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starcurtain · 28 days ago

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More Phaidei Fics I Want to Read

1. Obligatory "fish out of water" fic (mostly AU because the timeline would probably not match canon, but we do what we want here!), taking place after Mydei and the Kremnoans first make it to Okhema. Okhema is already harsh on outsiders, let alone on a conquering "barbarian" tribe infamous for bringing strife to so many other city states. Mydei doesn't know the local customs at all, and while he doesn't care the slightest about how these pathetic Okhemans see him, the trouble he keeps getting into is affecting the reputations of innocent Kremnoans too. He's got to find a way to blend in, at least enough to stop costing his fellows any chance of finding paid work... Too bad the only person who is willing (and has time) to help is Phainon (who isn't native to Okhema either but done a much better job of learning to get along with the locals). The guy thinks he's the Titans' gift to Amphoreus just because he beat Mydei in a duel once. It was only once! And why does it matter whether we eat standing up or lying down? What are you laughing at, Savior Complex?! Or, tl;dr: The culture clash comedy one where Phainon and Mydei teach each other entirely opposing sets of manners, and come to learn a lot more about one another in the process.

2. Also obligatory omegaverse where Mydei is an omega born with a unique constitution: he's built like an alpha, snarls like an alpha, and dominates his opponents like an alpha. He even smells like an alpha, especially when he's in heat, so the only people who ever figured out his secondary gender were his doctor and his parents, all of whom are dead now. The whole world thinks Mydei is an alpha, and his reputation as an indomitable warrior prince pretty much hinges on people continuing to believe that. The problem is, Mydei wouldn't actually mind getting to live an omega's life, at least the part about finding a mate and starting a family. Only, who in the world would want him for a mate? Any alpha hunting for an actual omega would never think to look in Mydei's direction, betas would just be confused, and even those few alphas who are attracted to other alphas would only end up disappointed after discovering Mydei isn't one. He's nobody's ideal partner, and he'd mostly made peace with that--until Phainon. Until that upstart alpha from the middle of nowhere knocked Mydei down in a brutal spar and then pulled him up with the gentlest hand, and suddenly it mattered that no one would ever want Mydei. It mattered a lot. (Of course, the long and short of it is that Mydei is the man of Phainon's dreams, and after a series of setbacks and miscommunications and lots of silly angst, they'll find their way to a happy ending.)

3. After discovering Mydei's weakness for sweets and cute things like pink pomegranate juice, Phainon decides to engage in a bit of light-hearted teasing: He starts sending Mydei exceedingly adorable gifts and fancy candies under the guise of a "secret admirer." The joke is on Phainon, however, when it turns out Mydei finds the gifts quite charming and is determined to discover the identity of the mysterious gift giver. A reasonable person would quickly give up on the joke to avoid getting caught, but Phainon has always been weak to chasing thrills--and maybe this whole thing about being Mydei's "secret admirer" isn't too far off after all... (The real joke is that Mydei, realizing immediately who the gifts were from, invented an entire "hunting my admirer down" story just for the fun of watching Phainon squirm--and, well, because keeping the whole thing going, being showered with attention by his rival, doesn't feel too bad at all.)

4. The opposite fic: The one where Mydei's completely mismatched online personality accidentally catfishes Phainon and causes some very silly drama. Mydei's (anonymous) teletweet account is full of cutesy chimera kitten memes, aesthetic pictures of food, heart emojis, and overly punctuated (with exclamation points) recaps of shopping trips in Okhema's market... Can anyone blame Phainon for thinking this is the account of a cute girl who is refreshingly earnest about her love for chubby seals and pink milk tea? But as Phainon becomes closer and closer to "Fig Stew" online, things get more and more complicated--because he's also been getting closer and closer to his real world companion Mydeimos lately. Both Fig and Mydei are wonderful, and Phainon can barely bear the thought of losing either of them in his life. Trying to get closer to them both would be way too dishonest, but choosing one over the other... What should he do? Meanwhile, Mydei is in trouble. He wasn't planning to set up some secret identity or anything; it's not his fault Phainon mistook him for a girl online! There's nothing weird about dudes posting sparkling kitten gifs, godsdammit!! But now the charade's gone on way too long to come clean, especially since Phainon seems so invested, and... well, can you blame Mydei for not wanting to give up on the closest thing to a relationship he's ever managed to start? tl;dr: Online mistaken identity hijinks fic.

5. The required-in-every-fandom time travel fic (with bonus fake dating)! Through an outpouring of Oronyx's power, Mydei and Phainon end up in the bodies of their future selves, who, it turns out, have not only managed to end Amphoreus' war and revive Castrum Kremnos, but... appear to have also... gotten married?!! Now Mydei and Phainon have to not only find out exactly how their future selves managed to save the world (so they can accomplish the same task) then look for a way back to their own time--they've got to do all of that while also pretending to be a happily wedded pair of rulers to avoid raising everyone's suspicions. This would be a whole lot easier if either of them knew the first thing about being actual kings... or about relationships. The slightest slip up could create ripple effects that change the entire timeline permanently, but--no matter how nerve-wracking it might be to admit, after seeing the future in store for them together--there's nothing Phainon (and Mydei) won't do to make sure things go exactly as they should.

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klaus-littlestwolf · 10 months ago

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Yan!Daemon T. NSFW A-Z

(I couldn’t resist, I needed to make this, this was one of the most requested things I’ve ever had so I hope that you love it!)

A stands for AFFECTION: how would they show affection?

•Daemon shows affection through physical touch, he always wants to be touching you in some way whether that’s with his arm around your waist, you sat across his lap (which is a near constant position for him to put you in) or possibly just as simple as holding your hand

B stands for BLOODY: how bloody are they willing to get for their object of obsession?

•As bloody as physically possible!

•Daemon will protect you with everything he has and the idea of getting bloody will not deter him for a moment. You had better hope that blood doesn’t make you sick to see or smell because with how often Daemon believes (true or not) that men are flirting with his Princess, there’s going to be a lot of bloodstains on his clothes…and yours

C stands for CRUELTY: would they ever hurt their object of obsession?

•If you push Daemon too far he can get violent with anyone

•He would never harm you the way he harms other people, however you are in no way exempt from his rage

D stands for DARLING: would they cross their object of obsession’s limits?

•If you try and keep yourself from him then yes, he will absolutely cross any limit he believes he needs to. You are Daemons wife and that means you will perform the duties of a wife as you are meant to as long as you are healthy and strong enough to do so

E stands for EXPOSED: how much do they expose their own feelings to their object of obsession?

•Daemon is actually quite open with you about his feelings in your marital bed, which is really the only place he is willing to talk about anything personal or private

•He actually surprises you a bit with how open he is with you on your wedding night. After your third round he snuggled you to his chest to allow you a break and he began talking, ending up telling you quite a lot about himself for much longer than you expected

F stands for FIGHT: how would they react to their object of obsession fighting back?

•Daemon would find it comical to see his cute little wife fighting back

•He will happily pin you down and fuck the fight right out of you for as long as he needs to

G stands for GAME: do they think this is just a game?

•Daemon does not play games in any facet of his life (unless he’s teasing assholes/idiots like Otto Hightower or Gerold Royce), certainly not in his marriage

H stands for HELL: what would be their object of obsession’s worst experience with them?

•The worst experience you have with Daemon is when you make the mistake of spending the afternoon that he is out for a ride on Caraxes with an old friend that you hadn’t seen in a long time

•That afternoon was spent in the library getting to know each other all over again, however as he walked you back towards your rooms for the evening, you ran into your husband who did not like you in the company of another man

•Daemon, being Daemon, would not listen to reason and that night your husband took you while covered in the blood of your friend, covering you in his warm, sticky blood while his corpse laid 10 feet away from your bed with his eyes open and unseeing

•Strangely enough, Daemon was happy to comfort you from the nightmares that you suffered for months after the incident

I stands for IDEAL: what are their plans for their object of obsession?

•Daemons plan is to breed you full of as many babies as physically possible

•He plans to fill you with an entire litter of Targaryen babies which is why he spends so much time fucking your cunt as full as he possibly can

J stands for JEALOUSY: how they react when jealous? Do they get jealous?

•110% he does!

•You learned on your wedding day that Daemon was a jealous man when you made the mistake of accepting the proposal to dance from a Lannister

•Growing up your mother always taught you to never turn down a request to dance but as you stood behind your husband while he was crouched over the Lion bashing his head in with a wine goblet from the Kings table, you quickly learned that your husband did not want other men to touch you in any way whatsoever

K stands for KINDNESS: how they act around their object of obsession?

•Daemon is a sweet, loving man…to you and you alone

•No one else should or does expect that kind of treatment from Daemon. The only other people you have hope for are your children since the second you became pregnant Daemon was somehow even more protective of you

•He spends hours every day touching and rubbing your belly, talking to the babies at night in your bed after he has finished fucking you for the evening

•’I want to be sure that they know who I am when they’re born. They’ll know you, you’re their mother but should they not like me I do not know what I would do.’ It was a rare moment of vulnerability that Daemon was showing, something he only did with you.

‘Of course they will know you, my Dragon. You are their father, their protector and they will absolutely adore you!’ You assured him, not liking to see your confident, cocky husband in any kind of self doubting mind set.

‘You always know what to say to calm my nerves…I’m going to keep speaking to them though, just in case.’

L stands for LOVE LETTER: how would they approach their object of obsession?

•You found out about Daemons interest the day that you were told you would be marrying the Targaryen prince

•It had only just been announced that his lady wife had passed tragically in a riding accident and then suddenly your father was telling you that the Prince had all but demanded your hand in marriage and your father had no choice but to say yes (not that he would have said anything else)

M stands for MASK: how different are their public persona from their true selves?

•Daemon isn’t the type of person to hide who he is, what you see is what you get

•He is just as cocky, sarcastic and angry behind closed doors as he is in public when someone upsets him, the only difference is a soft side with his wife and babies where no one else can see

N stands for NAUGHTY: how would they punish their object of obsession?

•If Daemon has to punish you he prefers to lock you in your chambers until you settle down, he doesn’t want to hurt you, but if he has to then you will find it impossible to sit down for a long time

O stands for OPPRESSION: how many rights would they take from their object of obsession?

•You can still do most things, but if you want to go out then you must ask him first

•Being around other men is the only big difference, Daemon doesn’t even want you around your own male family members lest they have an unhealthy obsession with his beautiful wife

P stands for PATIENCE: how patient are they with their object of obsession?

•The man has zero patience and zero chill. None.

Q stands for QUIT: if their object of obsession died or escaped, would they ever be able to move on?

•Died: Daemon would genuinely be torn up about your death and he would have a hard time being close to the child that you brought into the world before dying on the birthing bed

•Escaped: You would never get beyond the front gate and if you did you would be corralled by an angry Blood Worm Dragon blocking your way so escape wasn’t worth the hassle

R stands for REGRET: would they ever regret harming their object of obsession? Would they ever let them go?

•He will never let you go however, every once in a while he will regret harming you when he lets his anger get the best of him, making up for it in his own way by bringing you gifts or taking you for an evening flight (which he knows is your favorite)

S stands for STIGMA: what made their yandere tendencies bloom?

•The moment he saw you he went to the Vale and murdered his wife to ensure no one (the King) could tell him that he could not have you

•He demanded your hand right after and Viserys said he would have to wait at least a week out of respect and to not seem suspicious before he “asked your hand” despite the fact that everyone knew it was no question, you would be his one way or another and the ‘permission’ just determined whether your father needed to die first

T stands for TEARS: how would they react to their object of obsession crying/breaking?

•Daemon hates your tears and when you break down and cry, that is usually the moment he knows that he’s gone too far

•Your husband is the first person to comfort you, especially during your nightmares (that he caused) as he hates seeing you sad or scared

U stands for UNIQUE: something different they would do compared to others yanderes.

•Daemon would often have Caraxes eat whatever man he suspected had an interest in his wife

•He would also leave you with Caraxes when he had business to attend to, knowing Caraxes had taken a liking to you and would viciously protect you (especially when pregnant), the Dragon loving you quite a lot and enjoying the scratches you gave him when he was ordered to protect you. He had killed countless men and women for getting too close while he was on guard (whether they meant you harm or not)

V stands for VICE: what weakness their object of obsession could use against them?

•All you had to do is point and someone is dead

•Also if you want Daemon to be soft and sweet, all you need to do is come up with a ‘reason’ to cry, it was the one thing your husband genuinely could not handle seeing

W stands for WIT’S END: would they hurt their object of obsession?

•Never in any way that would have a lasting impact on you

•Locking you in your chambers wasn’t something that ‘hurt you’ and the only pain Daemon ever caused you physically was when you disobeyed him or questioned/challenged his authority in front of others, and even then it was only blistering your ass (which he would then soothe with creams that he had gotten from the maester once you had truly apologized)

X stands for XOANON: would they worship their object of obsession?

•Daemon is obsessed with you, worship is the word most people would use to describe how he looks at you

•Worship actually didn’t quite capture the true feeling once you had announced your first pregnancy to him and the court, he very nearly fucked you right there in front of the King and the Court, his protective streak instantly growing x10 which no one would have thought possible until they witnessed it

Y stands for YEARN: how long would they pine after their object of obsession before they snap?

•Daemon did not ‘pine’ at all

•The moment he met you he decided that you would be his and since your father was actively looking for a husband for you, he immediately took himself to the Vale and ensured the death of his lady wife Rhea Royce

•The only length of time that he waited was the allotted week that his brother ordered him to wait so that no one would think anything that happened had been Daemons doing, and during that week he had fed 3 different lords to Caraxes for daring to try and court you

Z stands for ZENITH: would they ever break their object of obsession?

•Daemon would not want to break you, he wants you to love him and eventually he does make that happen

•You did try to hold out and not fall for his charm, knowing that everyone around suspected that he had killed his wife to marry you so in a sense once you gave yourself over to the feeling of loving him you did ‘break’ in a way but who wouldn’t when they’re being worshipped and loved by a Targaryen Prince and his giant red dragon?

Daemon T. Masterlist

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galaxyedging · 13 days ago

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Kermit (I've decided his name is Renè Rana) SNL x f!reader, Daniel SNL x f!reader.

(I saw a post about them being cousins, and I can't find it to tag the person for the fun idea).

WC:2k

Summary: You decide to mix business and personal matters when you meet Renè 'Kermit' Rana.

Warnings: Smut. Male masturbation. P in V sex. Mentions of other sex acts. Slight power imbalance.

The XXX Files

Getting into the academy had been hard. There had been all kinds of tests and drills to pass. It had taken years for you to earn your place, to truly fit in, and to be respected amongst your peers. Why shouldn't you reap some benefits?

Alien abduction cases always drew a certain type of person. There was nothing wrong with that. They were just a little more…impressionable than your average person. They weren't exactly strong personality types. It didn't exactly make them ideal to support your job. It did make them ideal for supporting your personal life. People like that seemed to have a thing for strong, authoritative women and every now and then you found someone you could work with.

Under his bad outfit and god awful hair, Renè Rana could definitely be worked with. The old vest he wore highlighted his broad shoulders. The dad-like cargo shorts showed off his muscular legs. The cheap, ugly t-shirt cut off at the right length to cling to his biceps, showcasing them perfectly. The surprisingly neat moustache he kept accentuated his full lips. The way he flirted with you and the other agents showed off those beautiful, deep, brown eyes. Best of all he was eager and willing.

