it will, maybe it won’t, but the profession itself feels... unnecessarily difficult to break into.  Like, sure, to some extent it could be cool to hop around the US, project to project, but I don’t know if that’s a way I’d want to live, especially since the job security as a contractor is literally nonexistent.

KDFJKDJFKDJ SO THE WEBINAR IS WRAPPING UP RIGht and it’s four white ladies and one white guy and one of the ladies was saying like, “you should definitely try to network with people of diverse project interests but also diverse racial backgrounds” and all three of the other women nodded really vigorously and the guy just sat there stonefaced fjgkdjgkdfglkdf I just gotta say, as much as I love white woman activism (and I’m not knocking what she said by the way, it was actually really nice and there was totally no reason for her to say something like that so whether or not it was productive, I say that it’s the thought that counts right here), white men being uncomfortable and unsure in the midst of white woman activism is even better.

[forgot to post this last night whoops!]

[cosmictulips]

Good time, it's very nice to know you exist 🍵🛶🏰🪔🍯🍯🍯 I'm 18, T, libra sun, leo moon, cap ris. if u could help, that'd be a big thank you

recently I've been feeling kinda shut off from any type of spirituality, universe, can't trust my own mind because i don't want to make things up and go with a lie, not imagination play - a terrible lie to oneself. so, i can only trust others. been asking for a clear sign that i wouldn't doubt for as long as i can remember, and nothing... am i tryna knock on the door that wasn't meant for me? then i don't understand anything. i feel left out of my own life. i try pulling out any advice, but then, my intuition may be just wishful thinking. nothing i ever do comes as i intend. I've let go of logic, of expectations, but it feels like a one way communication. can't remember dreams. locked out of everything and losing hope. i don't think it's a wall i made. i don't want to make up a voice in my head, it is my biggest fear, i want to actually hear one.

so, one question - why am i being unanswered?

pun unintended

thank you in advance, you're very kind.

have a wonderful weekend, and every weekend some good news

Hey Friend =) I truly hope other people see this ask too because I think your ask is very important.  so I hope you don’t mind that I kind of get personal with you.  Truth be told,  I’ve been feeling the exact same way recently.  it’s happened when I was first starting out with the Craft -as I like to call it -  and it happens from time to time.  even now.  these past two weeks have been a wreck for me and it really feels like I haven’t been heard by the universe.  No, not heard.  I’ve been heard.  but to me, it feels like I’ve been deemed unworthy.   

And especially with divination,  reading for myself has always been wrong.  which is why I no longer trust reading for myself.  and I don’t particularly trust it when people say they read for themselves. because too me, how do you know you’re not lying to yourself? I always, always tell people to be careful because the universe can and WILL tell you what you want to hear.  it’s hard approaching divination with a very unbiased, neutral head.  and it’s kind of why I’ve fought some people over their readings.  people only ever project to others and to the univeres what they want. so if I or you were to tell them otherwise, it’s wrong. 

So you’re right to take a step back if it doesn’t feel right to you.  and here’s where I’m going to start contradicting myself a little bit here.  You need to start trusting yourself.  fully, undoubtedly and ruthlessly.  trust yourself so much that people almost think you’re full of arrogance.  and that’s the key word, almost. Be open minded enough to new ideas and to change the way you think of things.  but always, always trust yourself to know what is best for you. Only YOU are going to know the best route to take for yourself. 

I started being answered when I started trusting the guidance that was coming in for me.  I started to notice the little signs at first.  Notice any repeating numbers?  colors?  any certain phrases you hear too often? read too often?  is there an animal or group of animals that tend to show up at odd places?  slowly start to take notice of these things.   Also,  truly dig deep into what you believe in.  if you want to get into spirituality,  ask yourself why. what is it that you believe that matches that.   I got into it because I felt so alone in a church and no one was listening.  and for awhile, I was thrown in circles the minute I opened myself up to the universe.  but instead of blocking it out,  I kept pushing.  I kept trying to see the pattern, and I kept trying to change it. 

and that could be what’s happening for you.  I know you said that you think it’s not a wall you built. but darling, it is.   I think it comes from a fear you’re not ready to recognize yet.   it could be the fear of the unknown, it could be a fear of failure,  but you’ve built a wall.  

Spirituality is made for everyone.   It’s okay to have blocks,  to doubt your abilities and be unsure of whether or not the universe actually hears you.  the universe brought you to me.  so obviously it hears you.  =) 

but you cannot hear it and I think that’s what needs to change.  

So let me give you some advice on what I do when I begin to feel these blocks. like I have been recently. 

1. I pray to my gods.  you don’t have to be into worshiping gods.  you can simply pray to the universe like I did and still do from time to time.  You’ll know it’s listening when you feel the warmth of the sun, and the gentle breeze of the wind.  perhaps you’ll see an animal or two ;) my sister is a good example of this, she sees dogs everywhere when she’s looking for a sign from the universe lol.  2. I turn to divination.  My readings for myself may not be true but it’s good practice.  I also turn to other forms to try to grow in those skills as well.  Runes, bindrunes, automatic writing,  etc there’s SO MANY divination techniques.  tarot may not be your thing but scrying might be.  look around and see what fits.

3. I play hertz music.  I find that music really helps me out lol.  hertz is juts frequency waves set to a certain wave length so parts of ... our... ... so like our energy can pick up on it.  there’s a better explanation for it but for me, it really helps lol  4. I keep pushing.  even when it feels like I’m not being answered, and sometimes you won’t be answered. that’s the thing.  the universe wants you to better yourself. and to grow.  and sometimes that means trusting yourself to know where to go because it won’t give you an answer.  be brave, and go forward. 

I’ll go more into what I want you to do, but let me pull out your cards first so you finally have a reading lolol.  

So for you I pulled the Lovers, Strength, The Sun and the Knight of Pentacles. with the Ace of Cups as the overall energy. 

so it’s really what I’ve been saying lol.  The knight of pentacles here is telling me to move slowly.  it’s okay that things don’t make sense to you right off the bat.  Patience is a virtue here.   Going into your craft, your practice,  it’s okay to question things.  spirituality is a lot different than most religions so coming from a different place and settling into a new one can be tough.  it requires a lot of change.  and that tends to scare some people.  Ya know?  we’re all so used to hearing different things -mostly bad-  about sprituality and how it’s all “fake”  but darling,  dipping your toes in and slowly breaking the surface is how everyone starts out.  Once you get comfortable with the idea and with your own intuition the fun will begin. 

Next you have the Lovers, Strength and the Sun.  This is telling me you need to let yourself love.  bring courage and strength into this.  It’s going to take you loving yourself,  being confident in yourself and going forth even if it seems fake.  does that make sense?  You might have a mental illness. I’ve got some strong anxiety that borders on paranoia.   Okay,  but in my heart of hearts I knew this was the call for me because I’ve seen too much shit to not believe spirituality wasn’t my path.  so I forced myself to be more confident in my abilities.  I forced myself to be open to the universe even if it felt like I was talking to a wall.  I forced myself to sit down and learn divination and kept a dream journal even if most nights there was nothing but darkness.

and you need to bring that to yourself.  if you are serious about this,  learn to open yourself to the universe.  In the beginning I had to lie to myself.  it’s just what it is.  but the more I connected to the universe,  and the more I began to trust my intuition,  the more the lying ceased to happen.  because suddenly it was true.  suddenly those signs told me I was on the right path.  and suddenly everything I was studying made sense.  given time it will make sense for you as well. 

