#lack of even being able to talk about sex that has made me so adamant about including it in how i see characters
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gr1an · 7 months ago
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look I mean you already said you have a healthy appreciation for rare polyships so--
I mean if you happen to have any fic recommendations? or even current / past headcanons that make you feel emotions? plz and thank you :)
important warning: everything here is probably going to have some level of nsfw, and probably a lot at that. i think the first fic is the only one that’s rated lower than E. bc as an adult reading a romance about adults that doesn’t involve sex (unless the characters are asexual) doesn’t like. it’s not realistic. for me. there are some characters that i 100% in my head know that they would fuck before even considering saying “i love you” and that influences what fics i read. also i really really don’t see sex as that big of a deal most of the time, for characters i see it as just another facet of them that is interesting to explore!! anyway let’s get into this!!
OH BOY so this fic made me get into clockers and the later ones in the series are nsfw but they’re also Very Good! it’s bdubs x impulse x scar in double life and i’m not super 100% down with the grian characterization but it’s still good!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/40337673
this one is also very explicit but it’s jimmy x grian x doc in a hypothetical new season of secret life and it’s silly with a/b/o dynamics and i like the way it’s explored and how the trios get set up and i’m not sure if i finished it? but from what i remember it’s v good https://archiveofourown.org/works/40628835
THIS ONEEEEEEE OMG yeah it’s “bdubs and joel are Totally Normal About the other’s relationship with etho” https://archiveofourown.org/works/51115180
this one is fun. two brats (scar and grian) make a dom and tango is just along for the ride https://archiveofourown.org/works/45468820
AAAAAA THIS ONE THAT FOREVER CHANGED HOW I SEE THE SL ROOMIES DYNAMIC!! grian/cleo/etho/gem wonderfulness as an a/b/o au https://archiveofourown.org/series/3859900
ok that’s enough for now i’m scared to recommend any more bc this so far has been. a pretty sfw account? and i’m cool with it staying that way. just. insight into how i think about dynamics. sex is in fact a big part of what i consider! there’s probably more to unpack bc of the years i spent as a mormon with that whole. lack of even being able to talk about sex that has made me so adamant about including it in how i see characters.
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thebrightsessions · 4 years ago
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Entertainment Spotlight: Briggon Snow
Briggon Snow is a Los Angeles-based actor, writer and creator, originally from South Portland, Maine. He is known for voicing Caleb Michaels in The Bright Sessions and The College Tapes, and roles in The Big Loop (Podcast), Seal Team (CBS), Game Shakers (Nickelodeon) and Masters of Sex (Showtime).
Can you share any fun facts about the making of The Bright Sessions and/or The College Tapes that fans would be surprised to find out?
Oh boy. I was just wracking my brain on this and struggling™. “Should I mention the obvious: That we did this remotely? Talk about those challenges?” And then moments ago my husband stepped out onto our balcony where I was staring at my laptop, read this question, and made a very cheeky suggestion. So here we go:
Everyone loves kissing in audio, right? *crickets* No? Only some of you? Well, I know it’s a hot-button topic, but when it comes to squishy romance feelings I’m here for it, I’ll admit. And well, we recorded this in a pandemic, so...no kissing allowed. And how did we get around that? Well, as one of our illustrious and poor defenseless audio designers got to e̶x̶p̶e̶r̶i̶e̶n̶c̶e̶ suffer through...I sent over “roll-the-tape” recordings of me pulling my husband into my home recording booth to - essentially - makeout for all of your enjoyment/cringes. Now...who’s kissing in The College Tapes? You’ll have to wait and hear (again sorry) because...well...reasons...
If you could have a conversation with Caleb, what would you want to talk about?
I’d love to go on trail with him or go camping and just talk about...feelings. I know the feelings/emotions thing is a constant for him so this is a little on the nose - but in playing Caleb and now writing for him too - I was challenged to submerge myself in my heart and mind and body and meditate with the emotions that pass me by every day. Lauren’s writing gave me a roadmap to identify and place things within myself outside of recording (a gift I’ll never be able to repay). And in these last five years I’ve found myself endlessly fascinated with human emotionality and our awareness or lack thereof and how we move throughout life in relationship with the things we feel. I’d love to look Caleb in the eyes and have us be unabashedly open with each other; the good, the bad, the everything.
Do you have a memory from college or young adulthood that you think would make a good College Tapes scene or episode?
It’s funny. I pulled on so many memories and feelings from my time at college. There’s one particular story involving greek life and my freshman roommate that I absolutely stole when writing my episodes. But I have one memory that’s so...nothing really...but so powerful in my life that I’d like to share...
My best friend in college ended up showing me Avatar: The Last Airbender, and when we’d watch it in his dorm, we would naturally smoosh up on his bed and cuddle under a blanket. And for me, a gay kid - just cuddling up with my straight best friend because we loved each other - and it not being weird or joked about when our friends were around - meant - like - everything to me.
Again, not a big crazy college memory. But let’s hear it for the straight boys out there dismantling toxic masculinity one soft action at a time!
If you could be Atypical in real life, would you want to be? If yes, what powers do you think that you would have?
I want to be an Atypical! I’d love to be able to communicate with anyone (+ animals) regardless of language. I want to know people. I love meeting people. I think one of the greatest privileges of being an actor is that we’re thrown together with other folks who (if it’s going right) open themselves up to you and participate in a created intimacy to seek understanding. More than anything, I’m curious and want to be influenced by other perspectives in this life - and the idea of being able to connect with and learn from a person in Morocco or even an Orca Whale off the coast of Washington is *heart eyes*.
Do you have any headcanons (something that you believe to be true that isn’t explicitly stated) about Caleb?
I don’t know if I’m going against actual canon here. After 5 years it’s hard to keep track of what’s in what episode in The Bright Sessions universe. But I’ve always imagined Caleb as a closet master chef of sorts. I think he learned to cook out of necessity growing up; odd hours for practices and games and his parents being a little scattered. And I think by college, Caleb is super impressive in the kitchen. The kitchen - like the gym or sport or nature - is one of his churches.
Can you share your favorite piece of The Bright Sessions fan art?
There have been so many incredible pieces of fan art over the years and I’ve loved them all. It’s wild how transformative fandoms can be. You never know what aspect of a character or a story is going to take hold in a person’s imagination, and all of the different headcanons and pieces of art our strange and unusual family has shared over the years continues to be my favorite part of being in the cast of The Bright Sessions.
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(Grayson, ghostcribs)
I’ve always adored Grayson’s imagining of Caleb and Adam. Grayson is one of my very favorite artists ever; so much so that I eventually - nervously - reached out, and now he and I have started work on a little project of our own. And I love that. We all get to (and I think have the responsibility to if we can) inspire each other with what we put out into the world. It’s call and answer and it makes for the best stuff.