Renè’s double wide sat in a clearing on the edge of the forest half a mile out of town. When you asked about the location he had told you how it suits his purposes, plus the ladies can scream as loud as they want. It was duly noted. A string of warm light bulbs hang from the awning alongside a bug zapper. There are a couple of low wooden chairs around a fire pit in the clearing outside. The place does look homely, more so than you'd expect from a man like Renè. Inside the trailer matches the outside.

“I always tidy up for women of your calibre.” Renè informs you as you step inside the surprisingly neat and tidy trailer. “Beer? I bought some imported stuff.”

“No, I'm good. Thanks. I'd rather just get down to it.” You slip off your jacket as you speak.

Coming straight from work you still wore your pants suit, blouse and sensible heels.

Renè nearly chokes on his own beer at your words. “Yes, Ma’am.”

Rushing around the breakfast bar that serves to separate his kitchenette from his living space, he shrugs off his vest and pulls his t-shirt up over his head, dumping them both on the floor.

“Eager.” You smile at him.

Standing, you thread your fingers into his shockingly soft hair to draw him in for a kiss.

Eager didn't even begin to cover it. Renè's hands explored your body heavier and more thoroughly than an angry TSA agent. His tongue probed yours more extensively than even the wildest abduction stories you had been told. His growing bulge rutted against your side like your neighbour’s Maltese will do against your shoe if you aren't quick enough to dodge him. His hands had settled on your breasts, his movements were uncoordinated but pleasing enough. When he started moaning loudly, you thought he might come in his cargo shorts.

“Renè? I'd really like to play a game.” You purr in his ear. Since he's lost too far in groping you have to give him a little shove to get his attention.

“Huh? Oh. Yeah, babe, what-whatever you want.” His hands, lips and heavy cock never leave you.

“Kermit!” you resort to using his ridiculous, however apt, nickname and give his hair a sharp tug. He gives another long moan at that. Perfect.

“Sorry. It's just been a while since I had a woman as beautiful and classy as you.” His earnest flattery was kind of cute.

“Strip for me.” The words barely left your mouth before Renè was naked, apart from his socks, in his living room. His slightly shorter than average cock stood proud and leaking. His balls are large and heavy, your mouth waters at the sight.

Settling back on the threadbare sofa, you give your first command. “Touch yourself for me.”

“Touch my-myself?” Renè blinks at you. “I can do that whenever. I did before you came. You know, get the easy one out of the way? D-don’t you want to touch me?”

“Oh, I will. It just gets me all hot to watch guys jerk off.” Renè spat in his hand and started to fuck his fist aggressively before you could offer him something to get off to.

Slipping out of your blouse and bra you caress your tits for him. The soothing action makes you even more tired. It’s been a while since you've eaten, work has been hectic.

“Fuck.” Renè’s hand movements stuttering bring your attention back to him.

In less than a minute, he’s spilling his load with a whimper. Luckily, you are fast enough to catch every drop on your tongue so it doesn't go to waste.

“Ooo-weeee. That was something.” He chuckles as you clean him off with your tongue.

Humming briefly in agreement, you let him slip from your mouth.

“Now, I owe you a little something��” Just as Renè drops down to his knees with you, the door his trailer swings open.

“Hey, a fight broke out at the bar. They threw us all out. I brought beer I figured we could…” a voice comes from behind a couple of grocery bags overflowing with snacks.

“Daniel! Am kinda in the middle of something here!” Renè hisses.

Daniel drops the bags on the counter and finally see’s what is going on. “Shit! Sorry! Ma’am” he tips his baseball cap at you politely.

It would have been more polite if he wasn't staring at your tits the entire time.

“It's not a problem. I'm sorry about your plans being ruined. Why do you join us?” Both men stare at you slack jawed as you remove your heels and pants. Now fully nudes you beckon Daniel over.

Renè looks at you bemused.

“What? There's plenty of me to go around and you need a little time to recharge. Go sit over there.” You jutt your chin toward the bar stool in the corner. “This is just a little taste of what I'll do to you.”

Daniel had been standing there just as eager as his friend, still slack jawed and staring at your tits. He didn't object as you pulled off his belt and shoved him back onto the sofa. He didn't stop you from pulling his jeans and football themed boxers down his muscular thighs. He certainly didn't stop you from sinking down on his short, girthy length.

“Oh. Fuck. Fuck. Is this really happening? Jesus.” Daniel lay back, letting you ride him, his head pressed back into the cushions in pleasure.

All the while you kept your eyes locked with Renè. Fucking Daniel was pretty good. He was attractive, his cut cock was thick and filling. He was as submissive as his friend. Still you come here for Renè. He was your sure thing.

“Oh. Oh fuck. Shit, baby, just like that. Ride me. Those tit look awesome when you bounce on me. You gonna cream all over my cock?” You exaggerated your moans to cover up Daniel’s waffling. “Yeah. You fucking love my big cock don't you. Taking it bare. Fucking dirty girl. I don't even know your name. Ugh. Oh. Oh my god!”

Daniel starts to fuck up into you as he comes. His load is big and it gives you more of what you need. Dragging your hips back and forth over him, milking him until you start to glow.

‘What the shit?!” Daniel's eyes widen as he starts to buck you off. It only serves to pump the last of his come inside you and trigger your orgasm.

“Yes! Yes! God, yes!” Your toes curl and your thighs clamp around Daniel keeping him in place.

“You're one of them, ain't you?” Renè is gleeful as he approaches you.

“Fuck. One of what? One of what?!” Daniel panics underneath you.

“An alien.” Renè casually dismisses Daniel. “God, you're beautiful. What can I do for you, my queen?”

“You can stop your friend freaking out before I have to.” Daniel began to freak out worse at your words.

“Hey, cuz, get it together.” Renè claps his hands at Daniel. “If you don't I'll tell your mama what really happened to her pies that one Thanksgiving.”

As if ice cold water had thrown on him Daniel calms down. Letting him up, he stands on shaking legs. Renè guides him to his bedroom, grabbing a bottle of whiskey on the way.

“Sleep it off.” Renè calls as he closes the door behind him.

“Thank you. Now why don't I take care of that for you?” You gesture to Renè's painful looking erection.

“First, I want some answers.” Renè apparently had more about him than you thought.

Sitting back down, you nod for him to continue.

“Erm. I-wh-why did you do that glowy thing.” Renè finally settles on.

“I hadn't eaten in a while. I was replenishing myself.”

“Replenishing?”

“Be honest, how many times have you tried to tell a woman that swallowing your load is good for her?”

Renè grins. “Once or twice.”

“Well for my kind. It is good for us. It's the only thing on your planet that can truly nurious us. Whether we ingest it or absorb it is a matter of taste. Absorption is quicker, especially through a mucus membrane.”

“So you just want me for my spunk?” Renè asks.

For a second you feel bad for all you know Renè is looking for love or a high calling. Maybe he thought he was special, in a way he is, he was vetted as a very good donor. Your cover job allows you access to all the people your people screen. You quickly try to think of something nice to say.

“That's…awesome! Are you still hungry or not nourished or whatever?”

Renè’s eagerness returns.

“I could eat.” you smile.

“Great. Now you say absorb. Does that work in any other holes or…?”

“I don't actually know. You want to find out?”

“Yes, Ma’am!” Renè eagerly spit lubes his cock while you teasingly bend over his breakfast bar.

The whole trailer rocked as you found out that that way works too and that Renè is a very keen donor. His method was surprisingly scientific. He insisted on filling each hole and splashing his come over various body parts before you had to leave the next evening. His quip about his trailer being perfect for women to scream as loud as they want was on point too. The two of you sounded like feral animals. Once Renè found his groove his was actually a fantastic fuck. He even had you coming so hard you screamed in your native tongue. The high pitched shriek wasn't for everyone but Renè loved it. He went down on you for an hour just to hear it as many times as he could.

Waving you off home, fed and satisfied, Renè dropped on his sofa still bare assed and looked at his poor, overworked cock. Even if it shrivelled up and fell off right this second he wouldn't care. He has had the best night of his life. He'd got it up six times in twenty-four hours. Not half bad for a guy his age. He'd put work in and got you to do that amazing scream seventeen times. Your cum was on his face, thigh, fingers, all over his junk.

He was debating putting an ice pack on his spent balls when he heard a noise from the back of his trailer.

A very dishevelled looking Daniel stumbled out of the bedroom.

“Is it..is it over?”

“Yeah.” Renè sighed happily. “Come on, man. I'll take you to the bar. I'll get you some chicken wings.”

“I don't know, I…chicken wings? I could go for some wings.” Daniel agreed absencently.

“There you go!” Renè clapped a hand to his cousin's back and led him toward the door.

“Renè? I think you need pants.” Daniel reminded his cousin.

“Oh, yeah. My bad.” Renè shuffled into some cargo shorts.

“Did we…did we fuck an alien?”

“Yeah.”

“It is weird that it was good?”

“Nope.”

“Can I do it again?”

“Maybe.”

“Cool. Wings?”

“Wings.”

#pedro pascal character fanfiction #kermit snl #daniel snl #smut #x f!reader

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wanderlustqueen-writes · 2 months ago

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Merry Christmas! This is my gift to my lovely friend and secret santa @youre-ackermine. I hope you like it Val ❤️🎁

@levihanweek thanks for organizing this event!

Meet Cute (But Make It Scary)

Pairing: Levi Ackerman/Hange Zöe (Attack on Titan)

Ratings: SFW.

Warnings: Swearing; Well-meaning tackling (?)

Genre: Fluff

Additional tags: Attack on School Castes AU

Wordcount: 2,1k

Summary: Levi Ackerman gets locked inside the School one night, completely alone. Or so he thinks...

Once again, Levi Ackerman was the last person to leave the workplace. The new hire of Paradis High stood in the employee’s locker room as the world outside ended in deluge. The noise of heavy rain filled the empty room, and the droplets hit the egress window so fast that it was nearly impossible to discern anything through the glass.

The image of the other janitors stranded in a bar waiting for the water to stop invaded his mind. He told them it was going to rain…

Except he’d just lucked out with that prediction. The sky could have been clear and still, he would find an excuse to go home. Alone. It was just the way he was.

Levi started to zip down his janitor uniform with one hand, bringing the other one inside his locker to feel for his umbrella.

“Shit” he mumbled under his breath when he came up short.

As if on cue, a blue light descended from the sky. The whole room was engulfed in black.

“Shit!” Levi slammed the metal door, only to jump out a second later when the reverberating rumble of the thunder finally hit.

It was starting to feel like the setup for a bad horror movie.

Levi cursed Flagon, one of his chummier colleagues, for telling him those stories about the school.

Don’t take too long to leave after you clock out, Levi. This place is full of ghosts, especially at night. Did I ever tell you the story of the student who died in…

“Asshole” Levi mumbled.

***

The cleaning crew had used a flashlight to work on a darker section of the school’s basement the week before, and that’s what Levi was crossing the corridor to retrieve. The path wasn’t pitch black, as the emergency lighting had kicked in, but it was still far from ideal. The lamps barely illuminated the narrow space, creating an eerie atmosphere.

When he reached his destination, the room was so dark it didn’t matter if his eyes were open. Levi closed the door behind him with a click.

“Who is there?” a hesitant voice called from the darkness ahead of him.

Levi froze. His blood felt like liquid ice and his heart started pounding hard inside his chest in the second of silence that followed the question. His breathing picked up.

It wasn’t his imagination.

He shut his eyes hard, taking in a deep breath as quietly as he possibly could, though he was sure his heart could be heard from a mile away. Levi slowly backed up with his hands behind him, until he felt the light pressure of the wall against his fingers. His movements were silent and calculated. He slid his body to the side, always slow, hands always lightly on the wall, until he was met with harsh resistance. He felt around the edge of the desk, lowering his digits when he found the drawer.

Levi cringed at the light noise of wood sliding against wood as he carefully pulled on the handle. From the opposite side of the table, came a choked gasp.

Fuck caution! Levi reached inside the drawer, but the only thing he felt was cold fingers wrapping around his.

“AAARGHH!!” they yelled in unison.

The hands repelled each other immediately! Levi opened the door wide and sprinted through it, stumbling on his own feet. Suddenly a dancing yellow beam revealed the corridor before him. Levi took the opportunity to run faster, no longer hindered by the low lighting.

But the ring of light kept moving forward too. In fact, it seemed to be going faster than him. And the sound of steps he thought were just from him now seemed to also belong to someone else, someone close.

“Wait!” the voice called from close behind him. He looked back for a split second. White clothes. Brown hair all over the place. Crazy wide eyes. Fuck. Levi boosted again.

“Slow down!”

“The fuck I will!”

“I swear, I won’t hurt you!”

He didn’t respond, all his energy on his feet. Running. Running. Run-

He crashed flat on the ground like a starfish, crushed by the weight of whoever tackled him. Levi struggled like a bull trying to knock over a cowboy, to no avail. The weight lifted off of him for one second, enough for Levi to turn over and face his assailant. He was met with a blinding light.

“Who are you?” the voice sounded more composed now. It was low and rich, Levi tried to free himself again. The person above him sighed.

“I’m Hange. I work here." The flashlight turned 180º. Through the yellow stains in his vision, left behind by the light, Levi got a look at the person straddling his hips. Strands of brown hair were glued to their face. Ghosts don’t sweat, right? And the white clothing he got a quick look at before was a lab coat. “I’m the chemistry teacher. And you are a janitor, I assume?”

Levi remained silent.

“I’m sorry I tackled you.” Hange began explaining “It’s just that you were running in the dark and the doors of this corridor are locked” then pointed the light at the double doors not 3 meters before him “Good thing I stopped you, or It would’ve been bye bye to this perfect face.” Hange booped his nose.

“Tch. Get off of me” he struggled under the strange teacher again.

“If you tell me your name.”

He grunted.

“Levi.”

Hange smiled, finally de-straddling him. Levi staggered up to his feet, moving towards the corridor doors.

“It’s locked.” Hange warned. Still, he tried to push them open.

“Told you.”

Levi clicked his tongue and began walking in the other direction.

“I’ve tried that one too. We’re stuck here.”

“Huh?” He frowned.

“It happens sometimes to workaholic idiots who don’t know when to clock out,” Hange sighed.

Levi’s head was spinning. It was all too much. He stumbled back.

“Are you okay?” Hange was up in a second, hands all over him, lifting his arms, patting his sides and his face, searching for injuries. Levi flinched when two fingers simultaneously pressed on sore spots on his cheek and forehead.

The light was on his face again.

“Oh, you hit this side pretty hard.” Hange muttered, “This one is going to leave a nasty bump.”

Levi pushed the hand that held the flashlight away but allowed the other to rest gently on his cheek. “There’s a fridge in the teacher’s lounge, we can get you some ice! Come on!”

Several seconds of silence passed, but Levi eventually sighed in defeat.

***

“Voilá” Hange opened the door in an exaggeratedly cordial movement. “Mi casa es su casa.”

“Does su casa have any food?” Levi let his body fall on the two-person loveseat that occupied one corner of the room. Hange approached him moments later, bearing gifts.