People, including me,  are telling you what you already know.  You just don’t trust yourself to hold onto those words.  you don’t trust yourself enough to put that same love into you and out into the universe.  and maybe you’re afraid of getting hurt.  being vulnerable to the universe does mean that sometimes we go through rough patches.  we have to break old cycles for new ones to begin. but much like the Lovers,  once you make that choice to love and be loved,  you will shine. 

The ace of cups tells me there is something new coming for you.  but you have to choose to let it happen okay?  you have to stop thinking you’re not good enough and that you’re not being heard.  because you are... because you’re here talking to me ;)   the universe wouldn’t have sent you to me if that wasn’t the case.  and I think a part of you knows that. 

so here’s what I want you to do.  Take the first steps.  Start keeping a dream journal.  the only way we as humans can recall our dreams is if we’re actively thinking of them when we first wake up.  that means no media ;)  lay there and think about what you dreamed.  Like last night I had a dream I set the house on fire and was crying that I lost a textbook.  idk, it was weird lol.  dreams don’t have to make sense.   write them down.  keep a glass of water by your bed. for some reason it helps. 

If you’re gonna sit there and tell me but you’ve tried everything, try again ;) try it from a new perspective.  instead of going in all “this is going to fail”  think of it as “this has already worked once and I’m doing it again to better myself”  

let your confidence shine.  I had to lie to myself everyday until I finally believed I was a decent human being.  I still struggle with it but damn have I gotten noticed by more people who tell me that I literally shine like the sun.  people notice your changes.  some of us just won’t say it ;) that being said, be prepared to fight for your beliefs. 

Learn what your beliefs are. Learn to defend them.  because the universe does not take this journey lightly.  the minute you start to doubt that you’re ever made for this, is going to be the second it closes on you until you force yourself to try again.  much like how we’re both in this spot now ;) trust and KNOW that the universe wants what is best for you.  

Tap into your higher self and your shadow self.  work on what needs to be healed and what your higher self wants for you to do.  this could literally be anything from getting therapy, to doing art, to listening to music, to talking to people who have hurt you.  like it’s endless but it helps.  

Lastly,  understand that these things take time.  You have some major energy wanting to work with you.  you need to start trusting yourself more, and letting down that wall. you built it, you can destroy it.  

I don’t hear a voice telling me which way to go.  I get feelings.  very strong ones.  that I’ve had to learn are different from my anxiety.  In the beginning that meant I had to pretend to ignore the feeling to see what the reaction would be.  when something happened and I knew it was going to happen,  I knew what I had felt was my intuition. 

Learn to recognize what is your instinct and what is your intuition. my instinct is that my hands get a little shaky and I can’t stop moving around.  my intuition keeps me still.  it’s quick and alert.  for you it could be something different.  you might actually hear a voice.  

I’m willing to work with you if you want me to.  I’ve been in that exact same situation and form time to time I feel the same way.  it’s never about the destination, it’s always the journey.

You’ve got this.  You know you do.  break down the wall,  and come join us ;) I hope this helps sorry for the long.... long post lmao If you ever need anything, please reach out =) 

[rigelmejo]

i’ve been watching Handsome Siblings on netflix only in chinese to just like. see where i’m at.

and now that i’m on ep 4 it would feel kind of weird to suddenly switch back to english subs ok, for one.

but anyway like general level-wise: i am pretty much at where i can follow a lot of the gist of scenes even if i don’t pause to translate - but then i’m going to be relying on visual context a lot more. which is fine, it means i can go watch a show with no english subs to rely on Ever and at least follow along.

i do notice that if i PAUSE, i can catch the specifics of a lot more scenes. There’s a scene where the two princess sisters are talking to their nephew (who is a spitting image of Jiang Feng), and then after he leaves - discussing telling him to go take a mission to kill Xiao Yu’er, and then when he leaves the two princesses discuss their plan. I paused over and over after EVERY line that episode, because I really wanted to know the specifics of what they were saying. A lot of lines I could read, and there were a lot of one-words-in-a-sentence i had to look up for a more precise understanding. Same with a scene later in the town said-nephew and his girl kickass companions go to - i could follow the gist, but paused after some lines (and looked up a couple words) for more specific details. 

I will say that the more characters you learn, the easier life is. Really! The more characters I know, the easier my gist-guess is right, the easier remembering new words (made up of known characters) is, and looking up new words is VASTLY easier because I know their pinyin and can look them up faster than drawing. 

If you’re going to do this: I’d still recommend using googletranslate to look up multiple characters you don’t know/phrases, since you can draw and easily get the correct result looked up. I’d recommend pleco if you know the pinyin, or if its a single word (because pleco’s definitions are more thorough and explanatory than googletranslate’s), or if it might be an idiom. 

I would recommend that if you like watching stuff on the computer, to get the learn-with-netflix dual subtitle add on, and just click your subtitles for a definition on-the-video-itself instead of needing to open an app like me. 

---

I am immensely excited and happy that I can watch a chinese show with no english and follow the gist now. That is a huge amount of progress for me compared with August 2019 when I started (and only knew ‘ni hao/wo hen hao’ and the numbers ;w; ). I am so proud of where I’ve gotten to. I definitely think really focusing on increasing known frequent words helps a lot. (Also, reading a grammar guide - grammar is again becoming understandable, so idk my brain is just acclimating again i guess). I’m going to keep focusing on frequent words, and the 2,000 most common characters, for a while and hopefully eventually this payoff will translate to reading as well.

If you DO happen to want to try watching a chinese show without english and testing yourself/studying, I have some mild recommendations you might take into consideration. 

1. If it’s too difficult, do it a little, then come back to it in a few weeks, repeat. This task really only gets enjoyable once you understand enough to be ‘comfortable’ with the remaining ambiguity you still don’t comprehend. That is going to be different for different people. I am comfortable with a pretty high amount of ambiguity/lack of understanding, so I can at least try to watch even stuff-i-barely-grasp at least a little for practice until my brain feels fried. But I’ve been trying this for months... its only NOW that my brain feels relatively okay just watching without pausing, without feeling Completely overwhelmed. And if you do intend to watch without pausing much, you’ll have some degree of not-understanding-everything. Likewise, if you plan to pause the show (and how much you plan to pause it) should be tolerable for you as well. If you have to pause everything, understand everything - do you know enough words to do that in a timely enough manner to get THROUGH an episode? If it takes you a long time, are you willing to intensively focus and look things up that entire time? Basically - what is your tradeoff between you being able to pause and focus intensively on looking things up, versus you being able to watch without pausing and interpret from the words you know/context only. Whatever balance is most enjoyable/bearable for you is when this will start being something that’s easier to do regularly, instead of only occasionally as practice. At least, that’s how it was for me. I’m only finally at  a point where I can do this regularly - before I could only do this for maybe 10-20 minute chunks of time occasionally. 

2. Pick a genre of show/material you are going to engage in frequently. If you’re ALWAYS watching case-type shows, those words and those scenes will be more familiar to you and easier for you to interpret from context and with less looking things up. If you try this with a wildly different kind of show, you may know MANY less words and many scenes may be harder for you to comprehend the gist of. I watch a TON of case type shows so they’re very easy for me to see and pick up words I’m familiar with, single out the parts that are ‘important explanation’ versus ‘some crowd saying unimportant WOW oh No how Horrible’ type lines. So i can cherry pick important things to pause and look up words for, and guess at what kind of line i’m trying to interpret (i can guess if it’s about a case, an emotional discussion, a simple ‘lets do X’ statement etc - because i’m familiar with the plot type). In a similar vein - an easier show/material to do this with, may well be a show you’ve already watched in your native language/with your native language. For all the same reasons - you will be much more familiar with the context. I could in theory watch Guardian again (which i’ve rewatched... a lot) and I would probably follow the plot very easily. But I like a challenge too much apparently, and I’d rather practice with things I can’t fall-back on my existing knowledge for as much. A show I’ve never seen has much less I can rely on for context, BUT the trade off is I can really clearly test how well i’m comprehending the plot and lines - because they are all completely new to me, so I either comprehend or I clearly do not understand what’s going on/obviously misinterpret. So it’s a very quick way for me to see if I’m achieving anything or not. Whereas if I was watching a show I already saw, I might learn new words noticably, but I wouldn’t be able to tell if I’m getting better at understanding overall plot with no english to rely on (since I already saw it before with english).