Thanks for taking the time, Briggon! Catch The College Tapes, only on Luminary. 
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heavenbarnes · 4 years ago
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feels so good to be us
Fezco (Euphoria) x Female Reader
Warnings/Contains: mentions of drug use, mentions of guns, implied violence (all canon-typical), swearing, mentions of alcohol, unprotected sex (this is fiction, yours isn’t, wrap it), dirty talk, light degradation, light choking, rough sex, light slapping, oral sex (f receiving)
Word Count: 4.5k 
no secret that i fell in love w the guy whilst watching the show, so we’ll just see how this goes
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She blew into town one day, seemingly out of nowhere, but not without purpose. Having reasons to be there was one thing, having reasons to stay was a whole other. Lacking in the latter, there was a lot to be grateful for in that one night.
The party that cracked on in a reasonable house, she was told by her friends that’d it’d be a good one. What she wasn’t told was that this was a party that was teeming with teenagers, horny ones in spandex and rhinestones.
A long way from home and everything was different.
Lucky enough, she poured herself a cup and hunted for a spot that was more around her age. Last thing she needed was to be caught up with a hoard of 17 year-olds looking to make trouble.
Whoever owned this house also came equipped with cash, judging by the indoor pool she stepped into, eyes up and trailing along the carefully carved architrave. Eyes far too transfixed to notice the young man on the lounger.
“You came looking for me?”
The voice made her head snap towards his direction, rolled smoke resting between his lips and steadily fingering a roll of cash. Narrowing her eyes at him in hesitation, she traced her finger around the rim of her cup.
“I don’t think so?”
He took his eyes from his counting and let them cast over her, that’s probably the first thing to pique her interest. Those kind of eyes you could fall into, pretty eyelashes too that almost made her want to smile.
She knew that he knew she was staring, but he hadn’t said anything about it, he didn’t seem to mind.
“You not from around here, huh?”
Straightening up and stepping forward a bit, she got closer so she didn’t have to shout across the room.
“No sir, I drove in this morning from out East.”
He nodded more to himself than he did her, tucking the money away in his hoodie pocket before leaning back on the cushion of the lounger. He took the cigarette between his fingers and tapped off some of the ash, eyes still nonchalantly drifting over her.
“Called it, I would’a remembered you otherwise.”
In trying not to let the corners of her mouth turn into a smile, it transformed into more of a pout, bordering on a frown. There was something about this guy, something she couldn’t put her finger on.
“You would’ve?”
“Yeah, cause you wearing clothes,” He answered, making any expression on her face dry out. “You seen those other girls?”
Looking down her front, she had to admit that her belted trousers and high-necked tank was considerably more than what any of the high-schoolers were wearing. Shrugging her shoulders with a nod that spoke of “fair enough”, she managed to draw a chuckle out of the guy.
“That and you cute.” The inflection was so cool she almost missed it, but that wasn’t to say it was lost on her.
Scuffing her sneakers against the poolside tile, he shifted forward along his seat and watched intently at the way she no longer fought the grin on her face. Didn’t know the guy from Adam, but he was already tweaking some kind of feeling in her.
“Who you here with?”
She lifted her head and gestured back towards where the noise of the party was drifting through the door. “My friends Ocasio and Seraphine, made me come to make friends but they didn’t say they’d be teenagers.”
He nodded knowingly, muttering something about knowing them too. “They all so young, why I’m only here for business.”
So the inkling in the back of her mind that he was a drug dealer was correct, making his first comment make a lot more sense. In an attempt not to seem like a total fucking loser, she shifted the conversation.
“They said I should look for some guy, said that I’d probably like him.”
The man lifted a brow, before throwing his gaze over her shoulder in his turn to admire the architecture. 
“Yeah? They give you a name, not a lot of people I don’t know.”
She thought on it for a moment, she knew it reminded her of That 70′s Show, and that is sounded remarkably fake at the time.
“Fezco, I think? If that’s even a real name?”
His shoulders bounced as he chuckled a little, eyes moving back to her own. He had one of those stares where it was intense, but there was nothing in you that wanted to look away.
“Nice to meet you too, mamas,” He lent back again and propped his foot up on the seat. “Do I get your name?”
In attempting to avoid looking like a fucking loser, she’d managed it anyways. Her cheeks burnt as she nodded with a nervous laugh, smiling out of necessity before offering him her name.
He made some remark about her still being cute, before they were cut off by a couple of young people tripping down the stairs and narrowly avoiding the pool. They made a line for Fezco, hoping to make a purchase off of him.
She couldn’t help but feel a little out of place, in the move of things she started to step back to where she came. An obvious cast of disappointment fell over her as she began to pull back from it all.
“Mamas,” That voice stopped her in her tracks. “Just lemme do this, I ain’t done ‘whichu yet.”
Just like that, she’d found a reason to stay. From that point on, you didn’t see her without Fezco by her side, with a hand on her lower back.
They were polar opposites, but MC. Kat said those attract so that could be said for why they’d done so well together. She was warm, kind, and so gentle it’d make your heart do fucking flips.
She was the softest thing that Fez had ever got his hands on, and he’d be damned if he was ever going to let it go. He was open with her, showed her all the bad things that he did and he’d done, and she chose to love him anyway.
If you asked Fezco, she felt like home, she was safe to come back to after a long day of doing things he wasn’t proud of. No matter how many times he made shitty choice after shitty choice, she knew the heart that rested in him was inherently better than anything.
Nothing made that heart fuller than seeing her own coming through, you want to talk big hearts? You start with her. She was the very definition of love, patient and kind, and it wasn’t uncommon for Fez to pinch himself in wonder of how he got so lucky.
The days she sat beside his grandma, holding her up as he brought the sponge along her back. Never a complaint, she’d just smile at Fezco, at the gentleness of his movements. The smile that said “I’d never want to be anywhere else.”
And if his boys were on their way around to fetch payment, nothing had to be said. She’d quietly tuck away in the bedroom, laying in silence as she daydreamed of a life where Fez was totally happy. In her visions they live in the countryside, he never has to look over his shoulder and he is forgiven.
She was always the delicate to his rough around the edges, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know exactly what was happening. You couldn’t mistake her kindness for stupidity.
“Mans, I don’t think you know what you getting into.” Fezco’s voice never shifted from that calm tone.
Nate Jacob’s shit eating grin made the hairs on the back of Fez’ neck stand up, the kid using his height to try and forge an ounce of intimidation. Unlucky for him, the man in front of him wasn’t a 17 year old cheerleader with daddy issues, he couldn’t scare him.
Nate would still give it his best shot.
