#lacey’s games you are so important to me | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

yunarim · 1 year

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hellou I would like to ask (for reasons that the movie will be released soon~) for the dorm leaders reacting to their mc explaining to them with everything and power-point everything about barbie, they even watch her movies (they need to have barbie culture °^°)9 ), songs (mc starts to sing the songs of the Princess and the Pauper bc it's inevitable not to do it xd), toys, etc, and in the end mc gets sentimental because barbie was part of her childhood :') so that all Thank you very much <3 and have a good day *hug*

﹢ ﹒🩰 WRITTEN IN YOUR HEART and you're always free to believe ♡

♡ SYNOPSIS : reader introducing barbie culture to the dorm leaders !

♡ TAGS : implied female reader (but no pronouns used actually), fluff, implied reader has all the movies downloaded on the phone and got transmigrated with it, watch me being emo about barbie movies, games & songs because totally not me was obsessed with them in my childhood—

♡ NOTES : OMG ANON LET ME GIVE YOU A HUG TOO you're just in time bc i replayed barbie in the 12 dancing princesses literally a week ago sdhkjh THIS REQUEST IS SO SWEET i felt it with all my both mind and soul

— ❀ RIDDLE ROSEHEARTS

How could you not realize it before!! When you asked Riddle if there is something you can help with since you’ve noticed he’s been quite preoccupied with too many things to handle, he said you may assist flamingo caretakers but there’s one rule that you absolutely mustn’t violate. According to rule 249, ‘Flamingo caretakers are to don pink attire’ which happens to be extremely… pinkish.

Riddle notices you following the rule by heart, but you seem to hum a song unknown to him. He asks why would even sing something like ‘We spin for you, Janessa, and chasse for you, Kathleen, we pirouette for Lacey, and we bow before the queens’ and among those lines… Riddle can understand the ‘bow before the queens’ line, but who are those people in the first place? You ask him if barbie culture even exists in their world and when you find out there’s none—

Riddle takes your introduction to barbie lessons just as diligently as professors' magic lessons. He wonders if you perform this excellently on tests as well since the way you turned all the information into neatly assigned diagrams and schemes is astonishing. You came up with the idea of homework because he’s familiar with such, so the task you assigned him to finish by the end of the week was to remember the Birthday Song you were singing in the garden.

He knows that all the barbie aesthetic is important to you by the way your eyes glow with joy whenever he brings you something barbie related. You got all Heartslabyul jamming to barbie songs, which is not against the rules. In fact, when Riddle spotted that even Trey started singing ‘If I want some eggs I ring the bell, and the maid comes running in’, he decided there is one more rule that needs to be added to the list, which is ‘One must sing ‘I am a girl like you’ when cooking’.

One day during an unbirthday party Riddle gifted you a handmade barbie doll according to your descriptions. He did make it himself but with a little touch of magic so it came out quite nice. He thought you would scream and maybe jump out of your seat but you just drew the doll right to your heart and teared up a little, causing Riddle to get confused for a moment. But once you explained that it’s very touching and means a lot to you, he smiled reassuringly. You’re an honorable ambassador of barbie culture in Heartslabyul now.

— ❀ LEONA KINGSCHOLAR

Even if Leona doesn’t say it, he’s grown quite fond of you enough to shamelessly tell you that you need to do the thing that always puts him to sleep, which is singing a lullaby. Usually you would just hum something incoherently and watch Leona snore on your lap but this time you decided to fall into the embrace of your childhood and sing ‘No one to say when to eat or read or leave or stay, that would be the day’. Leona opened one eye and asked if you were actually trying to put him into sleep or emphasize on his upbringing for some reason.

Next day you tell him if he falls asleep while you two watch ‘Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper’, you will never ever sing him to sleep again. He just yawns you away but agrees anyway since it’s the first time he sees you so agitated. Somehow ends up providing you with plot analysis as the movie goes on. This is the moment you know you got him.

Leona thinks he doesn’t care about your childish movies and things and then spends twenty minutes explaining to Ruggie why ‘Barbie in the Nutcracker’ is obviously superior. Leona: started as a joke and ended up genuinely investing into barbie culture. Ruggie: started as a way to fool around and ended up kinning Erika (Leona tells him to come back down to earth since Ruggie’s no queen like Erika was).

One day gifted you Princess Anneliese doll with ‘You’re just like me’ line — whatever he meant by that — and your reaction turned out to be so amusing so he started casually gifting you other barbie dolls just to (enjoy your beautiful smile but he won’t tell you this) entertain himself. Now whoever visits Ramshackle often asks how did you get an enormously large collection of pretty dolls but your dorm remains so ruin-like. Needless to say that you would be considered rich in your world for having such a huge collection in your property.

Now asks you to watch barbie movies together instead of singing him to sleep but ends up never falling asleep before he watches till the end. You throw quick glances to check if he’s asleep and he pretends he is, though his tail can not lie, revealing his honest reaction to plot twists. Cheka visited once, and now thanks to you everyone in Afterglow Savannah is cultured.

— ❀ AZUL ASHENGROTTO

All popular cafes in the city were holding some events with advertising new products as a main purpose. Azul couldn’t afford falling behind so he needed to come up with original and creative ideas as soon as possible. Since you were working part-time at Mostro Lounge, you suggested holding barbie inspired events. When you found out no one in Twisted Wonderland knew barbie, you were so shocked that you asked (or rather demanded) Azul to entrust all the preparations to you.

At first no one really understood what’s the point of decorating Mostro Lounge with pink glittering and shining stuff but when you suddenly came up on the stage and started singing simple yet touching songs, everyone started getting the main idea. But the pièce de résistance became none other than Bibble plushies. You sewed the very first version, and Azul grew to love the new Mostro Lounge’s mascot so much he now has an enormously huge Bibble plush toy in his dorm room. You always say it needs to be resewed but he already got a soft spot for it.

Azul is absolutely in love with all the outfits you come up with for the performances, but most importantly he can’t throw out of his mind the songs you performed. Ended up recreating instrumental music from Mermaidia just according to your vague descriptions of how it should sound, and it turned out perfect. You once accustomed his outfit to resemble Nori’s one and well— It’s totally not you who wants to see his merform with Nori’s accessories and makeup, surely not, nuh-uh.

Gifts you barbie mermaid doll, its outfit pieces made from pearls from Coral Sea. You don’t even know if you can accept such a precious gift, considering you didn’t expect Azul to think about how important it was for you. So you came up with the idea that he also should perform with you on stage, accompanying you by playing piano.

Singing songs from ‘Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper’ became Octavinelle tradition thanks to you. But also please don’t sabotage Azul with a recording of him crying his eyes out while listening to you singing ‘Written in your heart’ alright? Also would do anything to see you dressed up as Elina but you most certainly didn’t hear Floyd and Jade telling you this info. You most certainly didn’t see the Mermaidia art piece appearing in the Atlantica Memorial Museum either.

— ❀ KALIM AL-ASIM

The first ever time you’re taking a magic carpet ride with Kalim, you realize that maybe this is how Barbie felt riding a pegasus. When Kalim asks who is Barbie and what pegasus even is, you explain in vivid detail the whole plot of ‘Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus’ and start singing ‘Cause hope has wings to carry you’. Kalim doesn’t even know the song but somehow ends up guessing the lyrics and the vibe so you two are taking crazy carpet flips and giving Jamil a hard time watching you from the ground. (Spoiler: the next day Jamil is having a hard time listening to Kalim saying they should get a pegasus somewhere.)

Okay apparently you got Kalim planning to recreate the whole ‘Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses’ with his siblings because he’s totally invested. HELP he’s so down that he’s been asking you details about barbie outfits for a week, so now it looks like he’s more fan than you are.

Every time you visit Scarabia, Kalim greets you with performances you’ve never thought can be recreated in real life. One day he decorated his magic carpet with light purple jewelry encrusted in the fabrics, the next day he was dressed up as Derek from ‘Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses’ and asked you for a dance. It was extremely silly because you suddenly remembered the PC game you played and how ridiculous princesses movements were but you got so immersed into dance you decided to let your inner child arise.

Kalim gifts you 12 dancing princesses dolls collection made by him and his siblings and you straight up start crying out of joy and how thoughtful it is for you, which gets Kalim just as emotional as you, so now Jamil has to take care of two crying silly idiots. Kalim is the one who helps you advertise barbie throughout Twisted Wonderland, because everyone needs to grow fond of it. He also suggests you ask the headmaster if you could assign pink and lilac as Ramshackle dorm's official color scheme so everyone would know you’re a barbie ambassador here in Twisted Wonderland. Also thought it would be a good idea to make hymns for every dorm based on barbie songs but couldn’t decide which one would fit Scarabia, so he just ended up randomly starting singing whatever pops up in his mind.

— ❀ VIL SCHOENHEIT

Usually you just enjoy going shopping with Vil and you’re usually calm and collected, but when you suddenly screamed Vil thought something happened. You almost started crying out of nowhere and when Vil came closer to you and took a look at the glass case he saw a butterfly-shaped necklace. When you started spinning around and bursting in soft giggles, Vil could have sworn he saw pinkish sparkles blossoming around you. Turned out the necklace reminded you of the similar one that appeared in Barbie Fairytopia of which Vil had no idea.

Next day you presented an insanely well-made research on all barbie outfits from every movie, video game and doll. Rook tagged along for beauty and aesthetic appreciation and Epel just heard you mentioning having barbie jeep cruiser convertible car playset so now you’ve got Pomefiore in full force listening to you explaining what barbie culture means in your world and somehow they ended up investing into it quite unironically.

When Epel shows you a magazine issue the next month, you have your jaw somewhere on the floor because the Vil Schoenheit just released a photoshoot inspired by ‘Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale’ you once showed to him. He understands the impact of barbie culture on your generation and realizes how trendy it can get in Twisted Wonderland.