3. If you’re like me - maybe pick a show either heavy on action, or heavy on daily life. While I am familiar with case-type shows... I generally think (for me) they’re harder to follow when your existing vocab knowledge isn’t high enough to follow it... They’re big on mysteries, on plots that are actually not what they appear, and surprises. They’re big on ‘strategies’ and I find for myself, strategies are kind of hard to follow when I know less words. In contrast: if you pick a daily-life type show, you’re more likely to either know the words or NEED to know the words at some point because they’ll be useful to you. And the scenes should be relatively easy to comprehend visually even when you don’t know the words. (My caveat being - if you want the language specifically FOR understanding certain genres, by all means go for the topics you’ll actually be using - if you’re gonna read a ton of wuxia, or case-stuff etc, then go for stuff you’ll Actually Use which might well be THEM). For me... my end goal is to be able to read creative fiction, so wuxia settings and fantastical settings and mystery-words and period-words are all things I better get used to. So I haven’t really watched much daily-life stuff (although there are daily-life scenes WITHIN a lot of dramas, and I do think they’re some of the easiest scenes to follow and comprehend). 

Now, why might you pick an action-heavy show: easy to comprehend. Especially if you often watch action-oriented stuff already. The first chinese show I watched a whole episode of in only-chinese (it’s first episode, so that’s when i figured out the entire show’s set up) was The Shaw Eleven Lang (I really wanted more of Zhu Yilong’s acting in my life okay?). I DID in fact, manage to follow the plot. Without pausing much, because I was just watching it with dinner. What made it easier to follow was SO MUCH of the dialogue was really straightforward - stuff like ‘i want that sword’ or ‘i hate you’ or ‘lets eat and drink together to celebrate’ or ‘you need to go save/kill x’ or ‘do you think i’m pretty’ etc. So much of the dialogue was NOT schemes/plots/mysteries, it was really straightforward ‘we are doing X, we like Y, we hate Z’. Which for me are the sentence types I find the easiest to understand, and especially found the easiest at that point in time. In addition, because the show has so much action, often the dialogue is accompanied by action scenes that make it pretty freaking CLEAR what their objective is/what they just said. Yes, there are still plenty of unknown words to look up if you want to pause - but it should be obvious enough that you might have a decent guess at what they mean before you look them up (I had to look up words like sword, princess, clan leader, but those were pretty clear even beforehand from the context of the scenes). After I watched the first ep (which i don’t think i could even find english subs for), I watched the second ep with eng subs to see if i’d interpreted the plot correctly so far - i had. It felt pretty motivating to get through 40 minute episodes without much pausing, and know I’d followed along. I think, at least if you’re already an action-show/movie watcher, action series are going to be a relatively approachable thing to try watching in just your target language. (Another positive is a lot of verbs as commands lines, in context, so for me it’s easier to pick up new verbs, and those kind of lines are very easy to pick up in context - also lines like ‘xiao xin’ be careful, bubi, meiguanshi, danxin, ni fangxin, etc - all these short lines that are easy to understand in the context they often come up in).

 (Also, do I recommend The Shaw Eleven Lang? Well... I need to go back to watching it but uh... it’s definitely AN EXPERIENCE... with wild fighter-game-tetsuya-nomura-would-be-proud kind of costume designs, wild af scenes so far, and uh as far as i can tell Zhu Yilong’s on point to play a pretty crazy bastard in it... also there’s a LOT of genuinely kickass girls and kickass main women, which i appreciate, i believe also the main women are all 30+ which is refreshing in general in any-show tbh. also just... everyone in the show is kickass... that’s the point... its a lot like to me, if a absolutely Wild fighting game got a budget for a full drama and just went wild on the plot - very fun to watch, very bizarre... not particularly deep but like, did you play Square enix’s The Bouncer on ps2 for a Good Plot or for an absolutely wild bizarre Time? This show is like the game The Bouncer... just freaking Wild conceptually). 

And now, I am watching Handsome Siblings, and managing to get through episodes with only a little pausing for when I want to figure out specifics. It is also very action-scene heavy. At least for me, that’s been making it a lot easier to follow the gist of. There’s scenes where robbers attack - and even if I don’t know every line, its easy to figure out the gist of what’s being said. There’s scenes where people fight - again, very easy to follow. The parts I’ve been pausing the most on are the sisters plotting, because I feel that’s probably the most intensive-mystery in this plot so far, and because I want to make sure I interpret the details correctly when they’re mentioning them (since I think they’ll play out more in the plot later). I think the fact this show is Action-Heavy is making it tremendously easier for me to follow then like... me trying to watch Nirvana in Fire would be. The very straightforward action scenes are much easier to follow using visual context, at least for me, compared to dialogue heavy scenes where the vocabulary is not going to be emphazised with visuals nearly as much. (Another bonus of Handsome Siblings, at least so far, is the dialogue heavy scenes ARE accompanied by visual flashbacks to EXPLAIN the dialogue). Another bonus for Handsome Siblings: the writing seems very straightforward and decently paced. You don’t have to wait long for new scenes, for new developments, and that means a lot of dialogue and action is doing something right away and has a lot of context you immediately see result in something else. For me that just makes it... approachable and understandable in the kind of way like... movies like The Mummy were paced, or Indiana Jones, or Independence Day... do you know what I mean? It’s fun to watch even if you couldn’t understand, and the structure makes it quite comprehensible again even if you heard no dialogue at all. So for me, at least, it makes the balance of ‘ease of watching versus patience to look things up slowly’ much easier. Because its ease of watching is pretty high even for scenes where actual words-you-know isn’t high, so you can save looking-things-up for only when you WANT to, not necessarily as something you need to constantly do just to catch the gist. 

---

I tried reading again - I tried reading the novel for the Sleuth of Ming Dynasty. It was BRUTAL because I apparently know NO dynasty-royalty-govt related words (which really explains why Men With Swords political scenes I know so few words lol). I got through 10 out of 39 ‘small’ pages on my phone for the first chapter. I think I managed to follow it, the grammar thankfully was really straightforward and I imagine the original author is quite talented. The difficulty was in the very common use of turns of phrase and idioms for so many parts of sentences, which were all new ‘words/phrases’ i’d never seen before.