“You obviously don’t know what you’re doing with me, I will fucking ruin you.” His bark through gritted teeth drifted up the hallway.
“You came to my house, ‘tryna start shit with me,” Fez never backed down, nearly chest to chest. “I never gave a fuck about you.”
The sound that came from Nate was a scoff, the disrespect was evident as he looked down on the other man. “So you’ve forgotten how you threatened my life?”
As he lifted his hand up towards Fez’ throat, he wasn’t able to clock her on his right quick enough.
She calmly padded down the hallway, shorts and her boyfriend’s hoodie draped across her body as she approached the scene before her. Left hand coming to lift the hem of the sweater and right coming to grip the glock stashed in her waistband.
By the time Nate Jacobs even knew she was there, he could already hear the safety coming off. His hand stilled as his eyes drifted over to her.
“Take another step, playboy.” Eyes staring down the slide and right at the guy in her sights. “Pick up your nuts, and get out of my house.”
Nate looked back to Fez, meeting an almost unfazed expression. His eyes came over to her and the barrel aimed between his eyes.
“The cops coming here didn’t teach you a lesson? You want them coming back here looking for guns too?”
Her laugh rolled around the room, drifting between the three of them as her eyes narrowed.
“Yeah, go ahead and call the cops again,” Her grip on the pistol never faltered. “I’m sure Fezco’s boys would love to hear about the little bitch that had the pigs sniffing around their supply.”
There was no missing the way Nate’s jaw clenched at the sentiment, the thought ticking over in his head that he might’ve finally met his match. The match that he’d tried to chat up in the convenience store, right in front of Fez with his own girl in the car.
“Everyone knows your name, Jacobs,” Fez wasn’t the only one he couldn’t scare. “Would hate for it to be dropped around the wrong people.”
The quarterback brought his arm down from her boyfriend’s neck, turning to face her with the gun only following his movements. Fezco stepped off him, making his way over to his girl.
He stood behind her, chest to her back as his hands rested against her waist. Lips moments from her neck as his eyes trained back on the teenager trying to raise hell in his own living room.
“Is that a threat?” The sour expression on Nate’s face was nothing short of unattractive. She didn’t know a lot about Maddie Perez, but she knew the girl could do better.
“No, it’s a fucking warning,” In an instant the gun was turned on it’s side. “I won’t say it again, get out of my house, before I fucking kill you.”
It didn’t take much more before Nate was dragging his knuckles out of the house, door slamming behind him. At that sound, she had the safety back down and was placing the gun in Fez’ hands.
He chuckled, turning her towards him with that same grip on her hips. His hands came back to put the gun in the band of his drawers, before he was shifting to cup her face. Fezco could feel the heat radiating off of her cheeks.
“Do I even ‘gotta tell you how fine you look waving my piece round like that?”
She matched his laugh, heart still beating wildly in her chest. Shaking her head, her lips came to Fezco’s, feeling the plush of his lips moving in time with hers. “I will definitely leave that up to you.”
“But you looked so good handling it, mamas.”
Brushing off his comment, she gripped his hand and lead him up to the bedroom, muttering something about him looking even better.
Sitting on the edge of the mattress, Fez stood in front of her, looking down at the woman who’d kill for him. He knew he’d found his absolute other half, there was no doubt about that.
He lifted the glock to her face, trailing the muzzle along her cheek before she turned her head gently and gave it a sweet kiss. He shook his head, leaning down to tuck it under their mattress.
Kneeling down before her, parting her knees so he could nestle in there, his face was so close to her own that she could feel the heat in his breath.
“You mean everything, baby, I fucking love you.”
That was what it was all about, the perfect balance that existed between them. Whilst Fezco might’ve been the guts, and she was the glory, there was no doubt that they’d always be what each other needed.
The first time in a while that Fez had felt was able to be vulnerable, was the moment he sunk into her arms after a grim night. She didn’t ask any questions, just wrapped him up in her and reassured him that she felt nothing but adoration for him.
On his part, he’d found paradise in a girl that was sweeter than an angel, but was always down to let him fuck her like a whore.
She wasn’t really down for a Halloween party, but she was always down to dress pretty and be on the arm of her man in the cleanest suit. Platform heels and a flowery mini dress, it was the godfather and the hippie, sat outside by the pool as the smoke from Fez’ blunt cast a cloud around them.
Thoughts drifted back to the moment they met, looking an awful lot like this.
Teenagers dipped in and out of the house to buy off her boyfriend, she just sat back with her legs up in his lap, feeling his fingers rubbing against her calf every now and then.
She said hello to the girls as they drifted past, but nothing felt better than when it was just the both of them, enjoying each other’s company as those under the influence stumbled around them.
Fezco let his hand drift slightly higher up her shin, calloused fingers coming to trace along the curve of her knee. She watched the movements of his touch, not ignoring the way her skin prickled underneath the graze of his nails.
Taking the blunt from his mouth, he turned to look at her fondly, hazy smile when he found her already looking back at him.
“This your song, mamas,” He referred to the Jack Harlow joint that was coming through the speakers. “You ‘gone dance for me like you do at home?”
She smirked, lifting her legs out of his lap and stepping out in front of him. “Depends if you’ve got the money to throw.”
Slowly spinning around for him, her hips swayed in a motion that he followed intently, catching onto the way her dress lifted with each movement.
“You trippin’ if you think ‘imma pay for what’s mine.”
Stopping the swing of her hips, she moved in closer to where Fezco sat with his legs spread wide. Moving between those legs, she bent over over and braced a hand on each of his knees.
“What are you tryna’ do, big man?”
Fez lent forward in his seat, lips coming to gently press to her own before he spoke in a hushed tone, better to keep his private moves private from the kids swirling around the both of them.
“I’m tryna’ blow your fucking back out.”
One thing could be said for Fezco, the man could keep his word. The minute he got her into the bedroom, large hands splayed across her hips and gripped tight enough to leave a mark.
Lips ran up the column of her throat, the graze of teeth left in the wake of his movements. Heady moans slipped off her tongue and filled the small room, coaxing Fez to move a little quicker.
His girl was getting impatient and he was never one to keep her waiting.
Turning her in his hands, he still had a mean grip on her waist as he moved her knees to perch on the edge of the bed. One large hand spread in the center of her shoulder blades as he pushed her chest down onto the mattress.
“Be a good girl and arch your back for me.”
Stomach dropping down and hips rolling back, she shook her ass for him as Fezco shifted up the hem of her dress, revealing the pretty lace she wore just for him. His hands gripped her thighs, spreading them further apart till she got even lower.
One hand came back to slap the cheek of her ass, a sorry moan ripping from her chest as he massaged over the spot. Feeling the way his thumb traveled down the line of her underwear, grazing over where she was wettest for him.