“Iced tea and soufflé cake or ice cream?”

Levi reached for the right, grabbing the bottle with one hand and the small Tupperware and fork with the other.

“Don't these belong to someone?”

“The power is out, so it’s our moral imperative to save this food from waste!”

Levi shrugged, leaning in to take a bite out of the treat.

“I think Nanaba has some candles in here from the rising water experiment her class did last week!”

Levi took a few sips of his drink as the strange teacher jumped from cupboard to cupboard, fleshlight in hand. Soon, the room was covered in dancing shadows cast by candlelight. The heavy rain outside created a soothing symphony. Levi crossed his legs, supporting the cake on one of his thighs. Hange sat next to him, with a few ice cubes wrapped in a dishcloth.

“Is this clean?”

“Of course! Fresh out of the cupboard.”

Hange laid the improvised cold pack gently on his cheek, then on his forehead.

“You think we’ll be in trouble for staying in?” He took a sip of his drink, looking at his new acquaintance out of the corner of his eyes.

“Only if we get caught” the reply was casual “I usually hide in the teacher’s bathroom when I hear someone coming. Then I just have to wait a few minutes and make sure no one else is in the room before I exit. The timing is tricky though, no room for errors.”

He almost choked on his iced tea.

“How many times have you done this?”

“Don’t know. Lost count.” Hange shrugged.

“Why?”

“The lab is my favorite place in the world. Well, that and this lovely room right here” Hange joked but something vulnerable lurked behind the feigned chuckle. Levi turned to face the teacher, who continued “I also don’t have much else going on in other parts of my life. This is the closest thing I had to a date in… I don’t know… a year and a half?”

Levi’s cheeks felt warm, and he was grateful for the warm tones of the lighting in the room. To his surprise, he found himself saying:

“Eight months.”

He tilted his bottle to touch Hange’s ice cream cup.

Hange laughed, sincerely this time. The sound was low, bubbly, irregular. It was the weirdest combination of strange and familiar that made something resonate deep within him.

“What a couple of losers we are.”

“Yeah,” Levi replied, still stunned by the feeling.

***

“We should try and get some sleep.” Levi proposed, as the rain died out, and Hange nodded.

Except they didn’t. For some reason, whenever one of them stopped talking, the other broke the silence. Hange talked excitedly about the experiments the class did that day. Then Levi complained about the mess of the students and how some of the staff half-assed the cleaning. Hange nearly died laughing when Levi explained he ran because he thought he was being chased by a ghost but, for some reason, he didn’t mind. He liked it.

***

“I guess we won’t be needing these anymore.” The chemistry teacher blew the candles on the little center table before them, as the morning light entered the room, filtered by the blinds.

“I guess we won’t.”

“So, we’ll be out of here soon,” Hange commented.

“Yeah, I guess we will.” Levi turned to face his newfound friend. Now that the sun was up, he could see Hange’s features clearly. Smooth light skin. Strong, slightly convex nose. Brown chaotic hair that somehow fit the whole picture. Deep brown eyes one could get lost in and lips so full, so soft looking.

He averted his gaze when he realized he was staring, but it was too late. There was already a strange charge in the room, hovering over them. It was slightly uncomfortable but also exhilarating. The tension that precedes a leap into the unknown. Levi gulped, creating the courage to look at Hange again. Brown eyes stared right back at him. His heart picked up the pace as he moved forward. Hange moved too, tongue peeking out to moisten those lips. He could feel the heat emanating from them. Any second now.

A loud clanking outside made them jump in surprise.

“It’s the doorman!” Hange whispered. They both ran for the window. As one man unlatched the gate, another stood behind him.

“That’s Erwin, the history teacher!” Hange whispered as though they could hear them talking from that distance. “He always comes here first thing in the morning! Quick! Hide!”

They ran to the bathroom, hiding behind the partially closed door.

There was a creek. Then slow steps. Then the sound of a refrigerator door opening. Then silence.

“Is he gone?” Levi mouthed.

The chem teacher peeked through the crack and nodded negatively. Then frowned.

“What is it?”

There was a moment of silence. Then, in what can only be described as an oopsie face, Hange mouthed “I think he’s looking for his souffle cake”.

Levi caught the laughter last minute, letting out only a strangled snicker. Meanwhile, Hange was all silent open mouthed-chuckles, which intensified when Erwin rested his chin on his hand in a stoic pose while examining the empty fridge.

By the time the room was clear, they were both out of breath. Levi and Hange stepped out of the bathroom, looking each other in the eyes. The moment was gone, but there was a tinge of promise in the air. Hange spoke first.

“So, I’ll be bumping into you from now on?”

Levi shrugged. “if you’re lucky.”

Hange laughed and, once again, they ran out of words. Levi moved towards the door, but as he took a step out, he heard the teacher speak again.

“Hey, Levi!” He turned back to find Hange with the fingers of both hands crossed. “See you around!”

“See ya.” Levi stepped out this time, a smirk hiding on the corner of his lips. Maybe socializing with his coworkers wouldn't be so bad, after all.

#levihan #levihan fanfiction #levi x hange #levihan fanfic #levihan secret santa 2024 #youre-ackermine #lovely moots 💕

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redsugarx · 24 days ago

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青白之魅 4: Set Design

1 Introduction & Presentation // 2 Background & Influences // 3 Hair & Makeup // 4 Set Design // 5 Clothes & Accessories // 6 Conclusion

I read yalls tags obsessively when you reblog these and they're so cute, tysm they are very encouraging :>

Thank you Bloomin Studio for this shot of the set before getting started!

The set took a lot of inspiration from Green Snake (1993). We set this up in Cujo’s living room, which was already equipped with a wide black backdrop and some lighting. Bloomin Studio was kind enough to bring their Chinese style side table, foam rock, smoke machine, and additional lighting.

In the movie, when the two sisters take human form and join human society, they create a full-blown mansion in an empty, desolate area using magic. When trying to reveal to Xu Xian the true nature of his wife, Fahai the monk calls the house an illusion, but it served its purpose as their home, so is it really “fake?” Who decides whether something is “real” or not, and how? This is part of the reason I wanted to construct the set from scratch, in someone’s living room—the idea that we could make something beautiful and complex happen in an unlikely place.

(Unfortunately I do not have centuries of spiritual cultivation under my belt, so I had to buy things and set them up like a mortal.)

Behind the scenes, with Cujo handling Spirit, who's wound around Yulan's forearm :>

Bamboo

Green Snake (1993) screenshot, 10:25

The opening scenes of Green Snake (1993) take place in a bamboo forest. In an important foreshadowing, the monk Fahai chases a spider demon in human form through a bamboo forest. The spider demon has cultivated for two centuries—180 years longer than Fahai himself—in an effort to reincarnate, but Fahai takes his power away and traps him in a pot, because it goes against the natural order for a demon to take human form.

He goes on to attack the snake sisters, who are still in snake form, before he realizes that there is a pregnant woman giving birth in the forest, and the snakes are simply shielding her from the rain. This scene alone sets up the rest of the movie to question, what are the limits to what we consider human? What happens when we stop considering someone as human, and how far will someone go to be considered human? I find that these questions are very relevant to the world today, especially in the US right now.

In addition to being a vital building material throughout East Asia for the past, present, and future, bamboo holds significant cultural value as a plant that is thin and flexible, yet stronger than many brittle materials. It's one of the Four Gentlemen, representing the virtues an upstanding person should have—ideally, a well-read gentleman should be open-minded and flexible, yet enduring, just like bamboo.

梅蘭竹菊，趙少昂，1985，香港商報副刊 March 2022

Each plant of the Four Gentlemen represents a season. Bamboo represents the summer. Summer is the season during which the Dragon Boat Festival happens, a holiday also associated with snakes—the reveal of Bai Suzhen's snake form to Xu Xian happens during that festival, when they drink realgar wine (arsenic wine... controversial to say the least) to honor tradition, which is poisonous to snakes (possibly to people too??? who knows honestly).

In Green Snake (1993), Xiaoqing is the only one affected by the realgar wine because Bai Suzhen's cultivation is high enough that it's harmless to her.

We bought two pots of faux bamboo for our set. They’re a little questionable up close, but they look pretty realistic as part of the backdrop. Unfortunately real bamboo grows like nobody's business and comes with just... a whole host of problems that we weren't prepared to deal with during a one-day shoot, so we had to use artificial alternatives. Thankfully, Cujo (the super cool Snake Guy running Art of Scales) said he'd be able to use them, so they definitely didn't go to waste after the shoot :)

The bamboo came in not-so-pretty black plastic pots with a brick inside as a weight, so I brought a big semi-collapsible woven bamboo (bamboo squared! hahaha) basket, and stuck one of the plastic pots inside. It looked SO much better once you couldn't see the black plastic.

We also used Cujo’s bamboo screen as a structural layering piece. Dried bamboo was and still is one of the most common building materials you'd see in Asia, so the bamboo screen was perfect, not to mention it saved us the trouble of having to fly one down to SoCal since it was already there. It's made of a bunch of bamboo stalks tied together and can roll/unroll. Huge thanks to Cujo and also Kevin for fiddling with its shape to make it stand up on its own, that thing was heavy!

Water

Green Snake (1993) screenshot, 00:38

Snakes are traditionally associated with creation (Fuxi & Nuwa) and the element of water. Green Snake (1993) opens and ends with the visual of running water, with many important scenes taking place on a canal or by a lake. The original Legend of the White Snake is said to have taken place by the 西湖/xi1 hu2/West Lake in Hangzhou—the bridge on which Xu Xian and Bai Suzhen are said to have met is still there, and a popular attraction.

In the Peking Opera, Bai Suzhen refers to the lake several times as a symbol of the constance of nature: as conflict rises around her, she remarks on how similar the lake looks to that one day all those years ago when she first took human form and met Xu Xian.

斷橋殘雪, Armstrong, William Collection, Historical Photographs of China, 1908-1910

To create the look of reflective water, we used Mylar mirror paper. It's a favorite of indoor photoshoots, especially in the Hanfu world—probably like 80% of hanfu studio photoshoots use it. The paper is super reflective and comes in a roll so that it can be spread out over the floor of the set, making it look like we’re lying on the surface of a peaceful lake.

Fabric

Green Snake 1993 diverges from the original legend a bit. There's an earlier scene where Xu Xian accidentally sees Xiaoqing's snake tail while the sisters are bathing and runs off in terror. In an attempt to hide themselves, the sisters hang up green silk, and tell him (when he comes back) that what he simply mistook fabric from their laundry flying in the wind as a snake tail (somehow this works, as male characters in Chinese stories tend to be dumb as hell).

Green Snake (1993) screenshot, 48:25

We bought copious amounts of misty white tulle to hang off the bamboo screen and trail across the mirror paper ground. It looked a lot like fog or the foam at the bottom of a waterfall, and it also helped cover the backdrop stand on the right. They were not silk, because once again We Had A Budget, but one of the pieces of fabric was printed with calligraphy, which was a nice touch.

Scrolls

We used two scrolls in this set: one is our standard 九雲閣 calligraphy scroll (that’s Cloud9 Pavilion in Chinese, jiu3 yun2 ge2) just as a fun little branding thing, and the other is a silk-mounted print of the 紅葉題詩仕女圖/红叶题诗仕女图/hong2 ye4 ti2 shi1 shi4 nv3 tu2/'Lady Inscribing Poetry on Red Leaves' by 唐伯虎 (Tang Bohu).

红叶题诗仕女图, 书法欣赏，February 2017

Writing poems on red leaves has a fair amount of symbolism behind it. 紅葉題詩—the image of a woman writing a poem on a red leaf—is a common trope in literature and Chinese paintings, and lots of poems and art pieces depict the same thing. There are a variety of stories associated with the action, mostly having to do with Tang Dynasty palace ladies under the rule of 唐玄宗 (Emperor Xuanzong), who only had eyes for 楊貴妃/杨贵妃 (Yang Guifei). One sadder version tells the story of the other neglected palace ladies writing poems expressing their yearning for freedom on red leaves and dropping them into the river, hoping that the current will carry them out of the Shangyang palace that they were not allowed to leave. Another category is a little cuter, describing chance meetings between lovers—people finding throwaway poems on red leaves and then later getting together, that sort of thing.

明陈洪绶《题诗红叶图》, Sohu 2020 (another painting of the same trope)

I didn't really look into the story behind the painting until after the shoot, but I can see sort of a connection between the intent of this shoot and some elements of the stories described. Stories about the neglected palace ladies—who are said to have entered the palace at 16 and left at 60 (上陽白髮人, 白居易 Bai Juyi), never having seen the emperor's face once—are usually grievances against the emperor's favoritism of Yang Guifei, which is by extension a criticism of the emperor's rule (the decline of the Tang Dynasty's golden age happened under this guy so he gets a lot of shit for causing it).

I draw this back to the question of what it means to be seen as human—were the thousands of frankly unnecessary palace ladies seen as human in Xuanzong's eyes? What happens when someone is so 'high up,' whether politically or spiritually or whatever, that they cease to view other people as equally human? Should a system be upheld when it no longer serves its function in a changing environment?

Zhang Guo Having an Audience with Emperor Tang Xuangzong (張果见明皇), Wikimedia Commons, Yale University Press 2002

When I picked the painting, though, I didn't really consider all this; I mostly wanted to have a painting of a woman (common subject matter trope for painters, called 仕女圖/仕女图/shi4 nv3 tu2/'palace maid image', somewhere in the background. The Legend of the White Snake deals in the contrast of form versus essence, Green Snake (1993) even more so. The snake sisters take the form of women; does that make them women?

Fahai certainly didn't think so, until the end of the film, when he sees that Bai Suzhen has given birth to a healthy baby boy. There's a moment of cognitive dissonance—Fahai realizes that maybe Bai Suzhen really did become human by virtue of living and experiencing humanness. (To what extent does experience dictate identity, versus origin?) If she really became human, then Fahai has spent the better part of the entire movie killing a human, which is entirely opposite from when he thought he was acting righteously to uphold the natural order. He can't say that his actions were justified because he had good intentions—if good intentions trumped effect, then Bai Suzhen must be virtuous because her intentions were also innocent. This was a fascinating realization at the end of the movie.

Yulan as Bai Suzhen with lots of smoke in the background

I especially like this photo of Yulan as the White Snake (because I can get all Art Analysis with it). She's lying on the ground, reaching up towards the painting, like the woman illustrated on the scroll is the goal she is trying to reach. There's smoky haze in the background, and her hand is pinched in a lotus position, as if she is trying to catch the mist in her fingertips. Most notably, the position of her body hides the snake embroidery on her sleeve, but you can still see the tiniest hint of it through the sheer fabric.

Does the fact that she sees the form of a woman as her goal make her less of a woman, or does it actually validate her identity as one? (didn't mean it as a trans allegory when I started it but I guess it is now lol)

Umbrella

We got a grand total of like three shots with our oil paper umbrella, partially because we've had that thing for years and its opening mechanism is lowkey broken so it was really hard to get good poses with it. I'm glad we got at least one good picture with it though—it's a real oil paper umbrella that's waterproof and hand-threaded (even though the braking mechanism sheared off a while ago so it won't stay open unless you hold it there).