[sunsetsover]

i’d love to read one of your posts about ben’s actions tonight? like, we all understand /why/ but you have such a lovely way with words and i like pain. thanks 🥺

thank you, you’re so sweet!! usually i like to answer asks in order but imma let u skip the queue just this once bc this one’s time sensitive and ur so nice 🥺

so……. where do i even begin w this……..

the thing is ben has such horrible self esteem issues and a lot of ppl (both characters on the show and ppl in the audience) don’t realize that bc he comes across as very confident and bold and unfazed by anything, but the thing is….. that’s a front…….. he is not confident, he is not bold (not when it really matters) and he’s affected by pretty much everything. like massively so. what other people think of him - particularly people he cares about - affects not only how he sees himself, but also how he behaves. he seems to almost want to be a self fulfilling prophecy - remember how everyone thought it was ben who hit phil over the head, so ben was like ‘well seeing as though everyone thinks i tried to kill him, i might as well actually do it’?? yeah. he’s very susceptible to allowing other people’s opinions on him dictate his opinions of himself, as well as the course of action he ends up taking.

so it’s very easy to see how that lead to what happened with callum and their date. ian making a comment about it? well ben gives back as good as he gets, and this is ian we’re talking about, who is as obtuse as they come. but you see as ben leaves the beale’s that despite seeming unbothered by it, that comment actually got to him. it got him thinking: what if ian was right? what if he has a point? literally ben was already doubting himself after a snide comment from ian, that’s how affected he is by other people’s opinions (and also that’s how much he cares about callum!). and then you’ve got jay piling on top of that, and ok maybe his comments were innocuous and maybe he had a point, but with what ian had already said? the doubts really start taking hold. like maybe ian isn’t just full of shit, not if jay’s thinking the same thing - jay, who probably knows ben better than anyone. so maybe he and callum aren’t right for each other. maybe they won’t work.

and then you’ve got stuart who just puts the giant fucking nail in the coffin. he sets the disaster snowball rolling down the hill. and he does it in a really clever, manipulative way too (it’s a similar type of manipulation we see ben use on callum when he sold him that van!): he disarmed ben with an apology and with this newfound openmindedness, offers ben an olive branch by saying ‘i care about callum and i think you do too’ - essentially lowering ben’s guard - and then goes in with the ‘bad things happen around you so you need to stay away from callum because i don’t want happened to paul to happen to him’. and that undoubtedly completely fucks ben up - we didn’t even really need ian and jay putting doubts in his head before that tbh, i think what stuart said would have been enough to screw ben up on it’s own. and you know, i think even with ian and jay’s comments, if stuart hadn’t said what he said they might’ve been alright. ben might be a little bit off, but it probably would have been recoverable. but as soon as paul was mentioned - as soon as what happened to paul was mentioned - it was all bets off the table. we’ve seen how much paul’s death still affects ben, how much he still blames himself. so to have stuart basically insinuate that yeah, what happened to paul was somehow because of ben and that the same thing might happen to callum - someone that ben obviously really cares about - again because of ben? it was game over. stuart softened him up then went right for ben’s rawest spot. like how the fuck was he supposed to recover from that in a matter of hours?

and yeah, he probably should have done the decent thing and just cancelled. but that’s not how ben’s brain works. ee have already established that doing this exact thing is a pattern of behaviour for ben - he broke up w the guy he was seeing (that he was into!) in newcastle for the exact same reason he purposely sabotaged his date with callum: because he ‘had to, because if anything had got, like, serious, then [ben] would have ruined his life’. those are ben’s exactwords. now who does that sound like? what kind of paranoia is that kind of thinking feeding into? this is what ben thinks about himself. this is what ben worries he’s going to do to the men in his life. like this is what ben does!!! which is why it really surprised me that some ppl thought his behaviour yesterday was OOC. it seems to me that if anything this behaviour is perfectly in line with both his character and his previous actions. and to be perfectly honest, i think if ben hadn’t tried to deliberately fuck it up now, then he probably would have eventually. at least if he’s doing this right at the very beginning the two of them have a chance of working through it.

so why didn’t ben just cancel? well callum would’ve wanted an explanation. and what could ben have said, when he had been so up for it until then? ‘sorry, a few people have talked some sense into me and i realized i like you too much to ruin your life’? that wouldn’t have worked. ‘i changed my mind’? callum’s gonna ask why. ‘something came up’? callum might ask for another date. and ben clearly likes callum quite a bit, and he knows as well as we do that if callum had asked him out again, he probably wouldn’t have been able to say no. so he thinks: i have to break this until there’s no chance of recovery. i need to destroy any chance there is for us, get rid of any interest callum has in me. i need to make him angry at me, because then he’ll stay away from me. i need to make him hate me, because if he hates me at least he won’t be hurting. and if i do have to hurt him, it’s better to hurt him now rather than further down the line when it will hurt him ten times more. it’s flawed thinking, obviously, but ben’s a flawed man with a lot of issues and no self esteem who thinks that a) he doesn’t deserve someone like callum and b) that he’ll only end up hurting him, or that callum will end up hurt because of him. so in his own fucked up way, he was really trying to protect callum - from ben himself, and whatever pain ben’ll inevitably (as far as he’s concerned) end up inflicting on him. (and don’t forget paul and what happened to him was now at the forefront of his mind too, so i’m sure that only made him even more determined to make sure he gets callum as far away from him as possible.)

so what does he do? he completely fucking destroys this date. invites other people along, pays callum no attention, makes 0 effort, literally cops off with someone else in plain view and then makes it clear he’s not bothered what callum thinks about it (although it backfired a little bit bc callum’s such a sweetheart and also has no self esteem so he went the ‘no hard feelings’ route which must have infuriated ben bc like no!! he was supposed to kick off!! swear!!! call ben a bastard!!! anything but be so painfully understanding!!!!) and he does all of this to basically fuck their relationship up beyond repair. bc if he does that then callum will be able to move on and find someone else, someone kind and safe and normal who won’t hurt him or fuck it up.

and i know it won’t make sense to some people, but he did all of it with the best intentions. with callum’s feelings in mind, not ben’s own - in fact, ben’s feelings and what he wants are practically redundant in this situation bc he’s so set on doing what he thinks is the best thing for callum. what ben wants and feels about it doesn’t matter.

and he manages to do a pretty good job of ignoring his feelings up until the very end, when he’s essentially alone. then - and only then - do we get to see how fucking upset ben is about the whole thing. like he’s sitting there drinking by himself trying not to cry! he’s fucking heartbroken! because his actions during the date, that wasn’t him wanting to be cruel or vindictive or hurt callum. that was him trying to protect callum (and i know, i know not everyone will understand or agree with that but i promise you that’s exactly what he was trying to do). his own happiness, his own feelings, they don’t matter. he’s fucking devastated, but it doesn’t matter. callum is safe now. he’ll be alright, and as long as callum’s alright, nothing else matters.

and the most telling part of it all? the fact that ben didn’t go home w that guy he’d been kissing earlier. he could have. he so easily could have - the guy was into him, he was up for it, and we know ben’s not opposed to random hook ups. but he didn’t. he wasn’t at all interested. why? because he wanted callum. he caresabout callum. he was just using that guy to make his point - that ben is bad and callum shouldn’t be interested in him bc because he can do better. he had 0 interest in that guy and the minute everyone was gone and no one was around to witness it, ben made that very clear - he didn’t even want fuck him as a rebound or to prove he doesn’t care about callum or whatever. he couldn’t even pretend.

like ben just really cares about callum and that’s exactly why he did what he did - because he thinks that it was the best and kindest thing to do.

idk i just hope that this helps give people a little bit of perspective on why ben did what he did bc i feel like some ppl were kind of unfairly harsh on him. the way he behaved was not at all fair on callum, and i don’t condone what he did, but as someone who has been there myself (not literally the same situation, but the same ‘i need to scare them off now so i don’t hurt them in the long run’ way of thinking) i can confidently say that it was from a place of good intentions. completely twisted and fucked up and unfair, yes, but his heart was (mostly) in the right place.

but yeah lmao i’m glad you like my way with words bc you just got a lot of them!!! and perhaps a lot of pain too lmao 💕💕

[malodorousmalcontent]

Sucreabeille Review Part 2

Hey everybody it's that time: the Sucreabeille reviewapalooza is upon us once again. A short explanation: near the beginning of February, Andrea, owner of Sucreabeille, offered me a coupon to explore and review some of her scents. I accepted, and through various circumstances, ended up placing three more orders and coming into ownership of a grand total of 32 33 of her house blends, aaaaall of which I plan to review. Since that's, y'know, a lot of smells, I decided to divide up my reviews into four parts.