Hooking around the band of the thin panties, Fez slipped them down her legs, sucking in a breath seeing how wet she’d been for him this whole time. She shook her hips, presenting herself to him like a meal he’d been waiting to be served.
“What got you so fuckin’ needy? Or you just always begging for it?” His voice rumbled through his chest, hitting her straight between the thighs.
“It’s always you, I just need you to fuck me.”
Two thick fingers dragged up her slit as she rolled her hips back for him, eager to catch anything that felt like pleasure. This teasing was nearly killing her, but he was damned if he wasn’t going to make her work for it.
“You ‘sposed to be a good girl but you lost your manners.”
Whining out, not caring how pathetic it must’ve sounded to him, she shook her ass again. Doing whatever she could to draw him and make him give it to her like she needed.
“Please, Fezco, I fucking need you.”
The sound of his belt coming loose was like music to her ears as his thumb gently dipped into her wetness. So close to getting what she wanted, he was never good at keeping anything from her. Especially not when she looked this pretty.
She felt him run the blunt head of his cock through her wetness, resting at her entrance for a moment. Tiny cries and whimpers still fell steadily from her pouted lips, Fezco sliding his hand down her back until his fingers fixed around the back of her neck.
“Drive me fuckin’ crazy,” With one thrust he filled her straight up. “I never felt anything like you, baby.”
Her cheek pressed against the mattress with his grip, filthy moans drifting through the air as she felt Fezco wrecking her. His other hand still gripped tight at her hip, pulling her back onto him with every thrust.
It was never better than when it was this nasty, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes as he fucked her dumb, the only thing on her mind was his name as she sang it back to him. 
He loved the sound of her crying out for him, pussy clenching impossibly tight around him. Fez knew every spot within her, exactly what to do to make her come apart under his hands.
“You so fuckin’ tight, mamas,” He gritted his teeth as his hand slid from her neck to grip her shoulder. “Tryna’ make me buss’ quick.”
A filthy giggle rolled straight off her tongue, before it turned right back into another cry as Fezco hit that spot just right. The hand on her hip slipped under and before she knew it, her eyes were rolling back as his fingers moved quick against her clit.
He nearly ripped a scream from her, moving his hand back to slap her pussy, before rubbing that same spot. He was going to be the death of her one day, the way he always knew exactly what he was doing.
“Baby- I’m ‘gonna- I’m ‘gonna,” Her words dropped off as she moaned for him under the pressure of it all.
“You good, ‘lemme hear it.”
Clenching like a vice around him, her whole body tensed up as the white hot feeling of her orgasm rolled over her. There was no doubt the neighbors would know about it, the way he never let up on her, had her crying out off the top of her lungs.
Fezco dipped his hand under her throat, fingers lightly fixing around it as he pulled her up to kneel. Falling back against his chest as he kept fucking her through it, her hand came back to grip his thigh.
She knew he was near his end, his hips were stuttering and the way he was groaning in her ear, she knew she had him good. Turning her head, her nose brushed against his face so her lips were moments from his skin.
“Come in me, please, baby.”
That was all it took, his arm flying around her waist as he gripped her hard to him. Hips stilling deep inside her as he filled her up, a vulgar cry from her as she felt him hot and running in her. Sliding his hand down her chest, he crossed his arms against her, nuzzling down into her neck.
“Maybe you are a good girl, huh?”
There was no doubt that she wasn’t just good, she was the best. Who else was going to sit patiently with their feet in Fezco’s lap as he counted his money and chewed through a pack of cigarettes.
Couldn’t find another girl that’d stand by his side at the town carnival, looking just as sweet as the cotton candy she was placing on her tongue as locals came asking around for their friend Molly.
Hot summer days outside the convenience store, popsicle between her lips as her sundress flutters gently in the breeze. Fezco ready to round up anyone that stared just a little too long.
Maybe it was all that candy that went past her lips, but there was never anyone who acted, or tasted that sweet.
Hearing the door shut, her mouth naturally curved into a smile. He was home, meaning he was safe, meaning she was safe and content. Fezco rounded the couch to where she sat, one arm braced behind her on the cushion as he lent down to kiss her.
Hands naturally coming to cup his chin, she felt the scratch of his beard in her palms as his mouth moved gently against her own. His shoulders dipped with a sigh, one that told her he was just as happy to be home as she was to have him.
“You seem so tired,” She cooed as she separated their lips. “Let me take care of you.”
Her hand trailed down the front of his sweater, coming to rest on his belt. Fezco pressed her hand down, against his crotch, bringing their lips back together. As she moved her other hand to start undoing his belt, he squeezed her hands to stop them.
Placing a hand on either side of her thighs, he dropped to kneel in front of her, before wrapping his hands around her knees and parting them. Fez lifted each of her legs and draped them over his shoulders.
Rough hands pushed the bottom of his hoodie, that was currently covering her, up her body and exposing her scantily clad lower half. Shallow breaths came from her as he dragged her panties down her legs, shifting her hips closer to the edge of the couch.
“This the only place I wanna’ be right now, angel.”
Her breath came across as choppy as she relaxed back into the couch, feeling big hands grip the the skin of her thighs. Fez’ head moved between her legs, pressing a kiss straight to her slit.
Hands coming to hold his head, thumbs massaging against the skin as her hips rolled forward toward his mouth. Darting his tongue out, he drew it up and along her until it came into contact with her clit.
Drawing his tongue around the nub, he felt her legs tense up against his shoulders. Fezco’s hands gently rubbed at her legs, feeling her relax once again into him.
The soft little whimpers that only she could make fueled him like nothing else, dragging his tongue quicker in an attempt to draw any sounds out of her. Her hips bucked up with the sensation of his tongue, pulling his face in closer.
“God, Fezco, you always make me feel so good.”
Humming in response, the sensation moved through her from between her thighs and deep into her. The feeling of the tip of his tongue against her clit made her toes curl up, feet running along the length of his back.
Fez wrapped his lips around her clit, sucking the sensitive nerves and making her call out his name. Her chest rose, arching her back off the couch as her thighs tensed around his head.
He never let up, just continued the assault on her clit as she writhed beneath his grasp. Fez couldn’t get enough of this feeling, having her wrapped around him and completely falling apart in his hands.
She couldn’t believe how lucky she got, having a man that walked straight through the doors and got on his knees for her. There was never a moment where Fez didn’t have her feeling like she was in the clouds.
Her whole body burnt hot as his tongue dipped into her, before dragging back up. Eyes falling shut and fingernails running down the back of her head, every time he moaned at the feeling it hit her straight where she needed it. 
“You’re ‘gonna make me come, please don’t stop.”