If my hand was not holding the umbrella up it would collapse :/

Xu Xian and Bai Suzhen meet in a scene known as 借傘/借伞/jie4 san3/'Borrowing the Umbrella," where Xu Xian lends Bai Suzhen his umbrella when it starts raining while they're on a boat. Bai Suzhen rejects it, saying she can't possibly take the umbrella from him (since he'd get wet), and sends Xiaoqing to give the umbrella back to him. They go back and forth like this until Xiaoqing takes both their hands and has them share the umbrella. When the sisters have to leave, Xu Xian lets them take the umbrella with them so they don't get rained on on the way back home—a clever flirtation setting up another chance to meet, since he has to go retrieve the umbrella from their home.

Other Stuff I Got That Doesn't Have Specific Symbolism:

Fake moss—looked very realistic! Clung to absolutely everything though, I still find it on my socks sometimes.

Various vases—went for dark-colored or greenish vases, some off Amazon and some from China. You'll notice that they're all empty, because they kept tipping over when I put fake flowers in them ;-;

Candles—these were Cujo's, shoutout to him running out the morning of to get new batteries for them! Super atmospheric :D

Fake rock & smoke machine—very popular for hanfu photoshoots, but not practical to get for one-time use, so we asked Bloomin Studio if they could bring theirs. They have lots of experience in producing and set design!

Fake flowers—I got SO MANY fake flowers and ended up using like. 3 branches of them ;-; Thankfully was able to gift most of those to Art of Scales & Bloomin Studio so I didn't have to cart them back up to NorCal.

Yeah ngl I used maybe like 60% of the stuff I bought for this shoot. In my defense I was buying props for like a good 3-4 months before it actually happened and retail therapy is Important to me.

Here is another behind the scenes shot :)

Okay this one was a bit shorter, partially because there were a lot of elements that I wanted to include that I unfortunately didn't end up having enough time to set up. I'll recap those on post 6. I am tired but I hope this was interesting :)

1 Introduction & Presentation // 2 Background & Influences // 3 Hair & Makeup // 4 Set Design // 5 Clothes & Accessories // 6 Conclusion

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bejeweledblondie · 1 year ago

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hey! I have a request- I wonder what you think would be the type of girl 141 + konig + graves + any others would go for, thanks!!

Ooooo I legit have this one in my drafts! So buckle up! (Since these men take their careers very seriously I don’t think they’d actually peruse a relationship with a colleague due to professionalism,) I also apologize for not immediately posting this my husband rescued a small kitten from our storm drain & we’re getting her acclimated to our home

•Simon “Ghost” Riley- I feel like he’d lean into a very feminine type of woman, solely due to being around men constantly & his upbringing. So to him being with a woman who leans into very feminine roles would be something that I think he’d find incredibly attractive. Like dresses, makeup, very fashionable, loves to cook, etc.

• Captain John Price- I feel like he’d lean more into a old soul at heart type of woman. A woman who doesn’t settle for anything less & is also incredibly elegant at the same time. To me he’s an old soul himself so it’s very fitting he’d go for a woman who’s an old soul herself. You love to watch old movies, cross words puzzles, actual puzzles, etc.

• Johnny “Soap” MacTavish- I feel like his ideal woman is a full on extrovert that’s incredibly athletic. He needs someone to match his personality & energy at all times. Someone who is adventurous & has a incredible sense of humor. You can easily drink him under the table & love football.

• Gaz- I think his ideal woman is headstrong & intelligent. She doesn’t take shit from anyone, even Gaz when he’s being a “man.” She has a lot of empathy (I believe Gaz does too especially with his reactions to seeing the aftermath of terror attacks) & that can be a downfall for her sometimes. Luckily the both of them use their empathy to their advantage. Y’all love walking the dogs in your local animal shelter, & even foster animals

• Alex Keller- I feel like he’d go a woman who’s bookish, but not afraid to get her hands dirty. Her intelligence can get the best of her. But she can overthink situations & Alex has to reassure her sometimes that’s she’s making the right decision. Overall she’s a big sweetheart & does lean more into her feminine side. I’d say you love to read, paint, have a veggie garden, & love to go on hikes

• Keegan P. Russ- you’re far more extroverted than he is. You’re constantly helping him break out of his shell a bit. He’s can be so serious sometimes that he’d find your fearless attitude refreshing but also stressful. You’d give him a heart attack whenever you do something semi dangerous, like bring in a stray possum because it was cute

Extras✨

König- He’s going for a woman who’s patient & empathetic right off the bat. No joke like a kindergarten teacher imo would be perfect. Someone who can listen to him, take care of him, but also provide space when needed. I feel like y’all would enjoy reading books together, he’s very intelligent & book reading is a great way to bond over something but if needed he can always read by himself or with you.

Sobiesław- he’s going for a Slavic woman, a woman who’s traditional but has a little sass. You definitely lean into your more feminine side & be incredibly fashionable. I also feel like he’d into joining you on your shopping trips because you have a good idea for what looks good on him.

Phillip Graves- the All American type of girl, picture Cindy Crawford in that Pepsi Super Bowl commercial. Outgoing, kind, you’d have to be patriotic (RAH 🦅) to some extent obviously, & confident. You’d be his biggest cheerleader & provide the best support system for him in his career.

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zmediaoutlet · 1 year ago

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Survey results time.

At time of downloading the data we got just over 300 responses, which is not bad for a survey that was long and complicated to take! I'm sure my shamelessness helped. Being a survey for a specific crowd, we also didn't get anyone (as far as I could tell) taking the survey in bad faith, which is a legit surprise. Special shout-out to the several people who, when asked to write literally anything to say they understood what was going on, wrote "literally anything"; additional shout-out to the person who wrote "penus and hole" (sic). You get it, anonymous person.

I'm going to share the top results for the questions here, but I'll also include the raw data as a sheet at the end in case anyone wants to actually go through it with a fine-tooth comb. This is not a survey where cute pie charts or graphs would be useful or readable, so get ready for some sweet-ass numbers:

Story Genre

Unsurprisingly, our leaderboard for most favorite story genre in the 'Anytime!' category is as follows:

Hurt/comfort (153 votes)

Angst (142 votes)

PWP (139 votes)

We just like the guys to get the shit beaten out of them, angstily, and then they can feel better by jerking off about it. The ideal evening.

The big loser in genre, with 34 buds flat out saying "not for me", was Dark!fic. That said, Dark!fic also got 112 votes (third highest) for "has to be JUST right," so we can probably take from there that while as a group we don't hate dark content, we have pretty strict definitions for a) what counts as dark, and b) what kind of dark we're willing to take.

Gencest/gen was arguably the most 'eh, idk?' of the genres, with respectable showings in every category from Anytime to No; most people don't hate it, but people aren't really seeking it out either. It's definitely There.

Story Setting

The winner of most 'Anytime!' votes for story setting is close to my heart; the podium is:

Bunker era (142 votes)

Canon-close, codas, etc (129 votes)

Pre-series/weechesters (126 votes)

It feels good to know that canon is on our side. This may help explain why various alternate universe settings didn't do so hot with the respondents -- the least fave according to this survey is an age!swap AU, followed by a raised apart!AU. Writers who are making Sam the big brother who lives in Cleveland while baby Dean lives in Seattle, you keep living your truth, but readers are rearing back.

That being said, while Canon Divergence isn't an overall winner, it has a full 149 votes in the 'Dig it' category; so, while we may generally prefer canon, we're willing to be led on a garden path away from it. We just want canon to be within shouting distance, at least.

Canonical Character Variants

Here's where the survey gets more complex. I've always been interested in how and why people are fandoming about things, and simple 'yes/no' surveys rarely dig into that meat. The point of the superego/ego/id separation is to really interrogate -- hey, do you like to read about (for example) soulless!Sam because you find it interesting on a high-minded level, or because your heart-strings are getting tugged even if you think it's kinda dumb, or just because it makes you so hornt-up you can't think straight? All are valid, and all are possible simultaneously, but it's interesting to prod at to see how the interest is working. You might also just be like, eh, it's fine, or GOD, STOP, and that's fine too. So, with all that said:

Superego winners:

demon powers!Sam (202 votes)

soulless!Sam (177 votes)

blood addict!Sam (160 votes)

Y'all like to really brain about how Sam is fucked up. I get it.

Ego winners:

Trials of Hell!Sam (186 votes)

blood addict!Sam (180 votes)

demon powers!Sam (161 votes)

Still all Sam, and no surprise that his saintly pale sleeplessness is winning the heartstrings battle.

Id winners:

demon!Dean (205 votes)

demon powers!Sam (175 votes)

blood addict!Sam (165 votes)

Again, no surprise: fandom girlies (gn) love their bad boys, lol. Soulless snuck in at #4 here with 163, presumably because working out still wearing a belt was juuuust dorky enough to kick him off the podium; #5 was Smith & Wesson at 162, probably because if they'd been left in that AU for ten more minutes they would have been fucking over the top of Dean Smith's desk. Glad we're all on the same page, there.

The nopes here were an interesting mix. In the full-on No Thank You category we had Michael!Dean and Gadreel!Sam (with 52 and 53 votes respectively) -- it would be interesting to know if that was due to dread of the storyline specifically, or just how No Bad Wrong it felt to have it happening. These two also led the 'meh' category, although they were joined on the podium of bad by Endverse!Dean (128 Meh votes), which frankly shocked me. Y'all aren't into his thigh holster? C'mon now. Sure, he murders his friends without compunction, but -- thigh holster!

Story Tropes

These ones were fascinatingly all over the place, which is exactly why I wanted to do this. Going to just run down the S/E/I podiums real quick, then 'Hard sell', then No --

Superego winners:

Outsider!POV (211)

Someone Finds Out (191)

Mental health issues (190)

Ego winners:

Mutual pining (252)

First time (242) AND Sick/injured (242)

First time in a long time (235)

Id winners:

Jealousy/possessiveness (224)

First time (218)

First time in a long time (180)

Now, part of what's interesting about these is how they fall off in other categories. Outsider POV wins handily at Superego with 211, but then drops all the way down to 92 votes at Id -- which isn't nothing, but clearly it's preferred to have a heckin' think about how other people view the incest relationship, rather than thinking it's just So Hot that people might. Similarly, while people do think it's so so hot for one brother or the other (or both!) to be possessive at 224 votes, when it comes to the superego that drops right down to 134 votes, presumably as the brain wakes up and goes RED FLAG!

Entering the land of no thank you, we shall have two anti-podiums:

Real hard sell:

Infidelity (127)

magic/powers!Dean (125)

Unrequited/no relationship upgrade (110) AND "Carver Edlund" fandom

This is a much more mixed bag. Infidelity and Unrequited are no surprise here, because it Feels Bad, Man; magic!Dean also not really a surprise, given that most of our respondents prefer being closer to canon, and Dean is very much our mundane buddy in the show as presented. (A delightful buddy, but a distinctly nonmagical one.) Carver Edlund fandom makes me laugh mostly because it's such a bananas thing to exist in the show. Sam and Dean reading big bang fics about each other? Collectively we just... don't know what to do with that. Weird.

Squick/No/Maybe one exception:

Permanent character death (140)

Infidelity (108)

Eating disorders (102)

Again, no surprise in the anti-winners of 1 or 2 here, but number 3 surprised me, personally. ED fic used to be a pretty big wedge of common tropes that people would seek out. Perhaps it's gotten less popular over the years? Or perhaps just that the people who like it REALLY like it and so chat about it out loud, while those who don't quietly bury it in sand, lo as a cat does with their leavings.

Most extreme delta in 'general interest' (whether that be S,E, or I) to 'ehh' (whether that be Hard Sell or Squick) is first time. Y'all loooove your first time.

Sexy Tropes, Vol. 1

This is where I really wanted to know if people could pull apart their interests between brain and heart and guts. Hopefully people were honest, as requested. Some of them we know are slight liar answers, because the hits on AO3 tell a story that can't be refuted -- nevertheless, here's what people were willing to admit to.

Bulletproof kink/will read any version:

Bedsharing (158)

Incest kink (139)

Size kink (133)

your friendly neighborhood survey creator is jumping up and down going 'wooo' that size kink made the podium. also I hope everyone understood that incest kink meant, like, indulging in the incest of it all via 'oh you're so totes my brother and i want to suck your dingle for that reason specifically', but I realize that could've been clearer.

Easy sell/you don't have to work hard for me to enjoy:

shameless bottom!Dean stuff (151)

switching (147)

voyeurism (138)

the first one here genuinely surprises me considering what I see getting written most often; is this a case of just not being in the right venn diagrams, or the 'easy sell' just not matching up with what people are being sold? Curiouser and curiouser.

Medium sell/not my fave, but I can see how it appeals:

bad/awkward sex (120)

phone sex (114)

in [drug/alcohol] veritas (110)

edging into awkward town in a few ways here: we don't love these, but we can see how it'd be fun. or not fun, in the case of bad sex.

Hard sell/this is unbelievable or uninteresting so you have to work hard to get me to enjoy it:

always-another-gender!AU (84)

multiple Sams or Deans (73)

genderswap (magic) (72)

so, in general, we prefer to keep the penises around and intact, but just one Sam penis and one Dean penis, please. Here, I'm interested that the volume is much lower than in the top category: maxing out at 84 hard sells compared to 158 bulletproof options means that we're willing to give more of these tropes a chance, even if they're not our faves. How accepting we are!

Squick/no/maybe one exception:

always-another-gender!AU (83)

A/B/O elements (65)

multiple Sams or Deans (51)

strong overlap with the hard sell; and, keeping in mind that people were able to choose multiple options, it's possible that some of those were identical votes. Again, please keep the penises straightforward and only two at a time. A/B/O is interesting here, especially given what we know of how well it does on AO3; while it's a big squick for a lot of people, it also has decently high votes in bulletproof/easy, averaging 82 votes. Mixed bag!

Sexy Tropes Vol. 2, Electric Boogaloo

Bulletproof kink/will read any version:

Possessive/claiming sex (129)

Marking (hickeys/bruising) (116)

Hair pulling (103)

Let's glance back up at the Id winners in the story tropes above, hmm quietly to ourselves, and move on.

Easy sell/you don't have to work hard for me to enjoy:

Marking (hickeys/bruising) (135)

Hair pulling (130)

Possessive/claiming sex (121)

Well, that's boring. So let's expand so as not to be repetitive:

4. Dub-con (116) 5. Dom/sub (113) AND Underage (113) 6. Knifeplay (107)

There we go. Pretty easy to put all of those into one fic, too.

Medium sell/not my fave, but I can see how it appeals:

Blindfolds (128)

Painplay (116)

Shibari/rope play (112)

We're starting to lose interest as accessories come into play. Interesting to compare D/s and its relative success against painplay -- so, tell him what to do, but don't hit him while you're doing it. Fair enough.

Hard sell/this is unbelievable or uninteresting so you have to work hard to get me to enjoy it:

Fucking machines (94)

Vore (80)

Mommy!kink (77)

Entertaining mix here, haha. General feasibility may be rearing its head here. (Also, for my own entertainment: daddy!kink got 67 Hard Sell votes. People generally prefer to keep it as horizontal incest, not vertical incest.)