This is part two. You can read part one here!

So, without further ado, here's my thoughts on Arsenic; Longest Night; Death Unicorn; Let's Be Bad Guys; Banshee; Here's The Thing: Fuck Everyone; Arya; and You're In A Cult, Call Your Dad.

ARSENIC || Antique lace, gasoline, old books, fresh vanilla bean.

IN THE BOTTLE: Like a strawberry jolly rancher!

ON THE SKIN: Honestly? Still like a strawberry jolly rancher: bright, sour-sweet, mouthwatering candy, though it is accompanied by the occasional whiff of sharp gasoline-like fumes. This is like a brighter, perkier take on genuine gasoline... And, truth be told, i'm not complaining. I really like the smell. It really puts the toxic in intoxicating.

...Get it

Be--because, it's. It's arseni--

Anyways

As it dries down, the vanilla comes out, and it's this bright, rich, foody vanilla that doesn't let this scent darken in the least. At no point do I get the lace or the old books, though, which was a bit of a disappointment: I was sitting there huffing my wrists, trying to convince myself that any smoothness in the scent was the antique lace, that I was catching a whiff of paper or the reserved scent of a hardback cover... But, nope. Toxic jolly rancher, then vanilla.

Lasts for 2-3 hours before it starts to fade.

RATING: 4/5. Docked a point because of the lack of an appearance of half the notes, but even without them, it's a really tasty scent.

--

LONGEST NIGHT || A big glass of merlot, cinnamon sticks, freshly grated nutmeg, cedarwood, pure honey, frankincense, myrrh, sweet sugar plums.

IN THE BOTTLE: Very faint spiced wine.

ON THE SKIN: This starts out with the merlot and nutmeg/cinnamon conbination at the very forefront, and under it is something that, in my notes, I listed as smelling like a baked good - but it's the combination of the spice with the honey note, i'm absolutely sure. Usually honey is too strong on me and ends up being kinda unpleasant, but it's reigned back here and is actually pretty nice. Underneath it all, real subtle-like, is the same bubblegum smell that Frozen Moon has in spades: the sugar plum. I think the perfume could do without it, but it's faint enough that it doesn't really affect the scent too much.

On the drydown, the spice and honey takes over as the dominant scent - a little disappointing, considering what I said earlier about not liking overpowering honey notes. The merlot is still there, but much lighter, and there's still just the faintest whiff of bubblegummy sugarplum, and... That's basically where it stays. I never get the cedarwood, frankincense, or myrrh.

RATING: 3/5. Doesn't smell bad, but not something i'm in love with, either.

--

DEATH UNICORN || Fresh cut lavender, black anise, sweet vanilla bean, black pepper crushed under a unicorn’s horn.

IN THE BOTTLE: Anise made sparkly from lavender.

ON THE SKIN: So, for the first, oh, five minutes, I can smell basically everything in this. The anise is at the forefront, gummy and earthy and licorice-y, and the lavender gives it this floral edge, the pepper makes the scent buzz, and... Without looking at the notes, i'm guessing there's vanilla?

*Checks notes*

Yup, dead-on! It's below everything else, but still notable.

Unfortunately, after those first five minutes, basically every note but the anise, amped up by the vanilla, is gone... And I don't like anise. Pure licorice smell. It had some alright sillage, could catch whiffs of it while just going about my regular business, and it was strong and clear on my wrist... But I can't report on longevity - I had to scrub it.

RATING: 2/5 - not only do I just not like the smell of the biggest note in this, but the fact that everything else faded so fast is a bit sad. Maybe I just amp anise?

--

LET'S BE BAD GUYS || Tobacco/vanilla, gunsmoke, leather, sandalwood.

IN THE BOTTLE: Bright, fresh, new leather.

ON THE SKIN: This one's similar-ish in notes to Khal Drogo, but definitely doesn't smell the same. While KD's leather note was old and worn and velvety, this one is bright, fresh, and new - without going car interior. I think it's the same leather note that this house uses in Belladonna, which almost smells like dark, inky rain to me. It's a really pretty note - if you're familiar with Alkemia's The Raven, it smells like that. The sandalwood is there underneath it, dry and dusty, but it's way more subdued than it is in KD - the leather is definitely the star of this scent.

The rest of the notes, I think, are really well-blended and are there to boost up the leather. The gunsmoke lends it a surprisingly clean smokiness without going BBQ or getting amped to hell, as smoke notes will sometimes do on me (lookin' at you, Alkemia's Smoke and Mirrors and Solstice Scent's Foxcroft). The tobacco/vanilla's there, but it's very subtle, and just gives that leather a tiny swirl of sweetness.

Has some decent sillage - I can just barely detect it from 6-7 inches away - and stays pretty strong and noticible on my skin for a good few hours.

RATING: 4.5/5. Really good leather scent that stays surprisingly clean for the notes it has. Unisex, almost leaning butch - it makes me feel like a badass leather-clad biker lady.

--

BANSHEE || Burnt sugar; baby powder; nag champa; real ylang ylang; a perfect sunflower; palmarosa; fresh figs; a moonlit night; decadent pomegranate; metallic copper; white musk.

IN THE BOTTLE: Baby powder mostly, perhaps with a tiny bit of the burnt sugar.

ON THE SKIN: Woof, it's burnt sugar and baby powder time!

The burnt sugar is the first thing I smell, and it's the same note from Cream Tea - though it's much more subtle in this, not headache-inducing. Sitting up there at the top with it is the baby powder, which... Look. I'm not super familiar with the smell of baby powder, but this certainly smells like the baby wipes we've got in our house: clean, with a weird slightly bitter aftersmell, and, of course, powdery. Really, really powdery.

This perfume has a lot of notes i'm not super familiar with, so I had to kind've keep my thoughts general on the smell of it. I get the burnt sugar, the baby powder, something kinda earthy-dank, and a floral edge that's sort'a perfumey, not sweet at all. The sweetest thing in this that I can even sort of detect is the fig, which, honestly, ain't that sweet.

When it dries down, the burnt sugar goes away, but the baby powder persists, and there's something giving it a... Almost wheaty, nutty smell? I'm thinking it might be the 'perfect sunflower' note, which might be closer to sunflower seeds. The metallic tang of the copper is also much stronger, gradually overtaking the scent. The floral edge is gone, and i'm still not picking up anything fruity. The last thing I smell is the clean, slightly soapy nature of the everlasting fricken' baby powder.

Starts out strong, but gets sorta light on my skin within two hours. The last thing I smell before it disappears is just a strangely clean scent. ...Prooobably that baby powder.

RATING: 1.7/5. I bought this because it was a weird scent, and, I mean, I got what I expected.

--

HERE'S THE THING: FUCK EVERYONE || Bourbon, rich chocolate, dark amber, touch of dirt.

IN THE BOTTLE: Chocolate! Imagine that.

ON THE SKIN: So, when I first tried this on before resting, this was chocolate for all of 20 minutes before turning into dirt, and then it just kinda stayed at 'dirt'. Bit of a disappointment. I'm happy to say that after almost two weeks of rest, it's gotten a lot better!