Fezco’s eyes flickered up to her, watching the way her whole body moved for him and her head kept falling back in pleasure. To have her reacting so strongly to him, he hoped she couldn’t see the way his cheeks were starting to burn.
“Go ‘head baby, come for me.”
The high-pitch of her whine pierced the air as her hips stuttered against his mouth. She felt her body relax, the feeling of pleasure consuming her entirely as Fez let her ride his face out of her high.
As she came back down to Earth, he came back up to her, hand wiping down his beard and watching the glow of her face. Lazy smile across her face as she reached out for him, going back to his belt.
“You going to let me take care of you now?”
One day they’d roll out of this town together, find their peace and spend their time looking forward without a care. Until then they found peace in each other, holding one another close.
More than anything, they’d found hope in each other? That this wouldn’t be forever, that you could find forgiveness in whatever you’d done.
Whenever there was a doubt, she just echoed those words back to him with a smile, the ones that she’d never forgotten.
“I ain’t done ‘whichu yet.”
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smoshbummers21 · 3 years ago
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So I wanted to talk about Adam’s Groff social anxiety and why maybe it wasn’t that visible in season one and season two as well, though I think in season 2 it was way more visible.
In season one Adam was in a very toxic environment with his dad and he was also the school’s bully who didn’t did that “good” in school. So I personally think that because he didn’t care to become a better person and since he thought that everyone saw him as stupid he just didn’t had any reason to put himself in a vulnerable position. He also hide it very well with his tough personality and besides he didn’t had any actual friends, like he only hang out with people who probably just used him to make fun of him and he actually said to Ola that she was the first one to call him “friend”. Besides his lack of social skills are also very present because he doesn’t know how to communicate how he feels and how to ask for forgiveness when he is wrong, like when Aimee broke up with him or before they broke up he seemed a bit clueless about being a relationship as well (despite being in one). He wrote to Eric that he thought that he didn’t had a heart and I think this confirms Adam’s numbness in the past, I have actually go through this as well so I totally understand what he meant. Sometimes when someone goes through emotional trauma or emotional abuse, you just shut down and can’t feel anything or at least you feel like you can’t feel anything which is very unpleasant. In my case I couldn’t felt any emotional pain either like I wasn’t able to feel physical pain so I didn’t knew if I was sad or angry. I just wasn’t aware of it but now I’m and yeah it’s really good to feel everything coming back to you and I’m sure Adam felt happy about it it too. On season 2, we can see more of Adam being shy and quiet, I think this because he didn’t knew anyone on the military school but also being there I think made him realize that he wasn’t alone in the whole daddy issues thing so he felt understood for once and I honestly think that helped him a lot with his future character development. Falling in love with Eric was also a big part of it because he let go of his fears and felt in love even with the risk of losing him one day. Becoming friends with Ola also made him a more happy and less lonely person and she also helped him to open up more. Obviously his dad leaving the house was a big important part of it too because it made him feel safer and secure. However, in season three we can see that he is still shy and still struggles with expressing his feelings and thoughts which for me felt very adhd and social anxiety. Adhd sometimes also makes you feel unaware and I also struggle a lot with expressing my thoughts and feelings because everything just seems to go so fast in my mind that I can’t keep up, also struggle with this at writing and besides I think he has dyslexia. I’m honestly so mad that he didn’t get diagnose because that would have made life so much easier for him. I got diagnosed at seven but my parents didn’t believe in it so I just was treated as any other neurotypical child so you can guess the pressure and Adam gets it too. In season 3 Adam says a lot of things that screamed social anxiety but I think the one that resonate the most with me was “I want to tell you how I feel but I don’t want you to look at me.” This just really hit hard with me, I have struggle with this almost all my life and I have so many regrets because of it. I’m 18 and I still struggle with it, my parents are two huge extroverts with high confidence as well as my sister so they don’t get it. It can make you feel lonely sometimes but Adam does get me and I’m honestly so happy to have this representation in sex education. Finally, in my opinion Michael cause Adam’s social anxiety because he always made him feel unsafe and uneasy about himself like “nothing that he ever did was good enough” and as someone who grew up with parents who also made me feel like that I totally get it. Self doubt is the worst thing ever, you can literally just get stuck in doing nothing for not wanting to fail. Well, this is my opinion on why Adam’s social anxiety wasn’t that visible. For some reason I can’t reply to comments in my post so feel free to message me <3
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xofanfics · 4 years ago
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String - Alternate Ending II
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Prologue | Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII | Part IX | Alternate Ending I 
Genre: angst, fluff, SMUT
Pairing: Baekhyun x Female Reader x Sehun
Word Count: 5.4k
Summary: You find yourself in a friends-with-benefits situation with your best friend. You have no business falling for him, but your heart begs to differ.
Holding himself accountable was something that Baekhyun hadn’t quite mastered. And he seemed to be the root of all the problems that had come crashing into his life uninvited and unannounced. But he felt like he wasn’t the only person at fault. 
Putting himself aside, he wondered why you hadn’t been more adamant. Why hadn’t you just come straight out, to say all the things you wanted to? Did you not know how? Did you lack the strength? Were you unsure? And putting himself into the equation, he wondered why he hadn’t been more adamant. Why hadn’t he just come straight out, to say all the things he wanted to? Did he not know how? Did he lack the strength? Was he unsure? 
Why had he chosen Kira over you? Kira was pure; she didn’t have the same kind of past Baekhyun did. And to be honest, Baekhyun hadn’t been honest with her about his past or the feelings he had for you that still lingered. He realized that he wasn’t quite over you. The events of the night had made that quite clear not only to himself but to Evie too. If she noticed, who else did? Was it that obvious?
Baekhyun had become the kind of guy that all girls complained about. The kind of guy that claims he doesn’t want the girl but then gets jealous when she brings a new guy around. The kind of guy that has a girlfriend but still doesn’t want the other girl to date other people. How was something like that fair? 
It was a bad idea to come here, he realized. This wasn’t how the night was supposed to start or end. Everyone was supposed to get together and have a good time at this party and he’d ruined things. He ruined the mood and brought a dark cloud over the group. He needed to apologize. Even if you never forgave him or never spoke to him again, he at least needed to apologize. The talk with Evie opened his eyes to a point of view he hadn’t really considered.
He returned to the party and noticed you standing on the balcony with Drew as he smoked a joint. Baekhyun took the opportunity to join the two of you. He wasn’t sure where Sehun had gone off to but Baekhyun assumed that he’d be back eventually.
“Hey,” he started. “Can we talk, Y/N?”
You’d been in the middle of laughing and the smile faded immediately upon seeing him. You turned your head the other way. It hurt him a bit, but he continued with what he set out to do anyway. This was the path he chose and the least he could do is apologize for everything.