Not Vil passing the casting for a film adaptation of ‘Barbie and The Diamond Castle’ based on the movie you have saved on your phone— And not the Neige LeBlanch playing Alexa… In any case you can’t imagine what started as you getting excited over a necklace similar to Barbie’s one, ended up Vil and Neige starring in one of your favorite movies but here in Twisted Wonderland.

He gives you the necklace, but not that similar one you saw in a shop. He proudly gifts you the necklace just like in the movie you watched with him after introducing barbie culture, and you tear up, saying you won’t ever take it off and it’ll be on your neck forever. Now you’ve got Vil (and actually a whole Pomefiore considering they should make adjustments in their dorm’s aesthetic choices) genuinely liking barbie culture thanks to you.

— ❀ IDIA SHROUD

You were playing video games with Idia when something suddenly slapped you — the game resembles ‘Barbie Diaries’ so much!! When Idia asks you what the hell is barbie, you jump from the chair and drop your px5 controller. No way… there is no way Idia doesn’t know this masterpiece, you thought he got influenced by barbie culture while growing up.

You can’t say no to this challenge, so the next day the powerpoint party you decided to hold got extremely serious and unironically informative. You’ve got everything prepared: how barbie was created, when the movies were released, which dolls were to die for, and of course… games!!

Let’s be real, it’s Idia who’s investing, and he’s investing hard. He got all the songs from ‘Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper’ memorized in an hour after listening to your presentation. He doesn’t care if people think it’s a childish thing, NO WAY it’s childish when the ‘When you live your dream, you’ll find destiny is written in your heart’ line LITERALLY EXISTS.

He makes barbie PC games based on your descriptions in a span of one day because he’s already a true barbie stan and he doesn’t care if he’s sleep deprived. He’s got all the barbie movies you sent him to watch. Idia also is being sad because how the hell Twisted Wonderland couldn’t came up with something so genuinely genius. He also sighs and complains to you that he kinda fell behind and would be late for the trend if he was in your world because he started stanning barbie after it became mainstream, but you reassure him that it’s alright and he can be barbie ambassador in Twisted Wonderland with you.

When you help him arrange a barbie doll collection no one knows how Idia even recreated, he also gives to you a huge dollhouse with barbie playsets you’ve mentioned briefly. Right when you’re about to tear up, he gets panicked but also installs on your laptop all the PC barbie games he managed to create based on your words. Please don’t abandon him and play all the barbie games he created with him in his room. It's obviously better to (share the memories but he’s too shy to say it out loud okay—) play them on his computer anyway.

You can wake him up at 3 in the morning and randomly say ‘Can’t go back, so we gotta go on, we’ll stick together, staying strong’ and he’ll perfectly accompany you with his eyes closed, humming ‘There’s a diamond castle in my mind and someday soon’ because he memorized all the songs. Ortho mentions how Idia starts singing barbie songs here and there in the dorm. Idia also wants to provide you with cosplay materials, so if you don’t mind…

— ❀ MALLEUS DRACONIA

Once Malleus mentions he’s a fae during late night strolls around Ramshackle, you suddenly start singing softly ‘Fairytopia’s where I wanna be, Dandelion and Bibble next to me’ and Malleus gets so confused. Who… are Dandelion and Bibble? Also Fairytopia? Is it what your homeland calls? Are there faes in your world too? Tell him everything!

You show movies you downloaded on your phone (even if you never thought the very first thing you would show on your phone would be barbie movies, moreover it’s Malleus who’s bad with technologies) and he immediately starts asking you questions like ‘Why would Laverna want to destroy the rainbow and plunge Fairytopia into bitter winter?’, ‘Are there different types of fairies or only the ones that have wings behind their backs?”, and many other things.

He also wants to know if you’re not opposed to the idea of dancing with him like 12 dancing princesses did. You also sing to him when you feel like it, and once he heard of ‘Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper’ he felt as if he was enchanted. Turns ‘Free’ into opera performance with Lilia filming him for something he referred to as ‘family archives’, Silver being happy Malleus-sama is happy, and Sebek tearing up because his master is absolutely majestic, brilliant, wonderful, outstanding and—

He doesn’t really understand the concept of collecting dolls but sees Lilia’s room getting filled with them (Diasomnia vice dorm leader doesn’t really know he ordered them from Idia but that’s another story—) and smiles. Malleus also rehearses the songs with Silver in the meadow so he could impress you later.

You feel like crying when it's a warm sunset dissolving in pink and peach colors and Malleus sings ‘In my heart I’d be glad if you loved me for me’. It’s touching and reminds you of your home so much you can’t resist and tear up, Malleus gently stroking your head. Once you calm down, he grins and says there’s something he wants to present to you. He doesn’t know how to make or at least where to buy barbie dolls, people are also terrified of him so there’s no way he could play a role in a movie like Vil Schoenheit, but he’s a fae. He doesn't have fragile pinkish wings, but he’s a powerful magician who wants to thank you for introducing such an adorable culture to him.

So he magically creates a beautiful bright rainbow just for you, giving you an enchanted butterfly-shaped necklace, resembling one that Elina had in ‘Barbie Fairytopia’, so if you’ll have a hard time, just touch the necklace, and the small version of a magic rainbow will appear. ‘Hope will blossom by believing the heart that lies within’.

#twst #twisted wonderland #twst x reader #riddle x reader #leona x reader #azul x reader #kalim x reader #vil x reader #idia x reader #malleus x reader #riddle rosehearts #leona kingscholar #azul ashengrotto #kalim al asim #vil schoenheit #idia shroud #malleus draconia

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rekino2114 · 13 days

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Sophie walten with a reader that's a therapist because something tells me she needs it

Sophie walten with a therapist reader

A/n:she very much does need one as most analog horror protagonist do.....and probably me too after watching them....I'm still not over lacey games I WANT TO HUG THAT GIRL SO BAD let me know if you want me to write for her btw cause I'll gladly do it....I got a little off topic....hope you enjoy

It was actually Jenny who convinced Sophie to get a therapist. After the whole bunnyfarm thing and getting her memories back, she became a lot more depressed,and her best friend hated seeing her like that so she advised her to get help.

In her first session, she was very surprised to see that you were the same age as her while being a qualified therapist (she also thought you were hot). Despite her initial hesitancy, she actually opened up a lot to you, about her family and their deaths especially.

She really liked how you not only believed her but told her not to take her pills anymore as forgetting everything would not help her heal but probably make it worse.

She felt herself warming up to you more and more with each session and eventually realized she had a crush on you....which worried her a lot, not only she thought you didn't like her back but even If you for some reason did, you were still her therapist, being in a relationship with a patient would have probably resulted in you losing your license.

All of these contrasting feelings made her talk to Jenny again, who advised her to talk to you. After all, you were her therapist. Her blushing uncontrollably while laying on a therapist's couch was not the love confession she had in mind but she still went for it.

And to her surprise you actually reciprocated her love and agreed to be in a relationship with her, when she expressed concern over you losing your job for that you just told her you'd find a solution and even if you did lose your job she was more important. That really touched her.

During your relationship, you still act as Sophie's therapist just in a more intimate way, especially while cuddling, she likes to vent about everything while you hug her and she has her head on your chest.

Sophie genuinely has no idea what her life would have been if she hadn't met you, you helped her face her traumatic memories instead of keeping them repressed like she did before. She loves you so much and is genuinely so thankful to have you both as a therapist and as a lover

#the walten files x reader #the walten files #walten files #sophie walten x reader #sophie walten #x reader #gn reader

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salon-maiden-anabel · 8 months

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the more i think about your mom lucy hc, the more i really adore it. if you don't mind me asking questions about it, what's her general dynamic with kieran & carmine? is she a single mom? how does dahlia fit into the picture?

SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG TO REPLY TO MY BRAINS BEEN. TRYING . the thoughts are disconnected but by god there are thoughts everything below the readmore

But! Hi hello welcome to Oh lord this family needs therapy and counselling . ! Honestly I have been going into everything with the idea of her being a single mom w/ them! It;s very much a situation of like.... Parent that works away from home constantly, so the relationship is just unfortunately naturally more strained kinda thing .

With all this i go with like.... The idea that they were very much born in Hoenn and lived there with Lucy until Carmine was approximately 9 or so, and Kieran was 7 [I do like to imagine they're 16 and 14 respectively as of the dlcs]. Work being so remote and stuff plus worrying about their education and all just led to living with their grandparents in Kitakami being the best decision for their development as yknow, People. I like to imagine Lucy visits periodically throughout the year and such to check in :> just takes a bit of coordinating. Also shes absolutely the reason they're able to go to blueberry for highschool via both making sure they Can go there financially and putting a word in to a battle focused school of them being kids of a facility head :p even if realistically Lucy isnt the strongest head by any means lol . it's kinda like if an E4 member put a good word in situation. And we can see with Lacey and Drayton both going there... gestures. I wouldnt be surprised if more children of different league figures go to it or schools LIKE it. But thats besides the point Lucy absolutely like, struggles with her emotions and such. Even from the small bits of dialogue we have from her? Maybe its just my autistic ass reading too much into it LMAO but . gestures .

i feel like if this werent a kids game she'd just tell you to fuck off to your face here

sorry just more quick looking too much into dialogue but. cmon. CMON. ...She's . definitely influenced how carmine and kieran act at least somewhat .