Squick/no/maybe one exception:

Feederism (164)

Vore (161)

Extreme underage (157)

No surprises here, although some fans of the nibbly variety of wincest may be disappointed by vore's poor placement. Note also that 'extreme' is in the eye of the beholder; we'll leave aside value judgments, as we have for the whole survey, and note that people are not indulging in a version of underage they find to be personally past the line, or at least are not admitting to that.

At a glance, the closest matchup between bulletproof for some and a squick to others is bloodplay, with just 1 vote separating the two categories: 44 bulletproof, 43 squick. Next time someone tries to tell you that 'everyone' likes or doesn't like something, please take it with an entire shaker full of salt.

Dynamic & Position Preferences

I tried to encourage people not to think too hard about this one and just answer on instinct. Who knows if that worked. But here are some overview takes:

Toppy/dominant: Sam takes the lead here, with 69% of respondents being in the 'Love it!' category. Nice. (217 votes)

Dom Dean earned a respectable 52% of 'Love it!' votes (163).

However, I was also interested to check out the inverse --

subby!Sam: 44 'Very no thank' votes (13%) subby!Dean: 27 'Very no thank' votes (8%)

It's interesting to leap way back up and compare that against 'shameless bottom!Dean stuff' doing so well in the rated E categories. Makes you ponder.

Actual sex position: Frequently switching takes the win here, with 61% of the vote (194 votes). Sam always topping edges out if people must choose, with 144 votes; Dean always topping is our lowest choice, with 112.

Service!topping: this is a fairly niche fic type, but it does still exist -- I guess in a world of bottoms someone's got to actually get up and do something, and it is hilariously an almost perfectly even split:

service!top Sam: 50.17% (151 votes) service!top Dean: 51.50% (155 votes)

A healthy percentage of people said they didn't care about these questions either way, and more power to them. However, they were wildly outvoted by those who did.

Multishipping Time

Our final categories are when other people get their grubby hands on Sam or Dean, either canonically(ish) or in our fandom activities.

Canonical relationships for Sam

Jess wins, quelle surprise. :) 161 people Dug It and who can blame them.

Amelia LOSES, shocking no one: 112 people said Fuck That.

Eileen was definitely a mixed bag; her results, in order, were: Meh: 92; Fuck that: 76; Worse than meh: 66; Dug it: 44.

Canonical(ish) relationships for Dean

Note here: it was too unbalanced if we only went with people Dean officially dated. However, the show leaned hard into a few unrequited male relationships for him, which we included here, and no one sent me hate about it so I guess that was fine.

Benny wins the Love It! category with 129 votes, barely edging out Cassie at 122. Benny is best boy, so that fits.

Cas loses with a full 99 Fuck That votes, which is probably what we'd expect from a wincest survey. That said, he also got 93 Dug It votes, so it's a pretty balanced showing.

Poor Lisa sits firmly at Meh with 148 votes. It's not that we hate you, Lisa; we just don't really know what to do with you. Which is pretty much how the relationship went in the show.

Shipping Sam like FedEx

We returned to the S/E/I model for shipping as we did for tropes, because it means something very different to go 'oh sure, I can see how that would be interesting' vs saying 'I want them to fuck rawnasty and I don't care why they're doing it.' Apologies if I left out your favorite side-ship but, shit, there's only so much time in the day.

So, we return to the podiums:

Superego:

Ruby (132)

Rowena (121)

Cas (102)

Ego:

Rowena (121)

Cas (106)

Ruby (90)

Id:

Ruby (125)

John (121)

Rowena (118)

So that was going on sedately until Dad came in like a hammer. Fascinating. On the other hand:

No:

Lisa (234)

Donna (222)

Claire (219)

Interesting to me that these three are ladies that Sam theoretically could have got up in but people are not into it, regardless. This is slightly different to Dean's 'no' category -- spoilers for three inches of screen space!

Dean, Shipped by UPS

Superego:

John (129)

Benny (115)

Lisa (99)

Ego:

Benny (134)

John (116)

Lisa (102)

Id:

John (147)

Benny (128)

Crowley (114)

Well. That tells a slightly different story, ahem. Enjoy the various tropes that will be applied, Dean! And then we get:

No:

Amelia (245)

Kevin (223)

Gabriel (217)

Comparing to the Sam 'no' above -- these three are slightly more 'traditional' Sam ships, though the wincest shippers are nevertheless not into them for Sam, either. Dean literally never spoke to or saw Amelia on screen, so it'd be a determined shipper who'd make that happen. Not undoable, though!

Conclusion

Syke: there isn't one to be made. This really shows how diverse the taste is in the wincest community, or at least in the wincest community that a) happened to see this survey over the last five days and b) bothered to take it. This particular group leans slightly toward e.g. toppy Sam, or slightly toward switching, but when you look at raw numbers what you see is that at least one person LOVES every single one of these things, and at least one person fucking HATES every single one of these things, and so -- so what? Write what you want. If you see a niche of something that you love where you feel like not enough people are writing or reading, try to fill it. If you're worried "no one" will like it, well -- you're wrong. Someone will. It just needs to get seen by the right people.

That's where fandom comes in, to spread the love even if something isn't bulletproof for us -- reblogging a post to say, 'hey, my mutual made this thing, look at it!' What a joy it'd be if someone saw it and loved it to absolute shattering bits, and then found their little bulletproof community, and happiness was made. What's the point, if we're not making each other happy.

Thanks for participating if you did, and reading all this if you did. Here's a link to a google sheet (read only) with all the tables of raw data if you're interested. I'll post some of the more entertaining fill-in answers later.

s&d shipping survey results: November 1, 2023 - Google Sheets

#happy wincest wednesday #wincest #survey results #warning this is really long lol #but thanks for doing the thing <3

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happypotato48 · 11 months ago

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List of Thai BL dramas i've watched with short opinions about them i guess :P

Thai BLs that i finished:

A Boss and a Babe. It's cute for what it is, i loved the gaming friendships and i'm a sucker for forcebook. 7/10 need more unhinged energy from book.

A Tale of Thousand Stars/Our Skyy 2 : Bad Buddy x A Tale Of Thousand stars. this show reminds me a lot of early to mid 2000s lakorns. it's a beautiful by the book love story, i appreciated that a bl got to take a spin on this kind of quiet thai story. 8/10 loved it but still too vanilla for my taste.

Bake Me Please. Guide Kantapon is the cutest man alive and CAKES! that it, that all i have for this show. 6/10 it's a show that exist.

Be My Favorite. damn fluke gawin is so pretty what was this show about again? :P i'm kidding, i actually really liked this show. i watched it when i had zero knowledge about bl industry, i was oblivious about krist's controversy and i find krist acting to be charming and think kawee is very relatable as a cringe fail human myself. 8.5/10 this show made me want to collected weird thingies.

Cherry Magic (Thailand). oh boy this show. it's was everything to me also the only show so far that i've written extensively on this site. here is my personal feeling about this show. 9.5/10 would kill for taynew.

Cooking Crush. what! the fuc$! look look, i just learned that both offgun are older than me. when i first saw the show i thought they were some rookie actors with how young they looks. watching cute bl is gonna be the death of me. anywho this show is supercute don't have a lot of thought about it though. 7.5/10 cutting half a point cause of no samsee x metha.

Cutie Pie/Naughty Babe. what a fuckin legend of a series. all the characters have zero braincells and somehow all the rich pretty boys are engaged to each other and by arranged marriages nonetheless. wtf is this fanfic version of thailand and where can i get hit by a truck and get isekai to it. 7.5/10 still haven't watch Cutie Pie 2 U, i hope it get dumber.

Enchanté. this show is so dummmb it should've go full camp reverse harem yaoi nonsense but it didn't and ended up being kinda boring. 6.5/10. meh, i'm still a sucker for forcebook.

Last Twilight. UGHHH!! i'm still so mad. this show was going to be THE SHOW for me then ep 11-12 happened i legit mentally check out halfway through ep 12 and i basically blocked the ending from my mind. this show came out at the right place and the right time for me, the first 9 episodes helped me through a very tough time in my life. the story of two people helping each other finding their way out of the dark was very compelling to me. ughh. 5.5/10 (9/10 for ep 1-9) P'Aof why are you like this!!

Laws Of Attraction. yassssssss this show slay(literally :P) the show is a breath of fresh air for me despite how very lakorn of it is. i'm glad that there is a bl that feel this soapy and campy cause like i do love my angsty and innocent school bls but the industry really need show like laws of attraction. jamfilm also were very great in their roles espically film, charn is the most babygirl corrupted cute evil lawyer of all time. 9/10 no note headempty only charn's evil smirks in my mind

La Pluie. now, this is a romance. this show is one of the most romanctic media that i personally have experience. i loved that the show took the cheesy premise of soulmates and work it so well to do both deconstruction and exploration of the trope. i think using rain, thing that isolated people as a narrative tool for love connection is absolutely brilliant. last but not least pat is just the perfect bl love interest, he's an very idealized character but he do feels like an actual person. i want to give a shout out to Pee Peerawich the way he said "มันหนาวอ่ะ" in ep 8 sent me, the raspy voice, the eye twich and combo those with a back cuddle, sir! you just commited a mass murders with that move. 9/10 plz i need season two with my baby boy tien.

Love in Translation. the unhingendness of that first meeting is probably my favorite bl meet cute. look if you don't get into a fistfight with the guy you destined to be with then what is the point of life. this show fake date is very well done it's doesn't feel forced like in a lot of other bls and it make the growing attraction feels very genuine and it pay off in one of the best sex scenes in all of bl, yang is such a freak and i loved him for it. 8/10 the last two episodes did got slightly off the rail for me but i still enjoyed the show.

Moonlight Chicken. one of the most beautiful shows i ever watched. when watching this show i can feels, smells and tastes everything it depicted. from the comfort khao man gai to jim's loneliness, from alan's heartbreak to liming and heart's midnight motorcycle ride. this show gave me all the feels and i still can't completely shake it off. 9.9/10 this show is a healing.

My School President. These boys!!!! i can't, i loved these boys so much, all the boys, YES ALL OF THEM! this show is on the opposite spectrum of Moonlight Chicken for me. while MC give me the good heartaches this show give me unbridled joy it's like heartstopper on cracks. i absolutely adored tinn and gun and the show relentless optimism about thier first love. love is awesome no matter the romantic, familial or platonic kind and i think this show hit the marks with all three. 10/10(i'm super bias but fuck it idc i even liked the singing) this show made me started watching thai bl and it always will have a place in my heart.

My Ride. this show is lacking in intimacy but making up by being all heart. could this show be better if they fleshed out and explore more of tawan and his cheating bf's relationship, maybe but i'm happy for what we got. 8/10 mork and tawan were very cutie patootie, i don't remember much about the het and the side couple were just st ok.

Step by Step. man trisanu is exactly the same height at me and i want everyone to know that is the only reason i started this show🤣 . i feels like this show have a lot to say about stuff but i kinda got lost staring at man trisanu while watching. one thing i really loved is the very fem *ตุ๊ด coworker who got to be a real character not just a jokey sidekick and having a loving relationship with a hottie. 7.5/10 can i get more man trisanu in bl plz.

Triage. asshole doctor stuck in a timeloop for him to find the meaning of life, yes plz give it to me. i loved stories about assholes who need to better themself for love and other junk. tinn and tol are both grumpy bitches and i just loved that the show use the timeloop to soften these nerds. at the end i just want to wrap them in blanket and let's them cuddle each other forever. 8.5/10 the last ep is bit convoluted but i forgave the show for that cute clocktower kiss.

You're My Sky. i started this show for my boy suar and he did not disappointed. the pining and the longing for an older boy who been there for you most you life, chef kiss. this show also very beautiful to look at. 8/10 i'm kinda meh about the side couples, i do think they all got the "good ending" for their stories.

Thai BLs that i didn't finish or gave up and skipped to the ending:

Bad Buddy. Oh boy, am i gonna get murder for this??? sorry but idk why i didn't wholeheartedly love and give this show my undivided attention. i watched this show very weird and out of order, i started with the last ep than just watch other episodes in bit and peice. i think i've seen 70% of this show. plz forgive me this is the first thai bl i tried to get into but can't. maybe i need to give this show another chance and watch it properly. or idk maybe cause the way i watched it, it's ruined for me forever. 6.5/10 i loved the rooftop kiss plz don't kill me.

Dangerous Romance. this show is trash and not the good kind, how this show depicted relationship between a rich asshole and a poor boy feels very gross to me. i fast forward a bunch and gave up after the not just dumb but very cruel breakup. 4/10 it's watchable if you ignore the plot and the chatacters.

Hidden Agenda. wow this is the most nothing show that ever nothing for me. it's a perfected white noise while playing chill video games. i stopped watching after ep 8 cause look like there going to be a dumb break up, i have no desire to revisit this show. 5/10 joongdunk were kinda cutes.

The Miracle of Teddy Bear. this show is too god damn long with too many side plots the one and a half hour per episode killed the momentum for me. i liked the show and do think i want to revisit and finish it one day. 6/10 for now.

Vice Versa. why are they giving jimmysea this show. this show is so boring for me, i gave up in episode 6. 4/10 gmmtv give my babies better shows!!

Thai BLs that i've watched all the sex scenes and have no intention of watching the actual show:

Kinnporsche: heheehehhehehe everyone were so hot, too bad i don't like rich mafia story. mile being a nepobaby also significantly killed the mood for me. 55555/dead bodyguards (idk how many there are but i don't care) the ost are bangers though.

Venus in the Sky and Love in the Air. cringe gay sex for the wins. 69/420.

ok, whoo that was a lot. gonna pin this cause i don't think anyone want to read all that in one sitting. i think i'm gonna make another post for non thai BLs in the near future. thanks for reading my unhinged opinions hope i'm not gonna get moider for it 55555555.

#thai bl #bl drama #bl meta #bl shows #i think i got all of them #but idk maybe i'm missing one or two shows #i shouldn't written and posted this at 5 am after staying awake all night but fuck it #dumb boy rambles

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sungbeam · 1 year ago

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SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW — act I, scene v

nonidol!hwang intak x f!reader

when summit poster boy hwang intak's car breaks down in the school parking lot, it sets off a chain of events that leads to you, someone he was perhaps always meant to find. the only problem is that the two of you are far from the ideal couple, and your peers are apt to keep that status quo.

▷ genre, chapter warnings. s2f2l, classism and discrimination, forbidden romance au, minimal swearing, angst, humor, mentions of grief and terminal illness, written in third person pov

▷ word count. 2.8k

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a/n: whenever i come back to this series, i remember how hard it is to write it

SUMMER (RISING SENIORS).

Yn had not sent a picture back to Intak. In fact, she hadn't even opened his messages. Intak couldn't decide which was worse—being left on "read" or on "delivered." Both were equally quite horrible, but as the day went on with radio silence from her end, he continuously had to remind himself that she had responsibilities and a life. She couldn't be at his beck and call, and she certainly wouldn't ever entertain the idea of being so.

But one little text would have eased his mind. Just one, little text.

Intak flopped onto the couch in the living room of his house, the entirety of which remained just as cold and empty as it always was. In a way, the quiet was good because it meant that his father wasn't home, taking with him that thick, haunting presence of his. Intak sometimes imagined that he walked around with a massive cloud of fog clinging to his legs and feet, and that image had engraved itself into his head since he was an adolescent, more so now that his father's murky fog would soon consume Intak in all of those heavy expectations.