Drew took one last pull and cleared his throat after he blew out the smoke. He ashed his joint and put it in a ziploc bag before putting it back in his pocket. You said, “I don’t think—” At that, Drew nudged you. You rolled your eyes. “Fine. Sure, let’s talk.” Drew gave you a wink before leaving the two of you on the balcony alone. He knew that Baekhyun had fucked up but he also knew that things would never get better if you kept blocking him off every time. Both of you, Drew decided, needed to grow the fuck up and speak through your issues like the adults that you were supposed to be. 
As the balcony door clicked shut, you turned your back to him and said, “What do you want?”
“To apologize,” said Baekhyun. “I wanted to apologize for everything. For being an asshole tonight, for leading you on back then, and for not being honest with how I felt about you. I know it doesn’t seem like it but I cared about you. I still do, Y/N...and it hurts not to be able to talk to you. I miss us. I miss being friends, at least…”
You bit your lip, still turned away from him. Hearing that he missed you made you feel better. You’d missed him, too. You missed talking to him and sharing memes on Twitter. You missed being able to bullshit around campus with him between classes and going over to each others’ apartments. You missed hanging out with him, outside of the sex. You missed him being your person and being able to tell him just about anything. You decided to put your angry feelings aside, just to hear him out and not to add any more fuel to the fire that he’d started tonight.
You missed him more than anything but it was a little too late for all of this now. If he’d told you this sooner, before things got more serious with Sehun, maybe you would’ve felt differently. But he was with Kira now so, in the end, did how you feel really even matter?
“We could’ve been friends,” you said, in a voice so low that he could barely hear you. He stepped closer to you, leaning over the balcony ledge next to you. He looked at you but you couldn’t bring yourself to look at him right now. If you looked at him, your sense of judgment might shift. If you didn’t look at him, you wouldn’t be tempted to say all of the words you wanted to say to him… They were all of the words he’d never hear you say.
“What?” he asked.
“I said that we...could’ve been friends. You led me on, Baekhyun. I really thought we were going to be together and then you chose someone else. Do you have any idea how that felt?”
Baekhyun looked down at the city below him. It was dark but there were still some people lingering on the streets from what he could see. Were they lost? Were they going somewhere? Were they feeling how he was? Lost, confused, and frustrated with the cards and the hands he’d been dealt?
“Kind of how it feels for me right now, I guess,” he said. “I know it’s not fair for me to feel this way...since I chose someone else. But I can’t help but feel hurt...seeing you with Sehun.”
You didn’t say anything. Deep down, you knew that was why he’d been acting like this all night. Like a lot of people out in the world, Baekhyun could dish it but he couldn’t take it. He left you on your ass and chose someone else. But he wasn’t satisfied with that and he had the audacity to be jealous of the new bond you were trying to make with Sehun. Part of you understood; humans were often selfish beings and they often felt things that didn’t make sense. 
Even still, it didn’t take the hurt away. It didn’t erase the feelings of hope that you had back then. It didn’t erase the fact that he hurt you in a way that you thought he never would. It didn’t take you back in time, to undo all the damage that had been done. It didn’t mend your broken heart.
Anger flared up in you again and, finally, you turned to meet his eyes. “You don’t have the right to be jealous, Baekhyun! You chose her.” You bit your lip, holding back a tear that threatened to follow. “How could you choose her over me and then come here and be jealous as soon as you see that someone else is interested in me? Someone who actually wants me and gives a shit.”
A pang of hurt hit him right in the heart. He looked into your eyes, a little more deeply than you needed him to. “Is that what you think? Of course I give a shit about you, Y/N! You’re all I can think about most days. And I wish that I could talk to you but you made it clear that you don’t want anything to do with me. And it hurts. It fucking hurts me, Y/N! I know you must think I’m some monster that doesn’t have feelings but I do…I know I hurt you too and that it doesn’t excuse anything but...” He sucked his teeth. “I admit it! I made the wrong decision, Y/N. I made all the wrong decisions and that’s on me. It’s my fault and I know it. I ruined everything we had and I fucking hate myself everyday for it. I can’t help that I’m in love with you, Y/N...”
A tear fell down your cheek. This was all too much. “I’m too drunk for this,” you said, clapping your hands together. You left Baekhyun on the balcony where he stood. And you were too fast for him to grab your hand.
Had he said too much? 
*
Kira came back to the apartment with her friends, carrying the cases of White Claw. She saw the entrance to the balcony through the kitchen and went through it, curious to where it led. She hadn’t realized that the balcony wrapped around to the other side of the apartment. And then she heard a familiar voice as she started toward the corner. She stopped, 
“—it hurts. It fucking hurts me, Y/N! I know you must think I’m some monster that doesn’t have feelings but I do…I know I hurt you too and that it doesn’t excuse anything but...I admit it! I made the wrong decision, Y/N. I made all the wrong decisions and that’s on me. It’s my fault and I know it. I ruined everything we had and I fucking hate myself everyday for it. I can’t help that I’m in love with you, Y/N...”
Kira’s heart dropped, tears falling down her face. She bit her lip, unsure of what to do next. Everything made sense now. Baekhyun’s behavior and yours, too. He was jealous because he was in love with her. More tears came as the realization set in. She watched as you walked off the balcony and back to the party. But Baekhyun stayed behind. He didn’t try to go after her. Kira heard him sigh loudly to face the street. 
Kira rationalized with herself for about two minutes. She wasn’t the confrontational type but she deserved answers, at least. Baekhyun still hadn’t moved, completely lost in his thoughts. So she took the opportunity to walk over to him. Her heeled boots clicked against the concrete, slowly taking steps to the answers that she deserved.
“I meant everything I said, Y/N,” Baekhyun said, as he turned around. Unfortunately, it was the last person he expected to find him here. From the look on his girlfriend’s face, he knew that she’d overheard at least part of what he said to you.
She looked at him, one hand on her hip. “How long have you been cheating on me?”
“I’m not cheating on you, Kira,” he said. “I’ve never cheated on you.”
“Don’t lie to me, Baekhyun…”
“I’m not lying.”
Her lip quivered, unable to hold in her hurt for much longer. “Our whole relationship is a lie, right? You don’t even love me...”
“I care about you, Kira. I do like you.”
“But you don’t love me. You never will...because you’re in love with her.” 
Baekhyun didn’t answer. What she said didn’t require an answer but he didn’t have much to say. He didn’t expect her to find out like this. She wasn’t supposed to be here right now. He had planned on breaking up with her but he didn’t plan on her finding out like this. Not only had he possibly ruined things with you but things were most likely going to end with Kira tonight—right now.
She pushed him in frustration. He lost his balance and stumbled backward. “Why?” 