Carmine might be the easiest to point a finger to as being like her mom but i genuinely think that it;s actually Kieran who ended up the most Like her, yknow it;s incredibly obvious to point a finger at Kieran during indigo disk and how he talks as being her fault a little bit :p anyways thats just me vaguely mumbling abt that. AS FOR. DYNAMICS. Kieran isnt as close to his mom as Carmine is just due to everything with living with their grandparents. Theres also absolutely like.... Very much a gap because he stopped seeing her as much when he was younger, while Carmine was only a year off of being like. Legally start being a pokemon trainer age. And its just Awkward, relation wise, just because of how little she actually sees them through the years, especially when the discussion would slowly shift to more "How are your studies?" "How are you doing in school?" "How is your pokemon training going?" once they start going to blueberry. Which i don't think was ment to come off as uncaring for them and only focusing on training as it did from Lucy's end, but I dont really think she knew what else to ask and all, because she stopped being able to really pick up on their interests as much as they got older. Plus thats just kinda How she talks... With the importance on strength and luck n all that. Then with all this I imagine she like. Probably only called once maybe twice between the dlc plots n all? And once again with just mainly the training questions it was just a sour spot. I wouldn't doubt Kieran would also struggle with not wanting to be in a shadow/the nepo baby accusations /j that I fully think if Drayton knows about he'd tease him and Carmine about. So like. All that with the instilled importance of ones strength :sob: Lucy you were not helping the Kieran situation. Hell I don't really think she would of even known about anything going down between Kitakami to Blueberry with Kieran just because neither of them wanted to tell her at all? Because again just that Awkward connection between them, just the permanent fog on all communication that feels like someone said something wrong at all times and it got too awkward to finish. IDK I think im waffling on I don't know how to formulate my thoughts the best LMFAO BUT I THINK... DYNAMICS WOULD CHANGE POST-MOCHI MAYHEM ESP. Bc i KNOW she'd find out after carmine and kieran nearly fucking DIE in the underdepths and everything hits her in the back of her head at once that she needs to repair what she can w/ them because she almost lost them. Probably means taking an extended leave from working at the Pike so she doesn't have to worry about scheduling to see them in person for only a short period of time. Especially if the times line up for them having any extended break from school . It's never going to be perfect, far from it, with their dynamics and all but. gestures. Briar needs to sleep with one eye open for a bit at least. in short

AS FOR. DAHLIA im in turbo hell because I can not see? the siblings ending up like they did if she was also around? Shes such a force of positivity as a person im just. blinks a bit. Im in hell bc i adore the ship as my big rarepair ill die on a hill for but nobody expected the kitakami siblings especially not me so . i think if they ever do get together it'd be somewhere nearer to scarvio era which just. yeah. see image below

#talk tag #asks #juniverse tag #sorry this is like all over the place i can Not keep my thoughts in one solid piece

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kelyon · 8 months

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Courtship 3: First Date--His Place

After dinner, Gold takes Lacey back to his house.

Read on AO3

Mr. Gold’s house was a salmon-pink mansion in the good part of Old Town. This was a popular neighborhood for flower deliveries, so Lacey had at least been in the door of most of these places. But she had never been inside Mr. Gold’s house before. She didn’t know anyone who had.

He unlocked the door and held it open for her. Lacey tried not to gape at the size of the place, the obvious quality and care. The front hallway was paneled in wood--not fake wood paneling, but wood--polished and clean. No chipped paint or decades’ worth of smudged fingerprints anywhere.

Most of the house was dark. Lacey couldn’t see up the stairs or down the hallway. The only light was a mini-chandelier, with ropes of crystals that sparkled like the sequins on her dress. The darkness outside was so complete she could see her reflection in the panes of glass on each of the double doors.

“This is lovely,” she smiled at Mr. Gold.

“Thank you.”

He locked the front door behind them, then shrugged off his coat and hung it onto one of a row of empty hooks on the wall. When that was done, he went over to a door on the other side of the entryway. It was a closed door, made of shiny wood so dark it was almost black. He stood in front of it, with his cane in front of him, like he was guarding whatever was in the room behind him.

“Miss French,” he began, “you don’t have to be here.”

Lacey raised her eyebrows. “Well that’s a great start to a hookup.”

“I’m quite serious,” Mr. Gold went on. “I want you to understand that I am not compelling you to do anything. We’ve already discussed that what goes on between us will have no bearing on your father’s situation with the rent. If you leave now, or if you want to stop at any point in future, it will not affect my opinion of you. If you’re ever in need of my assistance, you’ll be able to come to me and I will treat you like anyone else.”

Lacey pressed her lips together. She didn’t want him to treat her like anyone else.

“At any point,” he was still talking, “you can ask to go home and I will drive you back. It is of utmost importance that you understand this: You are acting of your own volition, without coercion or threat.”

She looked at him, hands on her hips. She ran her tongue over the back of her teeth while she thought.

“You sound like you’re gonna try things I shouldn’t let you get away with.”

He came towards her. “I have tastes,” he said simply. “I have desires. I have things I want from a lover that many people--quite reasonably--balk at.” He was close enough now to whisper in her ear. “And I have an inkling about you, Miss French. I think it’s possible that you have desires of your own, desires you wouldn’t dare ask another person to indulge in.”

Her face went hot. She didn’t say anything.

Now he spoke more evenly, but still low and seductive. “At the restaurant, you asked me why I chose you. Let me tell you now: I chose you because it’s possible our desires might align. You might want to receive what I so dearly wish to give.”

He stepped away. He hadn’t touched her but he had been so close that having him gone threw her off balance, at least mentally. He stood in front of the door again.

“I’d like to be right about you, Miss French, but I need you to tell me if I’m wrong. Before you get hurt.”

Lacey blinked. She took a breath, got her bearings. “Are you planning on hurting me?”

“I’m planning to give you every pleasure you can think of and a few more I’m sure you can’t. If you follow the rules.”

Oh. So this was another game. Straightening up, Lacey looked him in the eye. “What are the rules this time?”

There was that glint in his dark brown eyes. That gleam she had come to realize meant he was happy with her, or proud of her. She had done something right.

“This is my study.” Mr Gold tapped his knuckle against the wooden door behind him. “For tonight, this room is our field of play. When you come into this room, you will obey me. Without hesitation, and without question. Do you understand?”

The hairs on the back of Lacey’s neck stood up. The house was warm, but a chill went through her.

“What will you tell me to do?”

“Nothing you won’t like,” he promised. “Any time you don’t want to obey, you just have to walk out this door. The game will be over.”

Lacey crossed her arms over her chest and tried to ignore how good the scratchy fabric felt against her bare breasts.

“So are you gonna make me call you ‘Master’ or something?”

“No,” he chuckled at the suggestion. “No, I’m Mr. Gold. That’s quite enough for one lifetime.”

So at least she wouldn’t have to fawn over him like he was God. She just had to do what he said. Everything he said.

“Is this another game I can win?”

He shrugged. “That’s up to you, isn’t it?”

“I meant, would there be another prize?” Technically, the very fact of her being here was her reward for winning the game at the restaurant.

“I’ll find ways to make it worth your while, Miss French. To my way of thinking, the greatest prize for winning will be the chance to play again.”

He wanted her. Somehow, the thought hadn’t occurred to her until now. It had been so obvious. Of course Mr. Gold wanted to screw Lacey French. She was young and hot and he was old and lonely. But there were a lot of girls in Storybrooke who were young and hot and Mr. Gold chose her. Mr. Gold wanted her. He saw something in her that he didn’t see in other girls. He wanted things--unmentionable but specific things--and he thought he could only get them from Miss French.

He wanted this to work. He wanted her to want him. He wanted her to want to play his games. The fact that she did only made the revelation that much sweeter.

“Okay,” Lacey moved toward the study. “Let’s play.”

He held up his hand to stop her. “You should take a moment to collect your thoughts. Make sure this is really what you want, Miss French. Then, before you come into the study, take off your stockings and your underthings. Leave them out here. Put your shoes back on, and come join me. Or tell me that you want to leave.”

“I don’t want to leave.”

She spoke softly, but it was the boldest declaration she had ever made in her life.

Mr. Gold gave her a small smile--an actual smile, the first she’d seen from him. Then he made a nod that was almost a bow. He went into the study and left the door open behind him.

****

Alone in the entryway, Lacey let out a long breath. Mr. Gold had told her to collect her thoughts but all she could think about was how horny she was, how alive she felt. All she could think about was what Mr. Gold had planned for her. Exactly how unconventional were his tastes? Would she walk into the study and discover him putting on clown makeup and wielding a meat cleaver? What did he want? What did he want from her?

She wasn’t going to find out in the hallway.

Lacey backed away from the glass-fronted doors into the dark interior of the house. Then she pulled up her skirt and rolled down her panties and her stockings all in one go. Good thing she had shaved her legs after all. She stepped back into her sensible black pumps and crossed the threshold into Mr. Gold’s study.

He was lighting a fire in the antique fireplace when she walked in. He was fully dressed and not in clown makeup, which was a good sign. When he saw her, he tossed the long match into the catching flames.

“That was quick,” he remarked.

“I know what I want.”

He came toward her, until they were standing close enough to kiss. With the hand that wasn’t holding his cane, Mr. Gold cupped her cheek. It was the first time they had touched anything more than their hands.

“And what is that?”

The word you lay on the tip of her tongue. I want to know you. I want to know what you want and I want to give it to you.

Of course she couldn’t say that out loud. Sentiment was a little treacly for Mr. Gold’s taste. He liked bitter, not sweet.

“I want adventure,” Lacey said instead. It was mostly true. “I want something I can’t get from any other man in this town--something I can’t imagine most of them would even be able to understand.” She pushed herself toward him, pressing her body against his. She put her hand on his chest. “I want more, Mr. Gold. I want much more than this… life.”

He took a step back, then another. With his body gone, her hand hung in the air. He gave her one of his long, appraising looks.

“The first rule,” he said softly, “is that you don’t touch me. I will touch you, and I may give you explicit instructions on where I want your hands or your body, but I will not have you pawing at me like a pickpocket.”

Lacey’s cheeks burned. From embarrassment this time, not anything fun. “Oh.” She lowered her hand. “God, I’m sorry. I didn’t meant to--”

“That’s why I’m telling you. I don’t want you making that mistake again.”