First off, it's staying sweeter for longer, which is great. It reminds me of Hexennacht's Evening Star - powdery chocolate amped up by amber - but, uh, obviously dirtier. There's a teensy bit of a boozy edge, but honestly, if I hadn't seen the word 'bourbon' in my previous notes, I don't think I would have noticed it. Underneath it all: very subtle, dry, dusty dirt - but like, clean dirt. Like if you smelled a handful of dirt that had nothing else in there but dirt. No minerals. No, idk, worm poop. Just dirt.

As it dries down, the dirt overtakes the Sweet Notes, so now it's dry, dusty dirt on top of... Honestly, i'm pretty sure it's the amber - i'm not getting a lot of the chocolate anymore, but the scent is still very rich and sweet in the way that sweet amber can be. The bourbon's come out more, too. Let this one rest, guys! Forreal!

Sillage of 2-3 inches, and it's not light on my skin - nice n clear n easy to find, even on the drydown.

RATING: 4/5. I'm not personally interested in smelling like chocolate - something I learned shortly after ordering this - but it's not a bad scent at all.

--

ARYA || Peaty oak moss, lemon verbena, frankincense, a double shot of good bourbon, smoky sandalwood.

IN THE BOTTLE: Strong, slightly green lemon.

ON THE SKIN: Unsurprisingly, I amp that lemon verbena to hell and back, as I do most lemon scents, and it just completely overtakes the entire scent. The most that I get out of this from the other notes is a vague, fresh green-ness, which I imagine is from the oakmoss... Or, heck, maybe it's just more of the lemon verbena, since that's, y'know, a plant. Geeze. I was hoping maybe i'd get the other notes on the dry-down, but... Nope. As soon as the lemon starts to fade, the entire scent goes with it.

At the very least, even though it's really one-note on me because lemon is a Cursed Scent with my skin chem, it's a very light, cool, refreshing lemon. Like sniffing a raw lemon with a cold stream nearby. It eventually just becomes the soft, pleasant smell of lightly lemon-scented hand soap.

I... Didn't take any notes on sillage or longevity, because, gosh, i'm so good at what I do. I do recall that I never really smelled it in the air, so, it wears close to the skin, at least.

RATING: 2.5/5. Well. It's a good lemon note. :( Just wish I could get anything else.

--

YOU'RE IN A CULT, CALL YOUR DAD || Flannel, sedona trees, bergamot tea, snickerdoodle cookies.

IN THE BOTTLE: Snickerdoodles and flannel. The snickerdoodles smell so fricken' good, this is another scent that made me go 'ooooh!' upon first whiff.

ON THE SKIN: Oh, golly gee, this is so frickin' good. My absolute, hand-to-god, favorite scent i've picked up from Suc. Period. Saving the best for last, here.

Starts out with those rich, bright, mouthwatering, buttery, sugary snickerdoodles - but they're not cloying even on their own, though they have the flannel to temper them back as well. And, oh, gosh, that flannel's so good. Nice, fresh, cozy-as-can-be flannel: the flannel of the pajamas you wear on Christmas morning, out in your isolated cabin surrounded by a sunny-but-snowy forest. That kinda cozy.

On the drydown, there's suddenly a small, slightly bitter green note, which I assume is the sedona trees, but mostly it's just smooth-but-tangy bergamot tea, the snickerdoodle sweetness still floating around it. This has good sillage both when wet and dry - I catch whiffs of it often - and it lasts for a good, long time - I'll wear it to work and still smell the tail-end of it 8 and a half hours later.

It reminds me a lot of Sixteen92's Shadow Show, which is another HG scent of mine - not because they smell very much alike, they honestly don't, but because they both give off very similar not-quite-gourmand vibes, which i'm in LOVE with. I could wax poetry about this scent. I could sing ballads about it. It's so good.

RATING: 7/5. Like. Go buy this! Right now!

--

So, that's part two! Two more parts to go. Next review's gonna be: Liquid Gold, Belladonna, Big Damn Heroes, Cersei, Stay Sexy, Shiny, Margaery, and one scent I haven't chosen 'cause it'll be coming in my next order.

[destressjournal]

DCOM Rankings #98: Descendants

Here it is folks, another big one. I remember seeing the adverts to this on social media (which probably included tumblr) and thinking, aww that’s cute. Maybe. But not something I’d be into. Now that I’m typing this, this movie reminds me of the show Once Upon a Time, I LOVED the show up until season 4…? Whenever they introduced the Frozen characters, I peaced out of there so fast. I think I’ll explore the comparisons between the two medias later in the post.

But let’s talk about how I feel about this movie. Ummmm well it wasn’t bad! There was definitely a lot of potential here! But in my opinion it didn’t all quite come together. I feel like this movie’s story was thrown together in a week, to put it bluntly. Again, it’s still not bad just not thought through all the way. I shall explainnnn!

First off, in order for me to actually watch the movie and tolerate it I had to throw all logic out the window. Basically pretend like this is an alternate dimension where all the fairy tale characters know each other and live together in the same place. Like Storybrook. But for me at least, the difference between this movie and OUAT is, that the characters in OUAT ARE characters from the stories and not people themselves. They transformed into modern people when they entered the real world, but there was at least an explanation for it all. For Desendants, the characters are the real deal, and to me it’s like okay but all these fairy tale/ Disney characters lived in different time periods and in different parts of the world (some places that don’t even exist) and there’s almost no explanation for it. They just all exist at the same time and place and you just accept it. When you’re a kid, it’s easy to do that because this movie is probably something they fantasize about, like that wreck it Ralph cameo with all the princesses. But anyway, i would have LOVED this movie as a kid. Now, i have to apply logic and reason to everything, haha. And yes I know it’s a fictional story and not everything has to make perfect sense all the time, but you gotta have some rules otherwise it’s just lazy writing and you can just make the characters do and say whatever without any real reason (within the story). They just want to get to the next plot point.

Now that THAT is all out of the way. Let’s look at the characters. So they’re all children of the classic Disney heroes/villains. (Again just putting logic aside and trying to have an imagination again haha). And before I continue idk I found it a little bothersome that whenever we meet a new character they had to say right away who their parent was so the audience would know. It just took me out of the story for a bit. I wish we got to see all the characters interact with their parents so that they would show not tell us. But nitpick I guess. Anyway, you have Mal, daughter of malificent, Evie, daughter of the evil queen from Snow White, Carlos, son of Cruella, and Jay, son of Jafar. Again I’m just thinking logically how all this is possible and I just stuff it back in. Haha. But I honestly like all of them as characters in their own right. They each have their own personalities and they all grow throughout the movie. Is it perfect? Not really but it still works for me.

The side characters are okay. Ben is decent enough, I mean I think it would have been better if someone else was for this new program and Ben was against it at first but then opens up to it and falls in love with mal even after the love potion wears off. I think that would have made his character journey a lot better. Sleeping beauty’s daughter, forget her name, is really annoying. For obvious reasons. And yeah they changed some of the characters looks from the original Disney movies which honestly I love. I loved that about OUAT because it felt like it’s own separate thing. There are totally other versions of these fairy tails as they are fictional stories, and you don’t always have to have the characters look exactly like the Disney versions all the time. So I’m glad they took some liberties, although they needed to update fairy god mother’s outfit. That was the only thing that needed a modern touch IMO.

What I thought was surprising was (I’m gonna butcher this name I’m sorry) Kristen chenningworth as malificent. She was amazing! I never thought her to play an evil person because she was the good witch in wicked, all bubbly and stuff. But wow she killed it. And such an amazing voice. I doubt you needed a ton of auto tune for her voice. I guess that leads me to talking about the music and songs next. But yeah alll the acting was good but Kristen knocked it out of the park. I wish she was in it even more.