Kira hit him again but he held his ground this time. “Why?”
She hit him again and again, taking her frustrations out on him. “Why, Baekhyun?”
Baekhyun didn’t do anything. He let her hit him because he deserved it. He broke her heart into a million pieces. She was feeling a pain that Baekhyun was responsible for. Kira wasn’t a confrontational person and rarely got angry. Once, there was a spider in her bedroom and, as Baekhyun had gone to get his shoe to kill it, she said, “Just leave it.” He almost wanted to smile at the memory. Kira was such a good person and he’d ruined her, causing her to act out of character.
She wasn’t supposed to find out like this. He came out here to apologize to you, not declare his love for you. He’d gone too far and Kira got hurt because of his actions. Things weren’t going as planned tonight. He’d done so much damage and within the span of about two hours. If things had gone as planned, he would’ve just come out here to apologize to you and, hopefully, smoothing things over enough for you not to hate his guts. Then he would’ve talked things over with Kira, preferably tomorrow when he was sober. 
“Please stop,” Baekhyun said, wrapping his arms around her. She struggled in his arms for a few seconds, trying to get out of his grasp, before giving up. Finally, she broke down into the tears she’d been holding back. He held her, patting her head gently. “I’m so sorry, Kira. I never meant to hurt you…”
Kira’s cries died down after a few more seconds. She was so hurt and she couldn’t deal with this. Everything was a lie. Her own boyfriend wasn’t falling for her like she was falling for him. She was falling for him so hard and that’s what hurt her the most. Her feelings weren’t returned. She didn’t understand what Baekhyun’s history with you was. Had they dated in the past? Regardless, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Would knowing hurt her even more?
“It’s not that I regret being with you, Kira,” he said. “That’s not it. I regret not being honest with myself and about my feelings. I’m sorry for everything. I mean that.” 
Hearing that didn’t make Kira feel better or worse. She pulled away from him. “If you weren’t sure, you should’ve just left me alone.”
“I know,” he said. “I was being selfish. I should’ve figured things out first...”
She let out a sigh, looking everywhere except at him. “I want to hate you but I can’t even do that…”
Baekhyun nodded. “I deserve that…”
“You know what hurts, Baekhyun?” she said, finally able to meet his eyes. “You were so occupied with her that you didn’t even notice that I left the party for a half hour. And even outside of tonight, it was always about her…That’s why you haven’t been able to give me your attention, right? Because you were thinking about her the whole time? You never noticed me because your eyes have always been for her…”
She wiped her tears with the backs of her hands. There was nothing left to say or do. Neither one of them had officially said that they’d broken up with words. Part of her still wanted to be with him and she wished that she could shove that feeling to the side. That was the thing about feelings; you could ignore them as much as you wanted but feelings can’t just be erased like they never happened, like you never had them in the first place. 
If she could go back in time, she would. She would go back in time to avoid dating Baekhyun. This was one of the relationships that weren’t meant to be. They should’ve left things how they were before, with her having a crush on Baekhyun that couldn’t go anywhere because she was on the road to studying abroad in Italy. They weren’t in sync; they didn’t meet at a time in their lives when things could’ve worked out. And, maybe, both of them should’ve just accepted that that chapter in their lives had ended. 
In the end, it wasn’t worth it and it wasn’t meant to be. From the start, the relationship was doomed.
*
Sehun couldn’t help but feel confused, sitting on the couch next to you. You’d just told him that you couldn’t be with him. That you’d thought about it and realized it wasn’t a good idea right now. He said, “Did something happen? I-I thought you wanted this…”
You bit your lip. “I don’t think I’m ready. I’m not over that guy...and I’m sorry for leading you on like this.”
Sehun had a feeling that you weren’t ready but part of him hoped that you were. He couldn’t be mad at you. If anything, he was grateful that you were telling him this now rather than later. He liked you and he enjoyed spending time with you, but it was better off letting each other go if you couldn’t give him what he needed. It seemed like you needed time and, to be honest, it seemed like even with time he couldn’t be sure that you’d pick him.
He couldn’t hide his disappointment. He liked you more than he expected to and finding out that the two of you most likely weren’t going to date was disappointing. You were younger than him and you were unsure of your feelings and what you wanted. Regardless of age though, Sehun knew what he wanted and he knew what he needed from a potential partner. He realized that he was chasing someone who kept leading him to dead ends. 
He stood up from the chair. “I understand. I hope you figure things out with Baekhyun…”
Sehun knew that Baekhyun was the person that you weren’t over, whether you said it to him or not. He knew that Baekhyun was the reason for the sudden change of heart. Things had been adding up all night, but he kept quiet about it. He chose to ignore the signs because he liked you. And part of him—the selfish part—had hoped that you’d ignore your feelings and come to him instead. But he knew how feelings worked. They didn’t make sense and they couldn’t be helped.
“I’m sorry, Sehun,” he said. “Maybe we could—”
He shook his head. “I think we should just leave it alone for now. I don’t wanna keep running around in circles with you. I like you and I don't want to hold onto the hope that you’ll come around.” He took a deep breath. This was hard for him, too. Sehun was ready to settle down, to finally find someone he clicked with. And he thought he’d found that with you but, so quickly, that dream was over. “You have a history with him, right? It’s complicated...so you should figure that out. And I’m not saying any of this to be petty. I genuinely mean it...Anyway, let’s just move on with our lives for now. If we cross paths one day, that’s fine, but I think we should just end things for now.”
Sehun had said everything he needed to say. And you didn’t have many words to say, but you found a few. “I don’t want you to think I never liked you...because I do. I meant all of the things I said to you tonight but there are just some things I need to take care of, like you said. Thank you for being understanding…”
“Take care, Y/N…”
“You too, Sehun.”
*
You woke up to your cell phone vibrating at four in the morning. You’d fallen asleep after a shower and you groaned as you looked at your phone and saw Baekhyun’s name flashing across the screen. 
Was he serious right now?
“Baekhyun, are you forreal?”
“I can’t sleep,” he said. “Me and Kira are over. I really fucked things up but I can’t stop thinking about you. Every thought I have is of you. I just...really need to talk to you.”
“What is there to talk about Baekhyun? Everything is over.”
“Open the door and tell me that everything is over. Tell me in person.”
“Go home, Baekhyun.”
“Please open the door, Y/N.”
You hung up on him and groaned. You rubbed sleep from your eyes and headed to the front door. When you opened the door Baekhyun was on the other side, dressed in a white t-shirt, sweats, and his black leather jacket.
“I love you, Y/N,” he said. “I need you...”
“Baekhyun, please,” you said. “You can’t just show up to my house in the middle of the night and try to talk to me about shit like this...”