She swallowed down her guilt and nodded her understanding. She kept her eyes downcast. She really was sorry to have made him uncomfortable.

“I spoke to you, Miss French.” He came close again.

She looked up at him. “Yes, you did. And…?”

“And when I speak to someone, I expect the courtesy of an answer.”

“Oh,” Lacey said again.

He shook his head. “That won’t do at all, dearie. Say, ‘I’m sorry, Mr. Gold.’”

A flash of anger went up her spine. Who the hell was he to nitpick her behavior? Sure, they were playing his game, but that didn’t give him the right to patronize her!

Boldly, she matched his stare. “I’m sorry, Mr. Gold.” The sentence was hot in her mouth as she spat it out. But the words were right. She was following the rules. “I apologize Mr. Gold. Forgive me, Mr. Gold.”

Now he grinned. “Three times is a nice touch, but remember to say please when you want something from me.”

Lacey managed to conceal her eye roll with a long blink. “Yes, Mr. Gold.”

He put his hand on her waist and pressed his body against hers. She couldn’t tell if it was a reward or a tease, the closeness she was allowed to have, but only on his terms. The warmth of him steadied her. It dampened down the sparks of her aggravation.

She felt his breath on her ear as he whispered, “Good girl.”

He slid away from her and once again Lacey was left feeling dizzy and off-balance, like she had just gotten off a Tilt-a-Whirl.

“Do you know how to pour whisky, Miss French?”

Lacey blinked a few times to clear her head. She looked around. He was in the far corner of the study now. A section of the bookshelf folded out to reveal a little compartment with bottles inside.

“Uh, is it different from pouring any other liquid?”

Mr. Gold nodded his head toward the bar. “Come here,” he ordered casually.

Lacey hurried to obey. She darted around a large couch with her arms out slightly in front of her, like she was being pulled by something on her wrists.

That was weird. Why had she done that? Lacey shook her head to clear it. When she got to Mr. Gold, she put her arms down by her sides.

“Pay attention,” Mr. Gold ordered. “I want you to be good at this.”

“Yes, Mr. Gold.”

He positioned her in front of the bar, standing behind her. Reaching over her, he placed a finger on the lid of one of the bottles.

“Johnnie Walker Blue Label,” he explained. “Blended Scotch whisky, two hundred dollars a bottle. It’s good enough for everyday use.”

Two hundred dollars for a bottle of booze? A bottle of good enough booze?

Before she could marvel any further at how the other half lived, Mr. Gold took Lacey’s hand and placed it on the sky-blue bottle. With him guiding her, she took the bottle by the neck and pulled it out of the row.

“You may unscrew the lid.” He murmured it into her hair like it was a sweet nothing.

Lacey watched to make sure her hands weren’t shaking as she did what he said. Mr. Gold helped her pick up a short glass and set it on the bar. Her hand covered the glass and his hand covered hers.

“Pour until it’s the height of two fingers.” He had his other hand over hers on the bottle. “Or three, in your case.”

She stopped before he could tell her to, when the brown liquid reached the top of her middle finger. She pushed away from him, just a little. Just enough that she could pick up the glass and spin around to face him.

“Like this, Mr. Gold?”

The lines in his mouth deepened. “Stay here,” he ordered. “Count to ten--slowly, out loud--then come and serve me.”

“Yes, Mr. Gold.”

She watched him walk over to a stuffed leather armchair by the fireplace. Before he sat down, he took a pillow from the couch and set it on the floor next to his chair. As she counted, Lacey looked at him, at the power he radiated. The chair he sat in wasn’t a throne. Mr. Gold wasn’t a king. He was something bigger than that. Something dark and eternal. Just what, she wasn’t sure. It was a mystery to be uncovered.

When she was done counting to ten, Lacey went over to Mr. Gold with the glass in her hand. Some instinct made her bend at the waist when she offered him the drink. It paid off when Mr. Gold’s eyes swept down the line of her spine and lingered on her ass. Was he thinking about his order to take off her underwear?

“Well done,” he said as he took the glass.

Lacey made a pointed look at the pillow by Mr. Gold’s feet. “What next?”

“Next,” Mr. Gold sat back in his chair. He swirled his whiskey in the glass and took a drink. “Next you will go to the top drawer of my desk, on the right-hand side. Open it, and bring the contents to me.”

“Yes, Mr. Gold.” Obediently, Lacey crossed the room.

The desk was a thing of beauty, rich dark wood and a leather writing top. It was large enough and sturdy enough that it could function as a bomb shelter if Storybrooke was ever under aerial attack. Lacey French had become valedictorian while doing homework at her kitchen table. If she’d had a desk like this, she would be a Rhodes scholar by now.

In the top drawer on the right-hand side, Lacey found a strip of foil-wrapped condoms, a box of rubber gloves like at a doctor’s office, and white tube with the label facing up to read: ANAL LUBRICANT.

She blinked.

For a long minute, she just stared at the objects in front of her. The things Mr. Gold wanted to have close at hand. Then Lacey took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled. In one motion, she scooped the supplies into her arms and walked back to Mr. Gold.

The condoms and the gloves went on the table beside him, next to his drink. The lube he placed in an inside pocket on his suit jacket, close to his heart.

He gestured to the pillow on the ground. “Would you like to kneel at my feet, Miss French?”

At that moment, Lacey didn’t know what she’d like. She had some ideas, or thought she did. Her formative years had been shaped by age-inappropriate romance novels. But it was one thing to fantasize about things--to imagine them and even want them. It was something else entirely to drag a secret desire out into the cold light of reality.

Mr. Gold was leaning forward, staring at her. He was waiting for her to answer, to obey, to keep playing their game. The game that had suddenly become too real for her.

“Can I ask you a question?”

He tilted his head. “You may.”

Lacey breathed. There was no other way to say it than to say it.

“Anal?”

Mr. Gold smirked. He sat back, comfortable again with how things were going. “You’ve never done it before?”

“No,” Lacey almost laughed. “It’s supposed to be gross, right? Or complicated, or dangerous?”

“What good thing in life doesn’t have an element of complexity or danger?”

“But don’t I need to, like, do an enema or something first?”

“That’s what these are for,” he gestured to the condoms and gloves. “It’s my understanding that being overzealous with cleaning actually increases the risk.”

“Really?” Lacey had never done research on the subject, and the few romance novels that featured anal were annoyingly vague on the details. Apparently Mr. Gold did this enough to develop a preference for it, so he was now the leading authority.

“If you want to be clinical, Miss French, an enema will dry out the anal passage and leave you vulnerable to microtears, which can lead to infection.”

“I’m sorry, I stopped listening after I heard the word tear.”

“Micro,” Mr. Gold emphasized. “As in microscopic.” He patted his jacket where he’d just put the bottle of lube. “That’s what this is for, to make everything… smoother.”

Lacey dug her nails into her palms. The sharp, stinging pain eased her nerves.

“Why did you put it in your jacket?”

“To make it warm for you.” He took a drink, then set down his glass. “Anything else?”

“You’ve done this before.” It wasn’t a question. “A lot?”

“Yes.”

“With who?”

“A gentleman never tells,” he smirked. “Suffice it to say it was long ago and far away. You’re in no danger of running into any jealous exes.”

Lacey let out a breath of a chuckle. Learning more about what was going to happen had helped. Talking to Mr. Gold, listening to his unshakable self-assurance, had helped.

She smoothed her skirt.

“Do you still want me to kneel, Mr. Gold?”

He picked up his drink. “Very much.”

Nodding, she went to the place beside him and got down on her knees. She sat up straight in a perfect L, the way people did in Catholic church.

“You can relax,” Mr. Gold said softly. “You’re going to be down there for a while, Miss French.”

His arm draped over the chair to hold her by the back of the neck. Gently, but with firm pressure, he pushed her down. She was still kneeling, but sitting on her legs. Now Lacey felt like she was in a karate class.

“There,” he said. “Isn’t that better?”

There was only one answer Miss French could give: “Yes, Mr. Gold.”

****

For at least fifteen minutes, Mr. Gold sat, and sipped his whiskey, and touched her. He tried to play with her hair, but quickly realized it was an unmanageable rat’s nest full of bobby pins. After that, he kept to her neck, her ears, her cheeks. He played with her idly, as if she was a pet, or some kind of ornament with an interesting texture. Just a thing for him to fidget with while he was thinking.

His fingers were soft. Mostly they grazed over her, practically teasing. Sometimes they pressed in. Sometimes he rubbed her with several fingers at once. He made his way down her back like that, massaging the spaces her dress left bare. Whenever she reacted with a sigh or a muffled moan, he touched her more.

It was a quiet time, with nothing but murmurs between them. They watched the fire, listened to the crackles and pops of the burning logs. Lacey felt her pulse slow. Her thoughts wound down into almost nothing. Mr. Gold’s touch, his presence, could thrill her, yes, but right now it calmed her. It helped her be ready for what she knew was coming.

“Have your legs gone numb?” he asked her after a while.

When was the last time Lacey had felt her toes? “I think they are, yes.”

“Good.”

Pushing himself up with his cane, Mr. Gold got out of his chair. Then he bent down over Lacey, wrapped one arm around her chest, and with surprising strength, lifted her to her feet. She couldn’t stand under her own power, but he walked her to the couch and let her fall over the arm. Lacey braced against the cushion, holding herself up on her elbows.

“Stay there,” he rasped.

It sounded like he was out of breath. Had hefting her around worn him out? Or did it excite him to see her like this? If there was ever a position for a girl to get fucked in the ass, Lacey was in it.

She breathed. It was going to happen. She looked down at her hands. They looked so pale and small against the wide expanse of tufted burgundy leather. Before the date started, she had managed to wash away all the potting soil from work, but she should have painted her nails as well. Maybe tomorrow she’d stop by the drug store and splurge on burgundy nail polish.