Okay, songs. I was surprised there weren’t as many songs as I thought there were! And I don’t know how I feel about that. On one hand, too many songs would have been really annoying, but on the other hand, it felt more like a movie with some songs in it instead of a musical. Like I’m just not sure what they were going for is all. If they only wanted to have some songs sprinkled throughout, then they accomplished that, but if they wanted it to be a full musical, I think they needed 1-2 more songs. The songs themselves are decent. I wouldn’t say any of them were bad, except for one. Their rendition of “be our guest” was probably, to put it lightly, one of the worst things I’ve ever heard in my entire life. I’m so sorry for all the folks in the movie who had to listen to that during takes and rehearsals. That version of the songs needs to die, I’ll kill it myself. This is what happens when you keep milking and milking the popularity of the 90’s Disney movies, you go too far with it and it ruins the magic. They could have used an original song instead, but nopeeeeeee, Disneyyyyy.

Sigh, so anyway, the theme of the movie was pretty crystal clear, that anyone can become good. I did like mal’s character development throughout the movie, I mean it’s not Zuko from avatar good, but it’s decent enough for a DCOM. At least there’s evidence of it, like here are things she talks about along the way that makes her realize her mom is an asshole. And I feel like this can be accurate for people who leave home for the first time and realize there’s a whole world out there and that they don’t have to live that life anymore, they can invent themselves. Evie learns that she is actually smart and doesn’t need to rely on her mirror to tell her everything. Carlos probably had the least character development just because his one fear was dogs and he got over that fear. And Jay learns he can use his athletic abilities for sports instead of theiving. But I like that they assumed they wouldn’t be welcomed and would be rejected, so they stuck to the evil plan until they realized they were happier here. I love the 3rd act turning point in the movie where sleeping beauty’s mom was horrified that maleficent’s daughter is at the coronation, and sparks all this conflict, *chefs kiss* that needed to happen in order for the villains to resume their goal and keep the drama going. Not everything can go well for them.

It’s a shame that this movie had so much potential to be more than what it was. I know the series is already popular, but I feel like (at least the first movie) would work better if the world of auradon (or whatever it is) was established a little bit better and the rules of magic were explained more. Oh and also wish the songs were better. My favorite is the one that Kristen chenningworth sings just cuz she’s amazing. But yeah this movie is also cringey in a lot of places and it took me forever to get through it. All in all I wish I liked this more than I do, but at the same time I don’t really care…lol. I’m sure both of the sequels will not be as good, I’m prepared for that. But let’s go ahead and grade this thing shall we?

Hmmmmm I think there was slightly more going for it than against it. Once I put aside logic and reason, the movie wasn’t too bad. But I know that has to be a factor in grading for me. I’m thinking B-level??? Either a B or B+. I think there’s enough wrong with it that it can’t be A level. I’ll decide once I finish all of them and get tomt new ranking system at the end. At this rate it might be another year….oh boiiii

Next is a halloween-related movie that I think stars the girl from girl meets world? Maybe? I could be wrong. Guess I’ll find out. Kinda glad I’ll be watching this as we enter halloween season, I’m getting in a spooky mood!! See y’all then!

[fluffypotatey]

Yeah honestly I sometimes wonder if I should make a youtube channel to post video edits on so I could just force everyone to look at all the angst stuff I create rather than be stuck explaining it verbally to people (believe me, it'd only hurt worse if you saw it), but then again I do videos so rarely because editing is pretty tedious even when I have a clear picture of what I want and I can't really do just tiny bits and pieces at whatever little slot of time I have between lectures or wherever like I can with fanfic because it's just... it's just different.

When it comes to editing videos, one thing that is a blessing though is that basically any even half-decent editing program is going to have the same basic layout, so if you know one, you can learn to use another with just a little bit of trial and error. Because I learned to edit in high school, and the school computers we used had some fancy expensive professional-level kind of program (Adobe Premiere I think), meanwhile I'm stuck with what I can find free. I don't have the skill for super fancy tricks anyway, so mostly it's fine that the open source program I use doesn't have all the more fancy tools Premiere had, but it's still very nice that the layout is similar so I didn't have to learn everything from the start all by myself when switching to using the free one for my own projects

i would be interested if you did make a channel, but i guess you could just try posting on here if you really want to. of course idk how that works and if tumblr might glitch or whatever i’m new to this site and i don’t edit sorry

of course it’s fine if you only do edits whenever you have free time! i can understand if making a channel might feel like a commitment, so there’s no pressure to! however, even with you explanations, i can already tell this edit is amazing! i just know that it will hurt me and that kind of insight is enough tbh

[coffee-and-hollands]

Law of Life | 2 (Lawyer!Tom AU)

Good things come from shit days

Blurb:  After a terrible ending of a decent day, two individuals meet in the weirdest circumstances. Ones a first year associate at the biggest firm in the country, the other is a concert goer from a different country. The bringing together of these two lives creates a new beginning.

Part 1 | Part 2 | ??? (to be continued)

Warning: It isn’t a coffee-and-hollands fic without some swearing. idk what else goes here lol

A/N: So sorry for the lateness of this update. I was away, then I had to get ready for back to school, then school started again and it’s my last year so I actually have to try and do some shit for once. ANYWAY! LAWYER!TOM IS BACK BABY! this is my second time writing these notes cause it didn’t save ffs so it’s a bit rushed. I don’t know how many more parts there will be in this series. If anyone has any ideas for this fic please feel free to message me about it. If you have any requests feel free to send me an ask at my cashier. Thank you for supporting me and my shit ass writing.

“...and next thing I knew it, I had cold, sticky beer soaking my shirt,” Tessa explained as the pair’s laughter ran through the empty city streets. She watched as Tom stopped to catch his breathe with his hands on his knees.

“So, your telling me that in the space of less than two hours,” He stated as he ran to catch up to the smiling girl, “ you saw your favourite band but also got elbowed multiple times, beer was poured over you by accident and you fell down the stairs as you made your way up said stairs?” He questioned laughing at the concept. She stopped and looked at him with hurt eyes and her hand on her heart.

“Do you have no faith in me to make a fool out of myself?” She asked, faking a hurtful expression; making him blush of embarrassment.

“Oh no,” he replied worried he truly hurt her feelings, “I, uh, was...no...”.

“I was joking!” Cutting Tom off with a friendly punch to his arm, slightly harder than expected, knocking him off balance and into the neighbouring building next to him. “SHIT! Sorry,” she quickly spurted out as she held her hands out to help him gain his balance again. Rubbing his shoulder, Tom wavered Tessa off as he began walking down the quiet city street. 

“We aren’t too far away from your place,” he explained as he lazily pointed down the street. Tessa ran to catch up to him as she worried for his shoulder.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” She asked putting her hand on his shoulder, stopping them in their tracks, “I can give you some ice when we get to my apartment.” Looking into her deep blue eyes, he couldn’t decline the offer. Unable to form a single word, Tom simply nodded his head as they continued to walk.

“OH! I know where we are now!” Tessa screamed in excitement as she finally started to recognise her surroundings. Surprised by her sudden outburst, Tom grinned as he watched her run around the path as she pointed out features she recognised. “That’s the Starbucks Josie always gets me to go to even though it’s super expensive,” she explained pointing across the street to the darkened store front with the familiar green sign. “OH! And that’s the best shop to buy cup noodles, cause it’s always open late.” She exclaimed as she looked back to find Tom standing still watching her smiling as he chuckles at her cheerful expression. She stopped in her tracks as his caramel eyes stared into her own eyes, becoming distracted by his features. Breaking from his trance, Tom cleared his throat.