He lifted his phone up to catch a glimpse of the time. He would have to leave for that one dance class soon, the one that he and his friends had signed up for together to occupy themselves during the summer. If Intak wasn't forced to take over the company after his schooling, he would be dancing, or maybe even reading shit, like proper literature, and writing poetry about dead older brothers and forbidden friendships with strangers who felt closer to him than his own family.

He was tempted to text Yn just to check in. Something like 'hey bff i'm bored as hell and sad as fuck hbu' or 'miss u and worried about u text me back?' or god forbid, 'i've been trying to imagine what u look like but i have a feeling a picture won't do u justice.' God, he really needed to stop watching those cursed romcoms when he was bor—

Bzzzzz. Bzzz. Bzzzz.

Intak leapt out of his skin in surprise.

He reached into his pants pocket to withdraw Jaehyuk's phone. The notifications from Yn came in rapid succession at the top of the screen:

yer a wizard yn!: sorry i went mia for like a day

yer a wizard yn!: smth came up

yer a wizard yn!: cute pic btw :') ig i owe u a pfp too

yer a wizard yn!: *sent a photo*

Intak held his breath, then forced himself to turn away from the phone screen. Was he ready for this? Was he ready for her reveal? This felt like an invasion of privacy, especially with how carefully she kept her identity hidden the first few weeks they'd been texting each other. It hadn't been until recently that Yn had begun to let him learn things about her.

It wasn't like he forced her though… right? It was out of her own want and will. It was her choice and he—

He was going to fully indulge in that.

Intak finally opened up the full chat to view the messages she'd sent.

And lo and behold, there she was. It was a casual selfie, seeming to be taken in front of a window by the way the sun shone over her face in a gold-colored glow. She wore a dark T-shirt with a logo Intak couldn’t quite make out from the way her arms and hair were positioned. In fact, he could only see about half of her face from the way she hid the lower half behind her pulled-up knees. But her eyes crinkled enough that he could see that she was smiling.

The soft smile on his face was a stark contrast to the sharp palpitations of his heart in his chest. Before, he could never imagine the face he was speaking to across the phone—rather, it had always just been a person with blurred features. Now that he could put a face to the name, and the voice, and the character…

Intak saved the picture and set it as Yn’s contact photo. He wondered if he should have even been doing this since Jae didn’t even have a contact photo saved for her. (But now that she had sent it, it wasn’t like Intak was going to resist setting that photo as her contact, especially since it was an excuse to stare at it while he was texting her.)

jae’s phone: that photo is not fair that’s like… half ur face dude >://// /j

jae’s phone: but thank uuuuuuu i KNEW u were cute

He chewed on his bottom lip, quickly adding onto his previous texts since it seemed like Yn wasn’t going to reply back any time soon.

jae’s phone: ik ur the one who suggested swapping photos, but i hope u didn’t feel obligated to. ik u were never super comfortable w sharing personal info abt urself w me, but i’m genuinely really happy to get to know u better

jae’s phone: lol idk y that got kinda sappy ? but i hope everything’s good on ur end!!

jae’s phone: i’ve gotta go to a dance lesson rn tho so ttyl ynieee!!!!

Intak sighed as he forced himself to click out of his and Yn’s direct messages, and to haul his ass off the couch. He had, at multiple instances, contemplated why he felt so attached to Yn. Perhaps it was because she was so close to his brother and this truly was just his own kind of closure. Or it was something else, too.

Yn's eyes burned holes through the notifications that sat at the top of her phone screen. It had been several hours since Intak had sent them, and she knew exactly what they said. She'd even mentally written out and sent several replies, but never physically carried them out. She just couldn't bring herself to do it.

The heavy weight that had settled on her chest from a day ago still rested there. Usually, privileged shit Summit kids did to her and in front of her were annoying, but she'd learned to grow thick skin. She didn't know why this time affected her so poorly. Then again, the fact that neither Jongseob nor Shota had gotten over it could have contributed to her own mood, too.

Her brothers in arms had been quiet since then, barely speaking unless necessity prevailed. The shop had never been so quiet before, and even when customers and neighbors came by with a friendly word or joke, they would force a smile onto their faces or a laugh from their throats. She could hear the strain, the grudge and emotions tugging at the corners of their mouths.

"If I had the money…" Yn remembered hearing Jongseob muttering under his breath the night of the incident. She knew exactly what he was thinking then and there. All the bitterness in the negative space.

They'd all grown to have thick skin, but it was bound to crack at some point. They weren't made of steel, after all.

After a long, grueling day at the shop, Yn, Shota, and Jongseob returned to Yn's house to wash up for the evening. The walk home had been quiet, and she'd been itching to reach for her phone and finally open up Intak's messages…

She cleared her throat. "Go get cleaned up and meet me in the living room," she voiced aloud to the two of them as she unlocked the front door.

Jongseob grunted, "Why?"

"We're watching Clueless."

Shota let out a snort as Jongseob threw his head back in a loud groan. "You're shitting me. Any other movie than that one, Yn. We've watched that, like, fifteen times."

With her back still to them, she could let herself smile just a little. All she had been looking for was that reaction from him. "Okay, well, if you can be on the couch in fifteen minutes, then you can choose a different—"

She hadn't even finished what she was saying when the two of them bolted past her, exclaiming at each other as they raced for access to the closest bathroom. Yn laughed under her breath, nudging the door closed behind her with the toe of her shoe. She hadn't even been sure whether or not the two would stay here with her or not since they basically stayed shut up in the old extra bedroom instead of hanging out. Though they would have been in the house, it had sounded like no one else was home.

But now? Yn made her way into the kitchen to get dinner started. Hopefully she could get something on the stove by the time one of them hopped out of the shower. Knowing Jongseob though…

She estimated that it was about five minutes later that Jongseob's elephant stomps sounded down the hall, nearing the living room and kitchen at high speed. Seconds later, a blur of orange and white launched himself over the back of the couch. As she expected, it was Jongseob with that freshly showered glow, damp hair, and a white towel hanging around his shoulders.

Her amused gaze clashed with his, and though his face was pressed into a deadpan, she saw the glimmer in his irises. He told her, "We're watching Star Wars."

Yn grinned. "Deal's a deal, kid."

Right on cue, Shota came sliding into the living room with his dampened locks tied up and out of his face with a Hello Kitty hair tie he no doubt found in the drawers of the bathroom. She wondered how he found stuff like that, stuff that she had ditched so long ago when she was much younger. She raised her eyebrows at him. “I’m starting to think that neither of you actually use soap when you shower.”

“I’m productive when I’m given motive,” Shota replied, collapsing onto the couch next to Jongseob. She could already hear the tell-tale explosion of sound that was the Star Wars main theme.

It was several hours later when dinner was eaten, dishes were washed, and the lot of them were one and a half Star Wars movies in that Yn stared at her notifications again. Intak hadn't sent anything else since those last messages, and there was a distinct feeling of guilt stewing in the back of her brain. At this point, it overpowered any feelings of annoyance or bitterness from the other day's incident. It was always at evening hours when the overthinking started.

Intak had been good to her thus far, though, and it wasn't fair that she took out her annoyance on him. He had done nothing bad—a part of her countered with “yet.”

She could see the start of his messages: That photo's like half your face dude… I've got to go to a dance lesson though so…

It was all completely harmless, and yet, her heart pounded in her chest from not being able to fully read his reaction to her face reveal. Of course she cared what he thought. She chalked it up to the fact that Intak himself was a pretty face, and it was perfectly normal to be self conscious.

Yn raised her head for a moment when she caught a flash of quick movement from the TV, then felt a pair of eyes on her.

While Shota was curled up at the far end of the couch, Jongseob was seated next to her and saw who's messages sat at the top of her screen. The two of them connected gazes; he said nothing, showed nothing.

A different type of guilt rushed into her head.

Jongseob turned back to the screen, and she was back to square one.

The house was quiet by the time Yn tucked her friends beneath quilts on the couch. Her mom had come home sometime between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace, then crashed immediately after disappearing into her room, leaving Yn to haunt the hallways of her house in the dark and silence by herself.

She perched on the edge of her bed with the light of her phone screen illuminating her face. There were those unread messages at the top of her screen again, yelling at her to just take a peak. There was no harm in seeing what he said—but there was. He would see the Read sign beneath his messages and think the worst.

With nothing else stopping her but her own thoughts, she tapped the notification.

The text chain opened up before her in full. There was nothing out of the ordinary, as she expected. He was just being his bright, sweet self here. Her lips pursed into a slight smile as she read over his sappy talk at the end; it was appreciated though.

But now it was a matter of replying.

He probably thought she was busy all day again, but the guilt of “punishing” him for something that people from his community did and not him personally was eating her up inside.

“Ahem.”

She stopped, eyes widening as her head shot up like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar. A drowsy Jongseob stood in her doorway with his eyes at half-mast and his mouth widened in a yawn. Sometimes she forgot that her friend was still a kid—that they were all just kids. “Hey,” she whispered to him. “Did I wake you up or something?”

He shook his head and suddenly looked a lot more awake. “The text messages you got earlier,” he drawled, inclining his chin at her phone.

“Oh.” She glanced down at the screen, then back up at him. “Seob, I—”

“He's gonna hurt you, Yn.”

Her chest felt so hollow all of a sudden. What?

He folded his arms in front of himself, cupping his palms under his elbows. Jongseob's eyebrows furrowed together as if in thought or in an attempt to look firm. “He's gonna hurt you like Jae did.”

No, the hollow feeling was because her heart fell into the pit of her stomach. Everything felt like it was falling out from under her with that statement. Yn said slowly, gently, “Jongseob, Jae didn't mean to hurt us. He didn't mean to get sick. He couldn't control it, Seob. You know that that's not fair.”

Sometimes it was hard to not let the anger seep through into blame and misunderstanding. That was just the grief talking. When those thoughts resurfaced, it was just as difficult to deal with the resulting guilt of ever blaming them later on.

Losing someone was just devastating.

Jongseob sniffled though, and she backtracked on her previous thought. But this wasn't that, was it? “Yeah, well—it seems whether they do it on purpose or not, that's all they do up there: hurt people.”

Her mouth felt so dry then, so helplessly wordless. Her throat was just as voiceless. These kids—her friends—had gone through all that pain just as she had. She couldn't blame them most of the time because she knew where they were coming from.

Jongseob poked his tongue in his cheek. “I know you miss him.”

Yn's fingers curled around the edges of her phone, like she could hold onto whoever was on the other side.

“I miss him, too,” he said.

A stinging sensation erupted in the corners of her eyes and she reached up to staunch the tears like they were cuts, and they were bleeding.

“But no matter their intention, a ghost can only haunt,” he muttered. He let that thought simmer for a second before citing his source, “Got that one off of Pinterest.”

The last comment made a laugh sputter out of her mouth, wet but touched. She sniffled at the same time he did. “I was gonna say,” she said, her voice watery, “when'd you get so smart?”

“I've always been smart,” he scoffed. He exhaled, still lingering on the threshold before waddling over to where she was perched on the bed. Awkwardly, he brought his arms around her upper body and gently patted her back. “Is this helping?”

Yn wrapped her arms around him to reciprocate. “Yeah.”

“Thank god.”

A ghost can only haunt. Maybe it was how fast it had all happened that none of them really got proper closure or got to say goodbye. They would never get a chance to see him ever again, to tell him they felt something for him close to love, and enjoyed his company despite his being from the Summit. There was no chance they'd be invited to the funeral, and there was little possibility of ever visiting his grave. There were only memories and a phone number.

One day he was here, and the next… well the next, Yn was texting Intak. Was this history repeating itself, or would this ending turn into a new beginning entirely?

When they both pulled back from their embrace, Jongseob poked her cheek. “You know I never know what to do when you cry, right?”

She reached up to swipe her palm across her dampened cheeks. “Yeah. You did good, kid.”

That made the corners of his mouth curl up a bit. “I just don't want this guy to be another reason you cry.”

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allwormdiet · 6 months ago

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Agitation 3.1

Got waylaid by work and brain weather, but we're back to it. Let's see how Taylor's life is going

Her routine has come up before, but it bears saying that I think Taylor's actual superpower might just be that she's a morning person who can hold herself to accomplish daily goals, like goddamn girl

The constant, casual cruelty that makes up so much of Taylor's history is equal parts saddening and infuriating. I'm sure we'll get an explanation for why the bullies do this to her, I think I've said as much in previous posts, but also as mentioned in previous posts I find it aggravating to endure.

...I don't know if this is quite the right place in my reading to speculate on it, but I'm not sure if Taylor even has a shot at university at this point, even setting aside the cape thing. The bullies are all in her year, which means they'd never be separated from her by graduation. Their constant sabotage and harassment would mean her grades are low, so even if she gets into a college with whatever GPA she can bodge together (and no extracurriculars to pad her application out), she's probably not going to earn any scholarships and money's already pretty tight for the Heberts. That means student loans, and probably shit rates considering the world they're in.

Maybe this is my bitter ass reflecting on how the greatest benefits I got out of going to college were completely incidental to the courses I took or the degree I earned, but... Taylor, I know college meant a lot to your mom, I just don't think that path is nearly as open to you as it used to be. I think it's fine to just learn a trade, and I think it's fine if the trade is armed robbery.

So you're telling me Taylor's self-image used to be worse? Jeeesus

I like that Brian knows how to blend into an environment as the situation calls for it. That speaks to a pretty keen observational ability, and also is maybe tied to his need to act more grown-up than he is. And now I'm sad again.

"I want" is cute, embarrassment is for suckers (I say, easily embarrassed)

I don't even like coffee, but a fifteen dollar coffee had better be the best coffee you've ever had, oh my god

And honestly that must have been weird for every member of the team, just suddenly having money not be a problem anymore. Taylor's holding out for now, although I suspect it won't be that way forever, and everyone else either wants or needs it bad enough for their own ends that I don't think they're gonna think about it too hard (except for Lisa, who has the full context and whose power is thinking too hard)

Taylor please don't undersell your injuries to your teammates, I don't like you doing it with your dad but I understand it. Here though? Come onnnnn

Yeah there we go

Violence is an easy language to understand. Cruel, obviously, and painful, but if Rachel is already struggling with other people's words and feelings (five bucks says she's autistic tbh) then getting the shit kicked out of her is probably a better sell on the new recruit than any pretty speech

...Ideally they move past that pretty quick so words can be used again

Also poor Rachel, for real. Ten years in the system and then whatever it was that triggered her powers, which is obviously never good. No wonder she came out the other end more willing to trust dogs than people.

Ugh, my heart

Is she showing off for the guy she's crushing on? That's adorable

Curious that the limits of her power seem to be based on complexity of the brain. I assume there has to be a brain at all or else she could just shoot germs at people, although that'd also be a little bit inefficient as a power unless she started getting into disease warfare and holy shit this would be a very different story if Taylor could give people smallpox

Gotta be a weird day for the crab though

Couple things here

Brian you're not even eighteen yet as far as I know, what the hell

Of course Lisa cheated, she's built to cheat, at that point I'm not sure it even counts as cheating

Knowing what I know about Alec, somehow I doubt he was ever in school to drop out in the first place

...on the flipside I'm a little surprised that Rachel never went during her time in the system, you'd figure that'd be a condition of her fostering but either the guardians didn't give a shit or she fought her way out of ever actually attending

Also, I know it's a matter of course that she'd have a key to the base, but it's sweet all the same

It's nice of Brian to make this offer, although I'm willing to bet it's because he's the only Undersider who would get up before 6 AM. It's also a pretty smart call to keep her up to date this way

Also very funny that Taylor is like "Oh I like Lisa just fine but she scares the shit out of me"

...Also also, for real, Lisa has to already know what's going on with Taylor right? There's no way Taylor's good enough at lying to bury that one.