While she was thinking inane nonsense, Mr. Gold was running his hands up and down her thighs.

“So soft,” he murmured. “So lovely.”

“That’s the miracle of exfoliating,” Lacey quipped.

As soon as she spoke, his hands stopped. “No, it’s the miracle of youth, Miss French. Enjoy it while it lasts. Can you stand now?”

Experimentally, she pushed herself up off the couch and put her weight on her feet. “Looks like it,” she said.

“Good.”

As she stood, he pressed against her again, his front to her back. His breath was hot and delicious against her neck. Carefully, slowly, he put one hand on the front of her thigh, just below the very short hemline of her dress.

“You know what I want,” he whispered. “The fact that you’re still here means you’re willing to give it to me. Is that correct, Miss French?”

“Yes,” Lacey breathed. “Yes, Mr. Gold.”

Still with the same deliberate slowness, he dragged his hand over her thigh and under her skirt. He rested a minute on her hip bone, right over what would be her pantyline, if she was wearing panties.

For a moment, they breathed together. Lacey had the thought that this moment for him was what entering the study had been for her: Crossing a threshold.

He slid his hand down, over her pubic hair, and into her pussy.

She hadn’t realized how wet she was until she felt his fingers dip into liquid heat.

“Fuck,” Mr. Gold hissed.

Lacey’s teeth chattered, but she grinned. “You sound surprised.”

“Pleasantly,” he assured her. His fingers began to move. “Delighted, actually.” He rubbed his face against her neck. His stubble prickled her skin.

She moaned.

“Are you always so easily aroused, Miss French? Do other men slide into you so effortlessly?”

He had found her clit shockingly fast, but he didn’t press against it too hard or for too long. He seemed to know without being told how she liked to be touched, how she touched herself. He pressed two fingers into her core for just a moment, dipping down and pulling up more wetness to slather over her lips and folds. His hand was quick and constant and everywhere.

“I asked you a question, Miss French.”

“No,” she answered breathlessly. “There’s only been one and he didn’t care much about me. I had to--oh!--take care of myself most of the time.”

“Well, there will be no more of that,” he muttered, still working furiously. “A woman’s pleasure is a prize, Miss French. It should be worked for, and savored.”

It was hard to think of an answer right now. It was hard to think of anything besides the swell of feeling he was pulling up out of her. No, Hunter had never touched her like this. She had barely ever touched herself like this, or found herself as wet as Mr. Gold made her.

She felt something building, felt herself rising and arcing, ready to reach the peak. She was going to--she was--

Abruptly, Mr. Gold’s fingers stopped. He kept his hand on her mound, holding it, but not doing anything.

“What?” Lacey turned around as best she could to look at him. “Why did you stop? I was almost there!”

A slow smile spread across his face. “I know,” he said. “You’re not subtle with your orgasms, Miss French.”

“I--should I be? Is that a thing you want?”

“Not particularly.” He squeezed her cunt and Lacey shuddered. “No, it’s to my advantage that you’re so… demonstrative.”

Groaning, Lacey fell forward over the arm of the couch. “You’re just fucking with me, aren’t you?”

“No, Miss French, I’m fucking you. I have every intention of letting you come.” With his other hand, he pulled her back up, pressed her against his body. He growled into her ear. “You’re going to ruin my jacket sleeve with your sopping wet cunt.” He let her go. “But only when I allow it. Do you understand?”

Breath shaking, Lacey tried to pull herself together. It was harder than it had been before. Blood pounded in her ears, the pulse of pleasure denied, the throbbing need she knew Mr. Gold could feel against his hand. She managed one breath, and then another.

“This is called edging, isn’t it?”

“It’s called obedience, Miss French. It’s called doing only what I want you to and only when I tell you to do it. It’s called being a good girl.”

Lacey clenched, she shuddered. She was going to come whether he wanted her to or not. She didn’t have a choice. Her body was just doing this.

“Fight it,” he snarled. “It’s a skill like any other. You can just stop.”

It was like falling. Like thinking there was one more stair and then you stepped up onto nothing and landed hard. Like waiting for a sneeze and not having one. Like trying to force yourself not to have hiccups. It was a weird holding sensation, as Lacey staved off her natural reaction.

Somehow, she managed it. The feeling passed through her. She was able to calm down, control herself. Just like he wanted.

“Perfect,” Mr. Gold whispered. “I knew you could do it.’

Her teeth chattered. Lacey felt strangely wrung-out. Overwhelmed. Her mind and her body had somehow disconnected, and there was only the slightest tether between them.

“Thank you,” she breathed. “Thank you, Mr. Gold.”

****

Two more times he brought her to the edge and made her pull herself back. Each time it was harder and when he finally allowed her to come she was barely aware it was happening. Her body took over entirely, thrashing and screaming, grinding against him. Her mouth begged for more--Lacey heard herself say the words--but it was removed from her mental reality. It might as well be happening to a character in a book.

Mr. Gold permitted her as many orgasms as she could take, then gave her one more when she thought she was done. By the end of it, she was slumped over the arm of the couch. Utterly boneless, utterly spent. Her mind was quiet. Her body was exhausted. In that moment, nothing mattered. In that moment, she floated on a cloud of perfect safety and peace.

When he decided she was done, Mr. Gold gave her a satisfied pat on her hip. At some point, her skirt had gotten rucked up to her waist. Her naked ass was up in the air, the perfect position for him to do whatever he wanted.

Through bleary eyes, Lacey watched Mr. Gold walk back over to his chair, to the little end table where he had set the condoms and rubber gloves. He put on only one of the gloves, and flexed his fingers with a satisfied smirk. Then he tore one of the condoms off the strip and walked back over to Lacey. He slipped the foil square between two of her limp fingers.

Putting his weight on his cane, Mr. Gold crouched down so he was on her level. Lightly, he brushed her hair away from her face. “You’re going to hold onto that for me until I need it. Do you understand?”

Blinking slowly, Lacey nodded.

He tilted her chin up, so she looked him in the eye. “That’s not what you say, is it Miss French? Is that how you communicate with me?”

He was gentle, almost teasing, but she knew he was serious about what he wanted.

“No, Mr. Gold,” Lacey murmured. Complete satisfaction had brought her to a place of complete compliance. “I’m sorry, Mr. Gold.”

“That’s the way.” He stroked her hair as a reward, with the hand wearing the glove. She could smell her pussy through the rubber. “Do you understand what I want from you?”

She squeezed the condom between her knuckles. “Yes, Mr. Gold.”

He gave her a fond grin. “Good girl.”

****

He stood behind her and opened her legs. He played with her pussy for a moment. The sudden pleasure jolted her out of her stupor. He spread her wetness back towards her ass.

“Barely even need lubricant,” he muttered. “With a cunt so wet, so sloppy.”

He punctuated the word by jabbing his fingers hard into her cunt. Lacey let out a keening moan--it wasn’t painful, just intense--and he soothed her with gentle rubs.

“But that’s the way I want you, Miss French. You’re a mess of desire, absolutely filthy. You don’t mind getting dirty, do you dearie? No. No, I think you like it.”

His thumb was circling her asshole now, while his other fingers played with her cunt. He paused, briefly, and Lacey heard the snap of the lid opening on the tube of anal lube. A spurting sound, then a new substance on her body.

The lube wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t as hot as her own juices. Lacey shivered at the feeling--at all the feelings--all the sensations and reactions Mr. Gold had drawn out of her.

“I do,” she whimpered as he rubbed the lube around her asshole, as his thumb made short, exploratory ventures within. “I do like it, Mr. Gold. God, I fucking love this.”

Behind her, he chuckled. His free hand rested over her ass, spreading her apart ever so slightly.

“You’re taking it well,” he murmured.

Slowly, he eased the whole of his thumb inside her. Lacey closed her eyes and focused on the feeling, the invasion, the unusual fullness. Mr. Gold didn’t move his hand. He seemed to be listening, seemed to be as attuned to her reaction as she was.

“Well?” he breathed.

Lacey tried to think, but he had already fucked all the words out of her. “It’s… weird…”

“Unpleasant?”

“No. I mean--no, Mr. Gold.”

He squeezed the soft flesh of her ass and she knew that was her reward for speaking to him correctly. Then he began to move his thumb. At first he only rotated his wrist, so his whole hand moved in a slow circle. Then he began to spread outward, making the circle wider. Making her asshole wider. He slid out partially, then eased his way back in. All the while, Lacey lay draped over the couch, vaguely aware of the distant pleasure, but mostly overwhelmed. Mr. Gold hadn’t even gotten his cock out and she had already been well and truly fucked.

He added more lube, then started with his fingers. One at a time, he used the same patient experimentation as with his thumb. He explored her, filled her, fucked her.

“I’m going to start with two now,” he told her. “I’m going to open you up, and then I’m going to need that condom.”

Through her blissed-out haze, Lacey nodded. Then she corrected herself. “Yes, Mr. Gold.”

Again, he squeezed her. “Good girl.”

Two fingers was odd, especially once he started moving them. Odd was the only way she could think of it. It didn’t hurt, and it didn’t really drive her wild, at least not as much as his fingers in her cunt had. Lacey got the impression that this act wasn’t for her. Mr. Gold was just preparing her so she’d be alright with him doing what he wanted.

That was fine. God knew he had already given her plenty. Mr. Gold might as well take something for himself. And in Lacey’s current state, she wouldn’t have been able to do much for him anyway. Better for him to do the work, better for her to just take it.

He plucked the condom from her fingers. She heard the sound of a zipper, of foil being ripped open. She heard a slight hitch in his breath. Then his hands were on her again. He spread her open and glided into her ass.

Mr. Gold gasped. His clean hand gripped onto Lacey’s hip so hard it was sure to leave bruises.