“uh, your place should just be up here right?” he asked as he walked up next to her, pointing towards a set of stairs. As Tessa registered his question her eyes perked up to the bright orbs he saw just a minute before.

“Yes! yes it is.” She exclaimed with a new found enthusiasm. Tom chuckled again as he watched the optimistic girl skip up to the base of the stairs and hop up the steps. As he reached the bottom of the steps himself he watched her as here body expression changed to a rigid figure. Arching her head back in frustration she exhaled loudly.

“..Shit. Where the fuck did I put my bloody keys?” she questioned to her self as she began scavenging through her pockets. Tom slowly made his way up the steps cautious of the flustered figure. With faint mutterings coming from her mouth, Tom boldly decided to knock on the hard wood door, in hope that someone would save them both. Looking up through her blonde waves she seemed surprised by the simple solution to her problem Tom found. Just as her mouth opened to thank him, a bright light shone onto both of their faces.

Rubbing her face in exhaustion, the young woman on the other side of the entrance looked into Tessa’s surprised eyes as the realisation hits her. “SHIT! Tessa!” she yelled smacking her hand on her forehead and closing her eyes in frustration, “I knew I forgot something.” 

“Yea, thanks for that” Tessa replied as she smoothed her hair into place, recovering from the sudden exposure to the bright light. The young woman looked next to Tessa to find the brunette curls of Tom as he stood their patiently, both hands behind his back as he held his briefcase.

“Who the fuck is this?” she asked, looking back at Tessa hoping for a reasonable answer. However, Tessa was unable to form a sentence as she scratched the back of her neck in search for the right answer.

“I’m Tom,” he replied cheerfully in his rich British accent as he brought one of his hands around to shake the woman’s hand, “I helped your friend get home after I found her covered in beer as she swore at a disappearing cab.” As his sentence went on, his voice began to falter as he realised how stupid the situation sounded. 

“Josie,” the woman stated, taking his hand and lightly shaking it. Looking back at her friend, Josie glared into Tessa’s blue eyes hoping for more of an explanation. Tessa, still unable to function, open and closed her mouth as she tried to form a single word. 

“uh, Tessa?” Tom asked politely as he turned towards the flustered woman, “is it okay if i was able to get that ice? cause that building was hard as fuck.” he explained rubbing his left shoulder as he chuckled at her expression. Surprised by his sudden language, Tessa awoke from her trance and began to move into the apartment.

“Yea, sure! Come on in,” she replied pushing Josie out of the way as she ushered Tom into the entrance way. “I’ll be right back.” She said as she ran into the kitchen to find an ice pack. Looking around the apartment, Tom found Josie looking straight at him, as she tried to solve the puzzle in front of her. Putting his briefcase down, he looked up to find Josie’s green orbs searching his face for an answer.

“How?” she asked blatantly, pointing between Tom and the direction of Tessa.

“To be completely honest, I don’t know.” was the only way Tom could reply as he raked through his mind trying to understand what had exactly happened in the past hour. 

“so what’s with the fancy outfit? Wedding? Bro’s night out?” Josie questioned, trying to uncover any secrets she could find.

“Oh no, work.” Tom explained pointing back at his briefcase, leading to more questions forming in Josie’s mind.

“Oh yea, where would a fine man like you work at that leaves him on the streets late at night?” She asked hoping for an interesting answer.

“Law. First associate under Sylvia Anders,” Josie’s eyes widened at the name, her hopes rising as he continued, “she had some case files that I needed to finish.” He answered as he fiddled with his watch on his wrist, unaware of the time. Suddenly aware of her situation, Josie became more intrigued by this mysterious man.

“Sylvia Anders, you mean Parker Co‘s best senior partner underneath the man himself?” She exclaimed as she found her day improving by the second. Not only did her least favourite contestant get rejected by the Bachelor but she has a chance to get into the biggest law firm in the city; but it all falls on the man standing in front of her.

“You know a lot about Parker Co,” Tom stated questioning her reasoning for knowing so much, “You’re a lawyer yourself aren’t you?” He asked smirking at his deduction.  

“Nah shit Sherlock,” she answered bothered by his smirk, “I’ve always wanted to work at Parker Co even just as an intern...” she exclaimed as she threw her hands around to help explain her position. ‘Definitely a lawyer’ Tom thought as he watched her hands move with her explanation, not listening at all. “...you could put my name in!” she ended with a bright expression on her face. Tom’s facial expression stayed focused as he tried to work out the details of the matter.

“I don’t know if I could do that.” He replied, searching for a way to change topics. Almost like fate, another voice rung through the apartment, distracting Josie from their conversation.

“I am so fucking sorry for that,” Tessa exclaimed as she walked back through the hallway as she wrapped some paper towel around the ice pack. As she passed the ice pack to Tom, their fingers brushed ever so slightly; but it was enough to send the atoms of her finger tips into a flurry. Quickly pulling her hand away, she looked over to the clock hanging just above his head as a distraction.

12:03

“Oh uh, you should probably get home,” she stated as she pointed behind Tom towards the clock. Turning his head to look at the clock, he remembered he was meant to be back with Harrison ages ago.

“Shit, you’re right” He replied as he picked up his briefcase in a hurry to make his way home. 

“Well, I’m gonna go and continue watching the Bachelor, which you two lovebirds intruded on.” Josie mentioned as she walked back into the living room, leaving the blushing pair by themselves. 

“Well, I’m gonna go and continue watching the Bachelor, which you two lovebirds intruded on.” Josie mentioned as she walked back into the living room, leaving the blushing pair by themselves. 

“So um, I should probably, uh, get going,” Tom stuttered out, breaking the awkward silence that fell in the room. Moving his hand that was occupied with the ice pack towards Tessa, Tom expected her to take it back, surprisingly, she observed the action with confusion. “Tessa? Do you want this back?” He asked, stepping closer to her with his arm outstretched.

“Oh no,” she replied taking his hand in hers as she placed it onto his sore shoulder, “you need it more than I do.” she finished with a chuckle.

“Are you sure?” he questioned as he looked from their hands to her face, catching her attention. The touch of her soft hands on his sent a warm sensation up his arm as he analysed every shade of blue and green in her eyes.Awkwardly breaking tension, Tessa brought her hand off his as she cleared her throat.

“Yea, it’s fine.” She quickly replied, recovering from her trance. She watched Tom as he ran his free hand through his curls as he considered his next words thoroughly. 

“Is it possible if I, uhm,” he cleared his own throat as the pitch of his voice rose, “I-I could get your number?” he blurted out awkwardly pointing his finger towards Tessa. Watching her expression changed, he quickly found himself justifying himself, “So I can give the ice pack back,” he swiftly added with a smile.

Taken aback by the question, Tessa stood in front of Tom with a blank expression. As his words sunk in, she found that he had handed her his phone and her body had automatically taken all the steps needed for him. Handing his phone back to Tom, Tessa smiled as she rubbed her sweaty hands on her jeans.

“Thanks,” Tom stated as he returned his phone to his pocket, turning around to face the door. Tessa came round him and opened the door for him. Surprised by her chivalry, Tom looked back at Tessa to find her smiling back at him once again. Walking through the doorway, Tom found himself smiling at the thought of the night he has had.

“Thank you for helping me get home,” Tessa thanked as she leaned against the heavy, wooden door. Looking back at her blonde waves for the last time for the night, Tom replied.

“It was my pleasure,”

Closing the door as she walked back into the apartment, Tessa turned around to find Josie standing in the hallway with a hand on her hip, waiting for an explanation.

“HOW THE FUCK DID YOU MEET HIM?”