Girl I'm dreading it and I'm just reading about it

This is just. So goddamn sad. And maddening, to boot.

Gee Taylor you sure to seem to spend a fair amount of time thinking about the comparative attractiveness of other women

Agonizing, though, for real. Wildbow has knocked every school scene out of the park and I hate it.

I wonder if Taylor's gonna even bother coming back to school at this point. First day she left mid lunch, second day she left right after lunch started, here she's splitting before first period. As much as she clings to this side of her life... I don't know if it's any healthier than full-time villainy.

Go blow off steam with your new friends Taylor

Current Thoughts

I actually don't have any real expectations for this arc going into it. Obviously Arc 1 is the start of... I mean kind of everything, and Arc 2 is made up of the immediate aftermath from those events. This one? I dunno. I was a little worried I'd have to deal with another chapter of Winslow, but it looks like Taylor decided she was sick of that shit

I like Brian, but I think mostly I'm worried for him? This is a lot of effort so far made to seem mature and normal, and I don't know if that's possible for a teenager who goes out to be a supervillain. It's admirable in a sense, but I'm worried about how fragile it leaves him.

I don't love that Rachel seems satisfied by an exchange of violence but that's more bc I don't want these kids beating the shit out of each other, not any kind of "this is bad actually" sense.

Other than that I'm mostly just curious what the rest of this arc looks like. Thank fuck it's not more high school.

Oh, yeah, I'm gonna try and read more at work today, I might take my screenshots then and see if they drive me up a wall, but even if so I'll just retake them when I get home. Fingers crossed work is slow enough for it.

#parahumans #worm liveblogging #liveblog #worm agitation #wormblr

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 1 year ago

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Jade, Riddle: Days that we Treasure

Why do they use the most Obviously Evil and Unsettling images ever 😭 Who looks at the Mega Ursula painting and goes, “Ah, yes. This is a perfectly sane and totally good person”??????? Or that unsettling image of the Evil Queen??? They did NOT get their best angles…

THE TWINS ArE NOT BEATING BACK THE LEECH CRIME FAMILY ALLEGATIONS ANYTIME SOON... Jade says his dad taught him and Floyd skills like how to break free of ropes and how to pick locks... 💀 and then Jade talks about how he beat up some sharks and made them bleed--

It's really cute to hear about how Jade collected baubles just like Ariel did 🥺 even gifting some coins to Azul!! Him chucking everything once he lost interest broke my heart though... (Some clarification: Jade indicates that he used to like manholes; this is a unique cultural aspect of Japan, as manhole covers tend to have fun designs there. He was probably referring to those, not just plain manhole covers.)

A Tale as Old as Time.

"Oya, what a charming portrait of a crustacean."

Jade spoke of a painting of a crab, lips pursed as if midsong, a flurry of bubbles and sea life swirling around it. Light shone down from the surface world, as if spotlighting a lone performer on an otherwise dark stage. Such fun! Such whimsy! Such…

… easy game, Jade thought. His polite smile tugged into what was decidedly a far less polite smirk.

He had honed a discerning eye, parsing people as easily as one might parse papers. One look was all that was needed for him to tell: the crab would easily be suckered into signing a contract. Gullible, cheery fools like him always were.

His grin grew. Fingers curled against his chin, almost resembling a folded paw which concealed claws.

“I don’t like that look of yours,” Riddle declared. His resolute tone resounded in the darkened museum as he fell beside the eel. “It looks extremely suspicious!”

“Riddle-san. How good of you to join me.” With a hand shifting to be placed over his head, Jade gave him a curt bow. "I apologize if you were disarmed by my expression. You see, I have a tendency to smile awkwardly out of nervousness."

Riddle made a face and shook his head. “I’m not sure if I entirely believe that.”

"Who can you trust, if not your dear classmates?"

Riddle gave no response, only meeting him with an exasperated look. Jade’s chuckles were loud in the cavernous quiet of the museum.

He gestured to the platinum frame containing the singing crustacean. “Are you familiar with this gentlecrab?"

"I have learned a bit of the history of merpeople," Riddle declared proudly, puffing his chest out like a swaggering peacock. "He is the Sea King's favored composer. From what I understand, music is highly regarded in your culture—and it is for that reason that this composer was able to earn such an important position in the king’s court. He was not only wise, but also wove stunning melodies which captured the hearts of all sea creatures. Truly an ideal candidate to stand by the king’s side.”

“That’s right. My, you certainly put in the extra effort to your studies. As expected of Riddle-san.”

Jade brought a hand to his mouth. “Ah, but there are many stories of him that the land textbooks do not tell. For example, did you know that this great composer was also a friend and confidant to the Mermaid Princess?”

“The Mermaid Princess… Surely you don’t mean the Mermaid Princess that bridged the humans and merpeople?”

“The very same.” Jade gave a light laugh. “They say she was spirited and defiant, with a deep fondness for humans, in spite of her father’s protests. The great composer discovered her hidden grotto, which was full of gadgets and gizmos aplenty, items the Mermaid Princess had scavenged from shipwrecks—and his loyalty was put to the test.”

Jade held out both hands, lifting one while lowering the other, then swapping sides. He simulated a scale and changing weights.

“The Sea King, who detested humans, and the Mermaid Princess, who loved them. Which of the two would the composer follow?”

“What a ridiculous question!” Riddle frowned, sweeping out an arm—as if to collapse a house of cards. “Of course the Sea King is the most correct. He has the most authority in the circumstances, and furthermore, the composer is in service to the king. It is clear that it is the composer should side with the Sea King.”

Jade's eyes glinted like coins shifting in the darkness. "In the end, he chose to support the Mermaid Princess."

"What?!" Riddle recoiled in visible shock. "That's preposterous! On what grounds....!"

“He must have valued the Mermaid Princess’s friendship with all of his heart,” Jade replied teasingly, “or rather, it was because he understood her sorrow and desire.”

“A man of his skill and stature, understanding her feelings and breaking the rules on her behalf…? I can’t picture it myself.”

"Perhaps it is difficult to understand without full context." Jade's brows turned upward, almost passing for sympathetic. "... There was a dark era of the Sea King's rule when music of any kind was expressly forbidden. However, the great composer—in an act of rebellion—played to his heart's content in secret. The Mermaid Princess came upon his secret and learned of the joys of song and dance from him. She understood that, to the composer, music was his most prized possession. His treasure. He could not bear to be without it, just as a fish cannot be without water."

Riddle's face creased. "I see, so the Mermaid Princess and this composer... They understood one another's circumstances. Both of them knew the pain of longing for something forbidden."

"Yes. To them, it was worth disregarding the law to attain that which they loved the most." Jade's suspiciously pleasant smile returned. "I believe that is incredibly courageous and admirable of them."

"That is hardly surprising, seeing as you and your brother constantly skirt school rules!" Riddle grumbled under his breath. "And no matter the reason for it or the results achieved, you are all still guilty of your crimes!!"

"Such harsh accusations." Jade's lips peeled, revealing the many tiny, razor-sharp teeth he so often hid from public view. "Most graciously, the story I was telling you has a happy ending. Th Sea King pardoned them both for their transgressions. As they say, all's well that ends well."

"Rule-breakers walking away without so much as a light sentence... That's considered a happy ending for you?!" Riddle's snarl filled the room, rattling the portraits that lined the walls, the priceless artifacts out on display. He was redder than the crab composer himself.

"Oya, Riddle-san. What a loud voice—you may just disturb the other museum goers.” Jade tossed a glance at the room adjacent to theirs. Their peers milled about, clamoring for glimpses of pieces of art, scraps of history, and shards of greatness.

The dorm leader hastily cleared his throat. “Apologies... I lost control of my temper for but a moment.”

“There is no need for an apology. I’m certain the merciful Sea King would have granted you clemency as well.”

“D-Do not tease me!!” Riddle’s face inflamed once more, earning a stifled snort from his classmate. “S-Stop laughing!! It’s NOT funny!!”

His protests were of no use. Jade’s snort swelled into barely concealed chuckling, and then finally burst into a monstrous grin. It didn’t quite match with the soft laugh that bubbled up from his throat.

The surface world had introduced to him a plethora of new wonders. Mushrooms, mountains, and what else…? The very people of the land.

I will never tired of these peaceful, fun-filled days.

They were his invaluable treasures, things well-worth fighting for.

#twisted wonderland #twst #Jade Leech #Riddle Rosehearts #twst imagines #disney twisted wonderland #something no one asked for #spoilers #twst scenarios #Jade birthday takeover #twisted wonderland imagines #twisted wonderland scenarios

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badbatchposts · 9 months ago

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Quiet Corners of the Galaxy, Chapter 13

While on a routine mission for Cid, the Bad Batch encounter a woman fleeing from the Empire. Crosshair suspects her seemingly free-spirited, nomadic existence is actually a cover for something else, but struggles to keep his attraction toward her in check as their personalities and ideals clash.

Relevant tags/content warnings: Slow Burn, Enemies to Lovers, Periodic Smut, Canon-Typical Violence, Alcohol Use

Chapters posted 1-2x weekly!

Read the full fic so far on AO3

Read all chapters on Tumblr: Ch. 1 l Ch. 2 l Ch. 3 l Ch. 4 l Ch. 5 l Ch. 6 l Ch. 7 l Ch. 8 l Ch. 9 l Ch. 10 l Ch. 11 l Ch. 12 l Ch. 13 l Ch. 14

Chapter 13 summary: Dara is in a strange mood. The Batch makes their move to infiltrate the villa.

When she stepped out of the Marauder into the cool night air, Dara took a moment to look up at the sky, taking in the glittering stars, uncanny in all their unfamiliar positions. She wondered, as she always did, which one was her sun—the one belonging to her home system, lightyears and lightyears away. It always made her feel a little lost, not knowing. Often, when she traveled to a new planet, she would consult an adjusted star map on the first night, find her sun so that she could point out toward the galaxy and think, There. That’s home.

Not that she’d ever be able to go back again.

Trying not to think about it further, she tore her eyes away from the stars and cast them back planet side, adjusting the glasses that were settled on the brim of her nose.

“Steal those, too, burk’yc?” Crosshair’s voice came from above her. He slid down from the roof of the Marauder, landing in the field next to her on cat-like feet.

Dara hit the button to retract the ship’s ramp and strode off into the night. “They’re mine,” she muttered. “I need them for reading.”

Crosshair stalked after her. “How cute. What about this?” He gave the scarf she’d wrapped around her hair a tug, earning him a glare at his juvenile antics. Dara readjusted it, making sure all the strands were still tucked safely under.

“Half the town was staring at us yesterday,” she fumed. “I don’t want to make it easy to be recognized.”

As the pair trekked up a hill in the direction of the villa, the sniper frowned and fiddled with the toothpick in his mouth, evidently deep in thought. “You shouldn’t be going in there alone,” he finally grunted.

Glancing in his direction, Dara scoffed. “Like you give a bantha shit.”

He flicked the toothpick at her. “What I give a bantha shit aboutis the mission. And I don’t feel like rescuing you when you kark it up.”

Breathing deeply, Dara looked up at the sky again. She tried counting to ten. It was too early in the evening to commit a murder. When she looked back down, Crosshair was still glaring at her. They finally crested the top of the hill, where Wrecker and Hunter were waiting, macro binoculars trained on the villa.

Hunter glanced at them before returning to his surveillance. “Everything’s normal. Two guards stationed at the front entrance, next rounds are due in half an hour. Tech and Echo should be back in ten.”

Dara nodded and took in her first view of the mansion from close-up. She had spent much of the afternoon memorizing its floorplan, but was still somehow surprised at just how big it was. What a waste of space for one person, she mused. She seated herself a few feet away to wait, back resting against a boulder, and soon found herself once more searching through the stars for a familiar twinkle.

Almost immediately, her view was blocked by Crosshair’s scowl.

“What?” she demanded.

“Why do you keep doing that?”

She clenched her teeth with irritation. “Keep doing what?”

The sniper sneered at her. “Looking at the sky. Expecting a ship to arrive soon?”

This brought out an eye roll. “Kriff, are you paranoid. I’m just looking at the stars, asshole.”

“Why?” Crosshair squinted at her suspiciously.

“What do you mean, why?” A look of genuine bafflement wiped the annoyance off Dara’s face.

Crosshair gestured with his toothpick at the sky. “I mean, why? They’re stars. You said you were looking at them last night. You’ve seen them before.”

Dara hesitated for a moment, unsure if he was even looking for a real answer—or if he deserved one. She looked up again, tried to at least find a sliver of sky that might belong to her, but couldn’t differentiate it from every other.

“They’re different on every planet,” she began haltingly.

The sniper furrowed his brow, puzzled, then followed her gaze. “Yeah. So?”

Dara sighed. Rather than tell him the whole sad truth, she settled on a close-enough answer. “So I can’t recognize them. I don’t know the constellations here. They all tell different stories.” She glanced at him a moment, found his eyes examining her intently, and continued. “When I did fieldwork, I used to record the stories sometimes. Every culture has ancient myths about the shapes the stars take in their sky. It’s what got us up there in the first place. The whole reason we ever left our planets to begin with—to go where the stories are. Find out what’s out there. I like looking—trying to recognize them. Guessing what shapes they make. And…where the systems I’ve been are.”

The sniper opened his mouth—surely, Dara thought, to say something snarky, or accuse her of lying—but a chirp over their comms signaled Tech and Echo were approaching. Dara stood, adjusted her headscarf, and made sure her blaster was fully concealed beneath the lab coat.

“Ready?” asked Hunter.

She grinned. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

***

Crosshair watched Dara closely through his scope as she met Tech and Echo by the road at the bottom of the hill. Hopping into the speeder they had commandeered, she drove off in the direction of the villa, tonight playing the part, not of a honeymooner camping in the woods, but a hassled scientist rushing over from town. Despite what he’d told her earlier, he no longer had any doubts that she could handle herself—and handle herself well at that—although he still worried about what she might encounter once she got inside.

She was in a strange mood tonight. Maybe he’d pushed her too far.

That had been an unexpected moment of vulnerability from her; for barely half a second, he could see her features almost take on some of the otherworldly calm he had found so fascinating when she was facing down her death. But then they’d twisted back into her usual mask, and now, as he watched her park the speeder in front of the villa, she was someone else entirely.

Tech and Echo both settled into position, joining the others in studying Dara intently as she parked the speeder and approached the guards. Tech finished typing away at his datapad and looked up, satisfied.

“Comms for the villa are officially jammed,” he announced.

In contrast, they could still hear every word being exchanged between Dara and the guards from the woman’s earpiece. Her voice was convincingly frantic.