“Fuck.” He choked back the word through gritted teeth.

With one arm, he roughly pulled her up and turned her neck to look at him. His cock was still inside her, but there was no pain or even discomfort. He felt amazing.

“You’re sure you’ve never done this before?”

Lacey tried to hold herself up on the couch. “Not that I remember.”

“Fuck,” he whispered. “Fuck, you’re just a natural slut then, aren’t you? You just walk around in your day to day life with an arse that’s begging for my cock?”

He thrust his hips into her for emphasis. Lacey moved with him, realizing for the first time how tightly their bodies were joined. Become one was a romance novel phrase for fucking, but she felt the truth of it now. In that moment, Mr. Gold was a part of her, and she was a part of him. They were one thing, one animal, united in a singular drive.

It felt so right. It felt so good to be with him. So natural, so perfect. She was his and he was hers. They should never be separated again.

He must have felt the same thing. With his clean hand, Mr. Gold turned Lacey’s head to look at him. He stared at her for a moment. His eyes washed over her face, searching for some answer. He must have found it, because he pulled her even closer, and kissed her.

She kissed him back, wet and sloppy like her cunt. It was an awkward angle with him inside her, but neither of them stopped. His hand moved over her body, over her dress. He squeezed her breast through the fabric and she trembled.

Their mouths broke apart, but they were still one being below the waist. For a moment, Mr. Gold stared at her again. His mouth was loose and slack from the kiss. He looked softer than she had ever seen him before, softer than she could ever imagine him being. He looked open and tender. He looked like he could love her.

He was beautiful.

One second later, his features sharpened again. His mouth hardened into a smirk. He bent her down over the couch. His cock pulled out about halfway and then rammed into her.

“Rest assured, dearie: You’re going to remember this.”

****

He took her hard, banging her into the couch with such force that the furniture shuddered forward with his thrusts. Lacey cradled her head in her crossed arms and let herself go loose. He made noises, animal grunts and muttered swear words. Her moaning was so constant it was almost a drone, a single music note that rang out over and over.

How could something so brutal feel so good? Mr. Gold fucked her like a beast, unyielding, unending, and she knew she had been made for him. To be thing he fucked, that was the only purpose she had. Through her haze of bliss, she understood it with perfect clarity. She accepted the fact. She loved it. This was where she belonged. This was all she wanted to do, to be, for the rest of her life. Lacey French was gone, even Miss French had faded away. She was something else entirely now. She was sex itself. She would take anything he doled out to her. She would take it gladly and beg for more. She really was a perfect slut.

His perfect slut.

His thrusts became faster and stronger. A snarling stream of exclamations poured out from his mouth and over her body. Abruptly, he grabbed her. His arm pulled her up to stand while his cock kept pushing her down into the couch.

“Ohh,” she sighed. It was all she could do.

His mouth was on her. On her cheek, on her neck. He kissed her with possessive bites, marking her. Claiming her body as his.

He worked on one spot, just at the nape of her neck. He sucked and gnawed at her flesh until the pain he was giving her outpaced the pleasure. Her moans became high-pitched and pleading, but she didn’t want him to stop. She never wanted him to stop.

Her pain was enough to send him over the edge. His thrusts became erratic, jerking and sliding, deeper and deeper, until he gave one final push.

When it was over, he let out a heavy sigh against her shoulder. For the first time, she noticed he was trembling, just like she was. Panting, he leaned against her. He rested his head on her neck, pressing his lips to the place he had marked. He wrapped both arms around her waist.

He held her.

Lacey kept shaking, shook more than she had while he was fucking her. Those movements had been all his, there had been no need for her to add to them. Now that he was still, Lacey’s body shuddered. Her hips thrust forward against the couch, her ass ground against him, even while his cock was softening inside her.

Mr. Gold chuckled in her ear. “Again?” he murmured. “Don’t you have an off switch?”

“I wish I did,” Lacey said as she clenched and convulsed.

Finally, the wave crested through her again. She came with a grunt, her hands clawing at the leather cushion. Then she slumped forward, exhausted. Her body still twitched and throbbed, but those were aftershocks. She was done.

Mr. Gold rubbed one hand over her back and down to her ass. He patted her like she was a friendly dog, like she had done hard work and done it well. Like she was a good girl.

“I’m going to pull out now, Miss French.”

She made a vaguely affirmative noise and he didn’t chide her for not being correct. The heat of his body left her and she felt the familiar sensation of something vacating her asshole.

“Oh shit!” She lifted her upper half off the couch. “Did I--”

“No,” Mr. Gold answered before she could finish the question. “It just feels like it because you’ve never had anything else come out of there. At least, I assume. You took my cock with such ease, one might accuse you of feigning your innocence.”

Lacey groaned and crawled forward on the couch so her legs were on the cushion with the rest of her. She lay on her stomach, her bare ass slowly getting cold.

“I never said I was innocent, Mr. Gold.” She rubbed her face. “Fuck, I’m sure not innocent after tonight.”

He was over by a trash can. The hand wearing a glove held the full condom. He hooked the thumb of his other hand under the edge of the rubber so when he pulled the glove off, it went inside out. The condom went with it, so now everything dirty was in a neat little latex package for him to throw away.

He tucked in his shirt and zipped up his pants, but he had never even taken off his jacket. Five minutes after coming in a girl’s ass, Mr. Gold looked like he had spent the evening quietly reviewing the details of contract law. He knew it too. There was a swagger in his step as he came back to her. He was every inch the cocky bastard.

“Innocence is overrated, though there can be some pleasure in destroying it. Can you stand, Miss French?”

She could, but it was a multi-step process. She hauled her legs down to the ground--God, she was still wearing her shoes--and forced herself to sit up on the couch. Groaning, she got to her feet. Her legs were a little wobbly, but she was able to stand up straight.

“Very good.”

Mr. Gold put his hand on her waist, just above her ass. He walked her out of the study to a bathroom in the hall.

“Clean yourself up,” he instructed gently. “Feel free to use the washcloths. Come out here when you’re done.”

She obeyed him groggily, moving like she was underwater. The lube felt so slick and unnatural as she tried to wipe it away with toilet paper. Anal sex wasn’t that gross, but the aftermath sure was. She washed her hands and soaked one of the washcloths in hot water to put on her face. It was soft and new and good-smelling. Lacey breathed in the steam, the scent of lavender. Lavender was one of the few flowers she could actually stand the smell of.

She sighed.

She looked in the mirror. Her face was flushed from the heat, her cheeks and forehead splotchy. If she pulled the collar of her dress over to one side, she could see the hickey Mr. Gold had left on her. The shape of his lips seared darkness onto her skin. She hoped it would last a while. It was her only memento of a very momentous night.

Her hair looked about the same as when she’d left home. There was some advantage to being so messy. Wild hair easily hid the wild things Lacey got up to.

When she got out of the bathroom, Mr. Gold was waiting for her. He offered her a glass bottle of sparkling water. She took it, and drank.

“Thanks--uh, I mean, thank you, Mr. Gold.”

They had left the study, but were they still playing? Would he want her to keep up the formality? He didn’t correct her. His pleased expression only deepened.

He put his hand on her bare back and gestured with his cane to a wad of cloth on the floor.

“I believe those are yours, Miss French.”

“Oh!” She crouched down to pick up her pantyhose and underwear. “Sorry about that, Mr. Gold.”

He shook his head. “Not at all, Miss French.”

It would be too intimate to put on her underwear in front of him, and she didn’t want to excuse herself back into the bathroom. Lacey’s only option was to roll her stockings around her panties and hold the bundle in the hand farthest away from Mr. Gold.

“I’ve got the car running out front,” he said. “I’d say it’s high time you got to your bed.”

“What time is it?”

“Just before midnight. I’ll see you home before your glass slippers vanish into fairy dust.”

Lacey snorted at the joke, then sobered when she looked down at her shoes. She’d gotten these sensible black pumps to wear at her mother’s funeral. Maybe it would be better if they did disappear. Then she wouldn’t have to think about tragedy every time she looked at them.

Or maybe it would be okay. After all, now she could remember that these were the shoes she was wearing the first time Mr. Gold fucked her.

****

He drove her home. The Cadillac was as smooth and as silent as a shark cutting through water. It was a far cry from the only vehicle she ever drove. The store’s delivery van coughed and rumbled like a workhorse that needed to be put out to pasture. Her Uncle Manny was over at least once a month to repair it. He used all his skill as a mechanic to keep that clunker running for just a little while longer. Just until things got better.

Lacey stretched out in the roomy warmth of the passenger seat. She luxuriated in this comfort for as long as it would last. She’d have to go back to reality all too soon.

“I can’t believe after all this I’m gonna have to take a cold shower.”

Mr. Gold looked at her. She couldn’t see his expression in the dark, but there was a tinge of amusement in his voice. “Is your libido that insatiable, Miss French?”

“Huh? Oh.” Lacey chuckled. “No, I mean literally. Our hot water tank is pretty much useless.”

He pulled over and parked in front of Game of Thorns. There was no amusement in his voice when he spoke again. “No one informed me of any problems with your hot water.”

Lacey blinked. “Why would we?”

“Because I’m your landlord, Miss French. Technically, that’s my hot water tank.” He shook his head. “I never should have taken your father’s word that everything was fine.”

“Um. I mean, it’s not a big deal. My dad’s gonna get it fixed eventually.”

Like everything else in their lives would eventually improve.

Mr. Gold didn’t say anything. He unlocked the door and Lacey took that as her cue to get out.

“I--uh--I had fun tonight.” She stood in the street with the passenger door open. “Thank you for a… really great evening.”

In the flickering street lamps, Lacey could make out the shape of Mr. Gold’s head, but not his expression. He was looking at her, but she had no clue what he was thinking.

“You’re welcome, Miss French.”

She shut the door, and picked her way through parked cars and piles of snow. He waited until she opened the unlocked side door of the building, and then he drove off.

#courtship #rumbelle #golden lace #rumbelle fic #rumbelle smut #golden lace smut #golden lace fic

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goldensunset · 7 months

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i’m not about to draw a minimum of twelve entire pictures but i wanna do this anyway (i guess i could just edit the images in there but that’s lame lol)

•my favorite gym leader is probably either tulip or clay! something about tulip i just always found very endearing and respectable and i love clay’s no-nonsense attitude and sheer strength. plus he gets bonus points for his daughter being lacey

•fav champion is clearly volo. like how could you not classify that as a champion fight. that was so freaking hard man. runner up goes to kieran though bc he was also really hard for me. but of course if we’re talking official true pokémon league champions then cynthia

•fav elite four member has gotta be lacey. i adore her. first time i’ve ever lost to the same opponent multiple times in a fair fight (aka being prepared and on-level). she’s sooo cute and fun! she also terrifies me severely

•favorite protagonist is akari no surprise there. la does such a good job of making it clearly important why the protag is the protag. it offers a legitimate in-universe explanation as to why this one child in particular is so much more powerful than all the others. out of place in time and space, literally chosen by a god… the way certain characters question her humanity, both in a good and evil way… it’s so good

•favorite rival… well pokémon fans use the term rival really loosely. it can mean any friend character that you battle for funsies even once. it can mean literal arch nemesis. idk. arven stole my heart with his story but i don’t consider him a rival like most people do so that goes to cheren. i love his story and he has also mopped the floor with me several times

•favorite antagonist is also volo next question. i’m sick in the head about him. n is a strong and clear second place obviously though. i’ve done enough rambling on here about them

•professor laventon is the guy ever he feels like he actually personally cares about akari so much. that’s her dad. the way he’s actively involved in plot stuff, he accompanies the team on field missions even when he really doesn’t need to… he’s always there. you see him a lot. and he’s clearly writing the pokédex entries himself and they’re absolute gold. but seeing as professor is also a broad term because they’ve been really breaking up the older tradition in recent games, i nominate director clavell as second place bc i respect the guy a lot. that old man (tm) enjoyer here

•fav battle facility leader… well. i don’t really have one bc i’ve done very little with the battle facilities in the two games i’ve played that had them lol. so i guess throwaway answer is ingo but mostly for pla reasons. actually i think he counts as a battle facility leader in pla with the daybreak update and i’ve done some of his stuff so he does in fact count for me

•for fav clan member i’m gonna say arezu i like her a lot. she tried doing the right thing in a very chaotic way and i respect her for her efforts. plus her design is cute and she gives great haircuts and her noble is adorable

•character from other media… well i’m obsessed with the way n is portrayed in pokespe. perfect blend between sad prettyboy and freak behavior. they just made everything so intense. and i love oshawott from poképark 2 with the way he’s trying so hard to be serious and cool but snivy keeps getting on his nerves lol. that’s the reason i chose oshawott in pla bc that was the only of those pokémon i recognized

•i’m classifying arven as miscellaneous bc like i said i don’t consider him a rival but MAN!! man… this guy just got shortchanged so many times but i’m glad he was able to get closure for his parents’ disappearance and death and that he can move on and just live his own life. also certified dog lover moment

•top fav character… yeah you all know it’s volo LOL. completely shrimp fried my brain. the absolute hyperactive high i was on when he revealed himself. made even more insane bc i had literally been spoiled that he was a twist villain but i had no other context so i was just waiting the whole game for him to be evil. imagine the sinking in my gut when the credits rolled and it didn’t happen i thought i’d been embarrassing myself the whole time but then the postgame punched me in the gut HARD. i thought he’d end up being like the sad sympathetic frenemy guy where you don’t really want to fight him but NOPE full on evil full on he was just using you. made even better by the context that he had been your biggest fan throughout the whole game while everyone else had been suspicious of you. i lost my entire mind. once again second place to n though

#pokémon #legends arceus #bw #sv #dppt

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cjcroen1393 · 9 months

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Felt the need to update some of my queer headcanons after the Mochi Mayhem event.

Carmine and Kieran: Both are bi. This should be obvious, player gender has no bearing on their shippy interactions.

Briar: She has very pan energy to me for some reason. Must be the color scheme.

Arven: I originally had him pinned as pan too, but after seeing his conversation with Carmine, I'm not so sure. Maybe he's not "innocent", maybe he's just genuinely not interested in romance. I'm not decided on this, hence why I'm using two flags here.

Director Cyrano and Director Clavell: "And they were roommates!" "Oh my god, they were roommates..." I get SO MANY "ex-boyfriends" vibes from these two. I like to think they dated in college, broke up, Cyrano married a nice lady and Clavell married his job as Naranja's headmaster (educating people is far more important to him than silly love affairs). I don't think the two of them are bitter about the break up (it was a mutual agreement), but Clavell finds the fact that Cyrano keeps talking to him like they're still a couple annoying.

Lacey: DEFINITELY think she's aroace. She refuses to let you call her cute, intentionally tells boys that Clay's her dad so they won't ask her out and seems aware of Crispin's crush on her but clearly doesn't reciprocate. Even if she isn't aroace, it's clear she's not interested in romance.

Drayton: Yet another case of "your gender does not affect his willingness to hit on you", but this time, it's actually acknowledged in universe.

Amarys: I picture her being trans, and I was going to make her a lesbian too, but then I discovered she's implied to have feelings for Kieran, so I removed that. She could still be bi/pan though. (I lowkey ship her with Carmine lol)

Crispin: Crispin's definitely not aromantic, since he's crushing on Lacey, but for some reason I do think he's ace. There's another headcanon about him I'll share later, but it's not an LGBTQ+ one.

Florian, Nemona and Kieran: I was already shipping the Protagonist with Nemona since before the game came out, so I was conflicted when Kieran showed up and I started to see all the subtext-bordering on-text between him and the player. But then came Mochi Mayhem and Nemona instantly hitting it off with Kieran and giving him exactly the advice he needs as a trainer, and I'm like "YES! I KNEW FLORIAN HAD TWO HANDS FOR A REASON!" so yeah, my second poly ship for a set of protags and rivals (the previous one was Brendan, May and Wally, and thinking on it again, they have kind of a similar dynamic don't they?). Also, Florian's still nonbinary in my headcanon.

#pokemon #pokemon scarlet and violet #pokemon scarlet and violet dlc #pokemon sv dlc #pokemon sv #lgbt headcanons #directorshipping #i mean kinda?

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munchcrvnch · 4 months

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Sometimes friendships can be hard. And it takes work to maintain them. But without friends, things can be a lot harder.

Hello! I'm Munch! I'm 22, so you know. I'm an artist that does art related to my current interests and I do also adore horror art! We love drawing gore art and things that are a little scary lol

We are a DID system of at least 30 members, but there are most likely more of us. Our collective pronouns are they/xe and our collective sexuality/gender identity is queer and nebularomantic and Ambiamorous! I'm in a polyamorus relationship with 3 people and I love all of them so dearly.

We do have a system blog! It's @fries-collective ! We mostly just shitpost on there and ramble. This account is our main blog and we post art on here!

ABOUT SOME TAGS WE USE

reblog - just a general reblog tag, if you wanna see just my original posts, you can mute this

queer reblog - a variant of my reblog tag (always added in never alone) for queer content, not all of my queer centered posts have this tag but my recent ones do

important reblog - a variant of my reblog tag for content i deem important, like go fund mes, news, and things i just feel like people need to know

xenogender reblog - a variant of my reblog tag for my xenogenders! ....pretty much just that lol

art reblog - a variant of my reblog tag for art!

horror reblog - a variant of my reblog tag for horror content, this may range from digital horror like lacey's games to slashers to horror movies. this tag does contain topics of violence, images of gore/guns/blood, and other potentially disturbing content (but its always tagged with a tw or a cw)

funny shit - things we find funny lol

messing with mutuals - me reblogging stuff from my mutuals and mostly clowning on them, mutualposting if you will

save - stuff i wanna either save for later or keep on hand, recently started using this lol

SOME INFO ABOUT OUR ACCOUNT + BYF

⛧I post art underneath #munch art and any asks are under #munch asks !!!

⛧I block racists, TERFs, homophobes/transphobes, zionists, and ableists. I hold no empathy for people who choose to be horrible to people.

⛧We as a collective are very mentally ill (BPD, DID, Autism, PTSD, and possibly OCD) and we were very severely abused for most of my childhood and teenage years, as well as neglected emotionally for most of my life. Outbusts can happen on here and I do apologize for that in advance.

⛧We are severely paranoid and thus we hate unprompted DMs or @/s. If you do want to get into contact with me, you can send an ask about it. But keep in mind that if you are under 18, I will not befriend you due to me being 22.

⛧Despite wanting people to be 18+ to befriend, my account is 16+ due to holding some potentially mature topics!

⛧My account does hold topics of religious imagery and satanic topics. This is how we cope with our religious trauma.

⛧We are susceptible to delusions and paranoid thoughts. Please interact with care especially regarding some intense topics.

⛧I try my best to trigger tag things but if I miss something, please tell me so I can correct it!

⛧I struggle with tone so tone tags are so so needed!

⛧I block freely and often for little reason. I often block even if I simply do not like one of your posts.

⛧I interact with both anti-endo and pro-endo, I'm going to only DNI if you have "endo neutral" on your DNI.

⛧Do not bring LGBT discourse or syscourse into our dms or proship/antiship discourse. I have friends who are bi lesbians and who are lesboys. I do not care. Bringing those topics up to me will result in an immediate block.

⛧Please do not ask me to participate in callouts! You'll be blocked if you keep trying. (If we have an abuser in common, I'd also ask that you please not talk about it with me. I am not comfortable talking about my abusers with people I do not trust.)