“I need immediate access to Dr. Prium’s laboratory,” Dara huffed breathlessly as soon as she gained the guards’ attention. “We have an emergency at the lab in town and Dr. Raab needs me to review some of the data that’s stored here.”

The men looked at one another uncertainly. One of them—taller and broader than his companion—folded his arms. “Access to the laboratory is restricted. Raab will have to come here himself.”

“Obviously he’s trying to hold things together in town, or he wouldn’t have sent me. I have his access card.” Dara adjusted her glasses and waved the keycard at them agitatedly.

The tall guard snatched it out of her hand and scanned it. He squinted at her suspiciously, then turned to his companion.

“Comm Raab. See what he says,” he instructed.

As the batch had planned, the call was met with nothing but static. The shorter guard shook his head.

“It’s not connecting for some reason. Interference, or some sort of problem in the control room, maybe.”

Dara tapped her foot impatiently and looked pointedly at her chronometer. “I don’t have time to wait around here. We’re on the verge of disaster. We could lose months of work!”

The taller man looked at her doubtfully, weighing his options. Finally, he sighed and jerked his head toward the entrance to the villa. “Take her in. Stop at control on the way down and check in about the comms.”

Dara scoffed. “I don’t need an escort. I’ll be in and out in no more than an hour.”

The tall man scowled and stroked his blaster menacingly. “Don’t let her out of your sight,” he insisted.

The batch exchanged concerned glances as they heard Dara sigh and watched her allow the smaller guard to lead her into the mansion.

“That’s not great,” Echo murmured.

Wrecker furrowed his brow. “Yeah. Didn’t we plan on them sending her in alone?”

Tech shrugged, eyes back on his datapad. “Ideally yes. However, Dara will have to stun the workers in the control room in any event. She will simply have to stun the guard as well.”

He was the only one looking unperturbed. Hunter, on the other hand, was scowling. “Yes, but the workers in the control room weren’t supposed to have blasters. We don’t exactly want her to get caught in a firefight.”

While they no longer had a visual on Dara as she made her way through the villa, over the comms they could still hear everything that was happening to her. After a period of silence, they heard the beeping of a keycard and the guard begin to speak.

“Hey, is there a reason comms aren’t—”

The man was interrupted by the telltale, wavering chirp of a stun blast. A thud and two more chirps immediately followed.

“Control room secured,” Dara reported. “Tech, I’m plugging in now.”

“Ah. Lovely. Thank you, Dara.” He adjusted his goggles as he set to work monitoring the progress of his programs.

“My—pleasure—Tech,” Dara grunted back. Judging by the dragging noise and slight strain in her voice, she was settling the unconscious guard safely behind the control room door, away from prying eyes.

“Patrol is passing the infiltration point on their rounds now,” Crosshair murmured, eyes glued to his scope. “Our entry window’s open.”

Tech looked up from his datapad and tucked it away safely in his belt, exchanging it for his pistols. “Automated security systems are offline. We may now enter.”

While the others stole their way across the darkened landscape that separated their hilltop from the villa, Crosshair settled in with his rifle perched atop the boulder, ready to keep watch as the rest of the team completed the infiltration. He allowed himself only the briefest glance up at the stars, wondering for a moment what constellations Dara was looking for.

Next chapter

Tag List: @stardusthuntress @skellymom @megmegalodondon

#the bad batch #star wars #bad batch #clone force 99 #clone wars fanfiction #tbb crosshair #tbb hunter #tbb fanfiction #sw tbb fanfiction #the bad batch fanfiction #tbb fanfic

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cookiebelle · 2 years ago

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Can I have a Damian Priest x Fem reader where they get handcuffed together by Finn, Dom, and Rhea and end up confessing their feelings for each other while handcuffed?

This is so cute I had to do it first.

Steel

Damian Priest x Reader (no use of y/n)

Warnings: alcohol use, tooth rotting fluff

Word count: Not sure. I stupidly wrote this on tumblr and not on my notes app so I can’t copypaste it 😅 maybe like 1.5k?

“Priest, it’s your turn.”

He drew a card, sighing at the prompt and rubbing his eyes with exasperation. It was another ridiculous dare.

“Finish your drink… or get handcuffed to a person of the group’s choosing for three hours…” he scanned the laughing faces of his friends, glaring and shaking his head.

“Guess you’re drinking,” you giggled, looking into his cup to find it nearly full. That was gonna be rough, and you patted his shoulder in sympathy.

Dom, Rhea, and Finn all shared a look, then looked to Damian with knowing smirks. He stalled, trying to decide what to do. The rest of this drink would surely end his night right there, absolutely nothing good could come of it except guaranteed blackout, but three hours of being handcuffed to any of you was far from ideal. However…

“I’ll be right back…” he sighed as he stood, headed for his bedroom. He had plenty of fun things in there, but his steel handcuffs seemed to be buried at the bottom of a drawer. When he re-emerged, he handed the cuffs to Finn, dramatically holding his wrist out to be locked.

“So do you need to figure out who you’re doing or…”

The three looked to you in unison, Rhea reaching out and snatching your wrist before you had the chance to react.

“What? Wait. No way. Why is it automatically me?” You tried pulling your wrist away, a completely futile effort in Rhea’s iron grip. You attempted to bargain, but it was no use. Your wrist was locked to his within a few seconds and you were trapped. Great.

Three hours isn’t that long, right?

You and Damian looked at each other simultaneously, him mouthing a regretful “sorry”. You just sighed and shook your head, shrugging. You didn’t blame him. You blamed the three snickering assholes across the table.

The game continued for a while, the two of you well lit and laughing at every ridiculous thing the cards dared you all to do. You two sat nearly pressed against one another, sharing drunken giggles at every dropped card and awkward pull in the other’s direction when you moved. It wasn’t your fault they locked both of your dominant hands together, leaving you barely able to function without knocking into one another. In fact, that was probably their plan in the first place.

Rhea and Dom knew about your silly little crush on Priest before you had the balls to even admit it. It was stupid. Puppy love. You just… couldn’t help but get all dumb and smiley around him. That’s all. You definitely did not have feelings. Definitely not.

Naturally, Finn was brought into the “loop” when he caught the two of them whispering, while you and Damian flirted talked. Thus began the onslaught of torture from all of them which you had no choice but to endure lest they decide to take matters into their own hands. You wouldn’t be surprised if they rigged the game so he’d get that card, just to do this to you… You’d have to kill them later.

Eventually, the game ended, the group slowly transitioning from the table to the big sectional couch and putting on some trash comedy you had no interest in. Now came the hard part. Sitting at the table was easy, you each could rest your connected arms on it comfortably, with no awkwardness. Now, you each struggled to get comfortable, both laughing as you tugged each other’s arms back and forth. You let out a shriek of a laugh when he pulled your arm so hard, you nearly landed fully in his lap, instead only your legs draping across his. Weirdly enough, it was comfortable. Finally.

If sober you could see yourself right now, she would be beyond mortified. But sober you was hours away, and drunk you couldn’t help but feel breathless at the way he rested his hand on your thigh so your arm would be more comfortable. It also didn’t help that his thumb kept rubbing circles into it. The inebriated part of your brain took control once again, scooting a bit closer to him and resting your head on his shoulder. Rhea shot you a look, wiggling her eyebrows, which you responded to with a glare.

The next thing you remembered was waking up hours later, still attached to Damian. The screensaver on the tv gave the only light in the room, but it was bright enough to see everyone else was asleep. Well, everyone but Damian, he was still sitting there, rubbing circles into your thigh. You groaned, stretching a little.

“I’m sorry… guess I was tired…” you mumbled, looking around for who might have the key. You settled on Rhea, whispering as to not wake up the others. Before you could get her, Damian hushed you.

“I really don’t mind it,” he shrugged, seeming rather sincere.

“I mean, neither do I. If I had to be handcuffed to anyone, it would be you.”

“Same…”

Awkward silence. Perfect. You started to play with his giant hand, tracing the lines of his palm. You still felt drunk, the beginnings of a headache rattling in your brain.

“… Can I tell you something?” You felt a burst of bravery, however fleeting, immediately regretting saying anything at all.

“… Only if I can tell you something.”

“Okay… you first,” you smirked.

“No. You asked first.”

Okay, fine. Now or never.

One.

Two.

Three.

“… I can’t,” you whined a little, your heart in your stomach.

“Just say it,” he soothed, his hand stroking your leg now.

Okay. Here goes nothing.

“… I like you. Like. I’m really into you and I get it if you’re not into me but I just needed to get this off my chest before they do it for me,” You rambled, pointing at the sleeping three.

Damian just stared at you for a moment before cracking a smile, which was possibly the most terrifying ten seconds of your life. He didn’t say anything, save for “come here”, as he leaned in and pressed a chaste kiss to your lips. You looked up into his eyes when he pulled away.

“… so what does.. that mean…”

“Means I’m.. into you too. Have been for a long time..”

Your sigh of relief emptied your lungs entirely, and he pulled you in for another kiss. This one felt more real, consuming, like he couldn’t live without your lips against his. And to be honest, the same applied to you.

As it turns out, you had woken Rhea with your whispering. She pretended to keep sleeping, eavesdropping on your conversation and witnessing your kiss. You saw the smile on her face as you broke away from Damian, shaking your head.

For now, you would ignore it. This moment was too sweet to waste.

#damian priest #damian priest x reader #damian priest fanfiction #request

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lumine-no-hikari · 3 months ago

Text

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #346

I have 7 hours of sleep, yay! Admittedly, it's still not the ideal 8 that I was going for, but today I am not writing while trying to stop my head from drooping down to the table. I can keep my eyes open. I'm not struggling to focus. Here's how I woke up today:

Mogwai is very cute. Please do feel free to say hello!

I mostly rested today. I was supposed to meet a new friend from the friend-making app at Eggcellent, but when I asked them if they were still on for today, they reported that they must stay late at work and asked for a different time. I asked them to tell me a different date and time at their leisure. The ball is in their court now; I guess we'll see what happens.

M saw how stressed J and I were from yesterday, and suggested that we get Chinese takeout as a means to relax and enjoy tasty snacks that we don't have to prepare. And I thought that this was an excellent idea. I got a variety of things, though my favorite things were probably the crab rangoons and the grilled squid...

The container of turkey on the far right is not from the takeout place, though. No, that is from J's parents' house. I asked them to give me the parts of the turkey that they're not going to use – namely, the skins and the wing tips. No one eats those, but I like them because that's where all the tasty collagen is.

I crave it all the time, and I suspect it's due to the fact that the Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome makes my cartilage wear out a little faster than normal.

...I thanked them for giving it to me, but... J's father made it a point to tell me, essentially, that there's no reason to thank me because the only reason they're giving it to me is because it's “expendable”.

...Sigh. The thinly-veiled hostility is exactly that – thinly veiled. Oh well.

This morning, J and his father got into a textual kerfuffle because apparently, his father didn't like the fact that J didn't obey him when he told J to get dishes for the pies. J didn't obey him, because J was already in the middle of doing it when his father demanded that he do it. Feeling disrespected and like he was being ordered around arbitrarily, J stopped doing it.

For context, J's father has a habit of asserting dominance over his children by ordering them to do things that he could definitely do on his own. One glaring example that stands out in J's memory was one time when they were all watching some TV show together, and J's father demanded that J get up and get him a glass of orange juice, as though J is some kind of servant. Apparently, J's father does this sort of thing a lot. He seems to get a kick out of pushing people around that he considers “lesser” as compared to him.

Well, this time, J wasn't having it, and told his father “no”. And in the end, J's mother got the plates, because J's father didn't wanna do it. And for all intents and purposes, it seemed just... like... “okay, you don't wanna get the plates.” Which would have been the normal response.

For reference, I ask for things, and J says no all the time, and that is a good thing. Having healthy boundaries is essential. It took a long time to break J of the habit of automatically saying “yes” to anything I ask for, even at the expense of himself. But J is NOT an extension of my will, and I don't ever want him to behave as such; he is a full person with his own needs, wishes, thoughts, feelings, and priorities. He's not my personal errand boy or my personal problem solver.

Unfortunately, neither of J's parents, and especially not his father, feel the same. So today, J's father came at J via text, demanding an explanation for J's behavior, and asserting that J personally attacked, affronted, and disrespected him by not doing what he told him.

...The sense of entitlement J's father has to J's immediate and unquestioning obedience is real and VERY bizarre, considering that J is only 5 years away from being 40 years old.

So J explained his position, and his father REALLY didn't like the answer. Responded with a whooooole ton of gaslighting, guilt trips, projection, and deflection. It was one of the most spectacular adult temper tantrums I've seen in a while. Grade A cognitive dissonance there, when J explained that his father tends to belittle, dismiss, and invalidate him, and his father comes out with, and I quote, “you have spent 35 years misinterpreting your reality.”

...Wow, J's dad; way to do EXACTLY the thing that J said you do while claiming you don't do it. Holy shit. And what's worse, J's dad's reaction to J's explanation was foreseen, precisely because he consistently acts this way.

Well. It is what it is. J turned to M and I for support with trying to keep his responses measured, logical, and well-thought-out. J ended with something akin to “I'm here to talk when you're ready to hear me without belittling me.” And that was very good. M and I were very proud.

...Still, there's part of me that kinda wants to punch J's dad's face right off. Like, so hard that it flies off his skull and lands on Pluto. That's because I feel rage whenever someone deliberately tries to hurt someone I'm close to. But that is not how we do. It is not the way. That sort of thing is how I grew up, for sure. But that is not who I wanna be. And this is J's fight, anyway. We can be here for support, but it's J's voice that has to stand up to his father in a way that conveys integrity and respect, despite J's father's lack of these things.

When we use the same tactics of the people who hurt us, it's tantamount to stooping to their level. There are better ways of handling toxic behaviors than mirroring those behaviors back at the person who engaged in them. By mirroring their toxicity, we perpetuate its existence within our own minds and bodies, and that's no good. We can't clear out generational curses by becoming the very same thing that hurt us. That's not how it works. So we have to choose something else. And when that doesn't work, we have to step away from those people – sometimes permanently, as much as that sucks.

So... I tried resting today, but I got a bit riled up on J's behalf. But that's all right, these things happen. I chilled out on the couch for a bit while talking to a new friend I made from the friend-making app; he's from Italy! Here was my view from the couch:

...Hunter, Mogwai, and Hoshi. All the cats, all the time! Hahahaha...!

Maybe I'll try to learn a little Italian. Why not. If it'll help me talk to my Italian friend a little better, why not?

Fwhoof. Actually. Sephiroth. I'm starting to nod off again, even though it's only 11:13pm. I guess I'm not fully recovered from all those days of 5 hours of sleep or less.

...I gotta get up early for work tomorrow, too. I'm looking forward to going, but... I wanna be well-rested and present while I'm there. So I guess I'll go to bed now.

...I wonder how things are in your general vicinity... I wish you could tell me...

Hey, Sephiroth? Don't forget that you're loved, okay? Because I love you a whole lot, and lots of other people do, too. If you look around, you'll find tons and tons of folks who were very much unlike those you were raised with. We of my house found all kinds of awesome folks, once we were able to look beyond the veil of painful memories that clouded our vision. I hope someday that you, too, will be able to look at the world with unclouded eyes.

Please stay safe. I'll write again tomorrow.

Your friend, Lumine

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