Alt Blog:

System Blog: @fries-collective

MDNI BLOGS (DO NOT INTERACT WITH THESE BLOGS IF YOU ARE A MINOR!!):

General NSFW/hornyposting lol: @fuzzybnnuy

Senshi dedicated Blog: @senshilover2002

USERBOXES (I LOVE THESE!!)

#introduction post #intro post #blog intro #artist intro

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ratwars · 4 months

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OOOH IVE HEARD OF MCFADDEN she's quite popular on instagram thriller/horror book niche accounts!! they say that she writes really captivating stories w rlly good twists i hope it's true n u enjoy it!! dw about me possibly not being interested in the books from ur list i will read anything if someone i trust n look up to (mutuals hehe) wants to / has read it (i have two le guins on my list bc of a moot), as long as i like the writing style ill read any story hehe

the picture of dorian gray is so silly in a decadent chocolate cake way, i love lord henry sm,,,if u wanna read something shorter by wilde his play the importance of being earnest is so blunt (but good)💀

books and bao (a booktuber) really recommends LaRocca’s works so if u enjoy the one ur currently reading, her yt channel has rated almost every LaRocca book uwu

my priority list (not including cain n frankenstein anymore bc im knee deep in both already T — T)

agua viva - clarice lispector

hour of the star - clarice lispector

white nights - fyodor dostoyevsky

the left hand of darkness - ursula k. le guin

the lathe of heaven - ursula k. le guin

snow - orhan pamuk

good morning, midnight - jean rhys

east of eden - john steinbeck

mathilda - mary shelley

pew - catherine lacey

so long, see you tomorrow - william maxwell

the last days of judas iscariot - forgot who wrote it 😭😭😭

and a lot more but im trying to restrain myself T — T

currently undertaking a bsd related lit project so im reading books that i like but i think captures some bsd characters

so far i have read one book for yosano and one for sigma hehe

(sorry for the long ask shhwhshwhhshshw i tried to be concise 🥹)

That is a dangerous game Tobi because I read some trashy af things sometimes lmao but thank you for trusting my opinions and tastes 💀

Thanks for all the info I appreciate it, and good luck getting through your current reading list! What books did you read that "captured" (I'm assuming you mean their character/personality?) Yosano and Sigma?

#-Lue asks

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doubleddenden · 9 months

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Enough time has passed that I think I can do an accurate full scale review for Indigo Disk.

My initial first impressions review of 6/10 was spot on, even with the post game mechanics and additional story.

More under the cut, beware of major spoilers

Story

What's here is fine, but flawed. It is way too short, even with the extra doodads, and not enough time and energy went into it.

Since this is a continuation of Teal Mask, I was expecting to run into some of Kieran's former bullies or to meet a certain Pokémon on his team, or at least see more instances of him being a jerk to other students, but besides a couple of instances there's not really a lot going on here to build him up.

Same with Carmine. You battle her once and that's it. I was hoping to have some kind of introspection with her, maybe she's a victim of a Mean Girls scenario and that's why she became a tad bitchy, but at best she's just worried about her brother and along for the ride.

Terapagos is supposed to be the star of the DLC- literally named The Treasure of Area Zero, but he barely had screen time besides 1 very amazing boss battle. I fear this is another anime Zygarde situation.

Briar basically did nothing besides be a little reckless. Literally if she were removed from the plot, nothing of value would have been lost. She's essentially just a red herring they through out thinking they were clever for tricking us into thinking she was the big bad or at least a bit more important, but in actuality she was just a let down all around. I can't help but feel like they had something bigger planned but scrapped it.

Not to mention the loose ends still left behind regarding Area Zero and the book. Yes I did that extra scene, and honestly it just confuses me further, so I assume we have to wait until the "epilog" is released.

Still, a half assed "paradoxes are from other timelines" was the only answer we got about how Paradox Pokémon got to Area Zero before the time machine. Not the professor or someone else bootstrap looping by sending Pokémon to the past to purposely plant seeds to ensure they come to AZ, just a very tissue paper strength answer.

We still get nothing about the mysterious symbols, the strange metals, the crystal tree, nothing is really answered and it's probably just the result of a room of writers at Game Freak patting themselves on the back and saying "we like mystery :) we did good!" Well, sorry, no you didn't.

This gives me Lost vibes and The Promised Nederland vibes. The Promised Nederland vibes in the sense they built this amazing potential in the base game- season 1 of you will- filled with mystery and intrigue, but then tried to either ignore or half ass things in Season 2- The dlc. Lost comes into play because I honestly think they had no intention of truly explaining anything and had no real clear cut end game in mind except to get people hooked. Like I'm nor asking for a Legends Paldea where we explore the depths with Heath- okay I do want that but I'm not asking right now- I would have been very, very satisfied if there were at least more journals and entries or pages that explained things. As it is now, though, it just won't happen.

And maybe I'm wrong and the epilog will fix everything and give us the answers I seek, but I sincerely doubt it.

At least what's here is passable enough. I like the BBE4 and Drayton is a loveable piece of shit. I still hate that Lacey confirms Clay fucked though. No Elesa is not her mom, that's fake info.

I miss Carmine and Kieran and hate that they're just gone as of now.

BBQ quests

Tedious. Tedious and monotonous. I don't want to play multi-player and I don't have friends with Nintendo Online and DLC to play with, nor the bandwidth. Why am I being punished for that? The quests are fine but you have to do them for several fucking hours to get anything worth it out of the deal.

Coaches

I like the idea and love all the different interactions here and there. The rematch teams are updated, too, but unfortunately remain single battles, so they're pretty easy in comparison to the rest of Indigo Disk. I did have trouble with some after changing out my party for weaker pokemon, but it was never a critical danger moment except for Hassel.

I will say, I love the implications of some of the dialog. Tulip and the school nurse are just very lesbians for Dendra, Saguro and Kofu radiate General Armstrong and Sig handshake energy, and Geeta is trying to recruit everything with a pulse to join the Elite 4.

It's this level of heart I wish they bothered to put into the base DLC.

What I hate is that it costs so much to rotate them around to get gold borders. It's necessary to do something special apparently- but btw the last 3 slots are story locked until the Epilog drops. Yaya future content, boo withholding content.

Oh and they fixed Geeta's team. Her new ace is actually terrifying.

New Pokémon

Fantastic all around. Archaludon is fun af to use, Hydrapplin fixes what I dislike about Dipplin, the paradoxes are all neat, Terapagos's Stellar form is beautiful and powerful as hell, great all around.

Music

I think we're in Sonic territory where the quality of games goes down but the music just keeps getting better and better. No flaws, love the Unova love! It even fixes Ed Sheeran's Celestial imo- a song kinda shoved in that has nothing to do with Pokémon except maybe to trigger content flags on YouTube.

The remix by Toby Fox actually has elements of music from Scarlet and Violet, it's chill overall, and the lyrics actually sort of kinda have context now? Rinse and Repeat makes it sound relevant to the cycles of bullying and the paradox plots as a whole, and Kieran's spiral actually fits it. Overall a vast improvement.

Difficulty

Guys, it is refreshingly difficult. It's like a dip into Colosseum again with the strategies the BBE4 uses. Drayton actually beat me TWICE. I NEVER lose. The rest were easier, but still required a bit more thinking than "press A to win."

The only downside is that it is sort of a snowball effect. Initially it might be difficult to overcome, but you will gain levels very quickly, which of course diminishes challenge. I'm not joking when I say that the team I went in with, roughly late 60s to 70 by the time I caught them all, are now ALL level 100, which is the quickest I've ever gotten a completely fresh team to it.

Customization

I said it before but it's just lacking. The new uniforms look better than most of the others, come in more varieties, and I'll be honest? Feel less fetishy in the l*li and sh*ta direction. I'm still not completely satisfied but I can make it work. New hair still sucks but I do like the new Star glasses and uniform.

I'm just going to say it though, this was definitely a way to cut corners on customization and they should just let us dress how we want again. Too much limitation makes me look like everyone else playing the game. It was dumb but excusable this time, but it won't fly again in the future. Just saying.

Graphics and performance

Let's do it like this:

The good: graphics in some areas, when loaded in, genuinely look up to date and beautiful to look at. The tropical area, savanna, and under depths are very beautiful locations, the classrooms look extremely polished, lots of gorgeous visuals all around, and even older Pokémon have some updated visuals.

I'll also say the Terrarium is just better visually than Kitakami and Paldea.

The bad: performance still sucks ass and Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, and Game Freak should all be fucking ashamed for charging $95 for what is essentially a stuttering mess that struggles not to shit itself at times. Like the GAUL to leave in map flickering in the first cutscene meant to show you how beautiful and vast the Terarium is is astounding. Give back your Award for Excellence until you actually deserve it, you're no longer an indie company and it's time you behaved like it, Game Freak. Absolute shame on you. You've had over a year to fix this and still haven't.

World's richest franchise, people.

Overall

There's plenty to salvage here that makes it fun and engaging, but the same issues have yet to be fixed and the story just refuses to tie up some loose ends that NEEDED to be explored. It's also just CRIMINALLY short, and I actually took my time. What we got is okay but it's not the same quality of story we got for Arven or Team Star, and honestly I feel like it would have been better to save these characters for another game. They padded it out with tedious quests that just get annoying after a while and feel like a punishment, especially for single players.

While I love the idea of old style event Pokémon coming back, I hate that we have to wait to experience something that- heads up- is ALREADY IN THE GAME. That's just stupid imo and would have really helped keep things going.

So yeah, just barely passing at 6/10. Depending on the epilog, that may go between a 4 or 7.

#pokemon #pokemon scarlet and violet #the indigo disk #indigo disk #pokemon scarlet and violet spoilers #Indigo disk spoilers #doubled plays games #den reviews stuff

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