“Tell me you don’t feel the same,” he said. “Tell me you don’t have feelings for me and I’ll leave you alone.” Baekhyun knew you well. He knew that you couldn’t lie to him. And he knew that deep down, you still had feelings for him somewhere. 
You looked up at him with tired eyes but you said nothing but before you could say anything, his lips were on yours. You did nothing to stop him and he kissed you and you kissed him back in the hallway of your apartment building. If anything, you deepened the kiss and melted into his embrace. His hands found your face and a few seconds later, you grabbed him and pulled him into the apartment before shutting the front door behind you.
“I want you,” he said, pulling away. “I wish I could take everything back but I can’t. And I know there’s nothing I can do or say to make it right but I want this. I want us. I want to be with you, Y/N…and, um, if you can find it in your heart to forgive me, at least—”
“I waited so long to hear you say that,” you admitted. “It’s all I ever wanted, Baek…” He kissed you again and you bumped and collided into the walls until you managed to get to your bedroom. His kiss, his touch, his everything felt right. You wrapped your arms around him and you said, “Show me...Show me how much you love me.”
Baekhyun nodded, putting his jacket on the chair in the corner of your room. You bit your lip, anticipating what was to come. You hadn’t slept with anyone else and you were ready. Sex with Baekhyun was the best you’d had yet and it had been hard not to have him for so many months. You’d been dying for a taste of him and here he was. All your prayers had been answered at this moment.  
You took your t-shirt off, showing off the rest of your body. Luckily for Baekhyun, you hadn’t been wearing any panties, leaving you completely naked. Baekhyun felt himself getting hard, looking at your figure. You were perfect and his dick throbbed for you. He took off his pants, freeing himself from the restraints of his sweats.
He approached you slowly, taking your body in. “You’re so perfect...” He pulled you into his chest, feeling on your body gently. “Are you sure you want this?” You nodded and sat on the bed. Baekhyun joined you, pressing his lips on yours. This time, the kisses were more gentle, more passionate. His tongue slowly entered yours and when you pulled away, you helped him out of his shirt, then his boxers. You ran your fingers across his head, causing Baekhyun to let out a slight gasp of pleasure.
For a moment, you stared at each others’ naked bodies. You loved everything about Baekhyun. You loved his body; the way it rocked against you when he was inside you and how it seemed like it was made just for you. You loved his lips and how they weren’t too big or too small, and the way he kissed you as if the world was ending. You loved his hands, his fingers and how slim they were and the way they felt inside you.
He pinned you to the bed, his hands on yours. He kissed your neck, sending shivers up your body. He kissed you there, sucking enough to leave a slight bruise but you didn’t care. You bit your lip in concealed pleasure, as he made his way past your neck and to your chest. Baekhyun took his time with your breasts, taking them in his hands. He squeezed them lightly before taking a nipple into his mouth. He sucked each lightly, slow and steady. Your body shuddered with pleasure and you let a tiny moan escape from your mouth. Baekhyun kept going, this time flicking his tongue a little more roughly. You moaned louder and Baekhyun started kissing down your stomach until he arrived at the place he’d been wanting to taste so badly.
You arched your back as Baekhyun circled his tongue around your clit, so lightly that it tickled. He did that a few more times, just to tease you. And before you could even beg, he started sucking on your clit like it was a piece of hard candy. You let out a string of expletives and Baekhyun was pleased with himself. He was driving you crazy and all that could be heard in your room was the sound of Baekhyun’s tongue and him slurping up your wetness.
“Fuck, I need you,” you whispered.
“You need me?” Baekhyun said, humming into your wet folds.
“Yes,” you whimpered.
A few seconds later, Baekhyun stopped. He licked his lips and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. And without further ado, he positioned himself between your legs and pushed inside you. You hummed in pleasure as you felt him fill you up. Baekhyun started kissing you again and you melted into his embrace as he thrusted in and out of you slowly. His lips never left yours and you wrapped your legs around him, pushing him in deeper.
Everything about this felt right to Baekhyun. Your legs felt perfect around his waist, your moans were music to his ears, and your tongue slid perfectly against his when he kissed you.
“Fuck,” he said, “you’re so tight…”
You moaned softly, Baekhyun still thrusting into you slowly; He wanted to take his time with you. He wanted to fuck you right and show you everything you’d been missing. He wanted you to feel him, in every sense of the word. He kissed you more and, eventually, he fit his fingers between yours. He held your hands down and thrusted himself more deeply into you. 
You whispered, “Harder.”
Baekhyun did as you wished and he knew that your orgasm had been building up. It was as if he was dancing inside of you, his hips picking up the pace, thrusting like his life depended on it. You bit your lips and your body writhed from underneath him. You wrapped your arms around him, digging your nails into his back. But Baekhyun didn’t mind. Scratch him, bite him, he didn’t care. As long as you were enjoying yourself, he’d let you ruin him. 
He pressed his body into yours, putting some weight on you. You were getting closer and closer as Baekhyun groaned in your ear and started kissing your neck. You were pulsing around him, squeezing his dick. 
“Keep doing that baby,” he said. “Don’t stop.”
“Fuck,” you said, letting out another moan. He felt so good inside you. You felt like you were going to burst soon. Baekhyun lifted himself off of you; He knew you were close and he wanted to see all the beautiful faces you made when you were coming. He looked you in your eyes while he fucked you, which turned you on more than he knew.
You were beginning to unravel. You were so close, at the top of a mountain. Then you let yourself fall, fall into a blinding pleasure. You came undone around Baekhyun. You couldn’t see. You couldn’t hear. But you could feel it, as you tipped over the edge with a toe curling gasp. 
This was the moment Baekhyun had been waiting for. He loved the way your eyes screwed shut and the way your lips parted slightly. And how your body jerked and writhed with your orgasm. He felt your pussy pulsing, squeezing and pushing him around. That was all he needed and that was all it took for him to come right after. He’d been holding back this whole time, struggling to hold himself together until you came. The thighs that had been tightening around him turned to jelly. And he groaned one last time before he collapsed on top of you.
Both of you panted heavily, your hearts racing. You wrapped your arms around him as you caught your breath. The two of you were at a loss for words. Reality started to set in for you. You never expected this to happen. Hell, you were prepared for the possibility of never being on speaking terms with Baekhyun again. But here he was, on top of you with his dick still inside. Who would’ve thought the events of tonight would lead up to this?
He pulled out of you, reaching for the box of tissues on your nightstand. As he returned to wipe you off, he noticed a huge wet spot on your sheets. You’d been dripping, leaking all over the bed while he fucked you. And now his cum was oozing out of your pussy. 
As he cleaned you up, he said, “We made a mess, huh?” You glanced down, noticing the sheet. You let out a giggle. “It’s okay. I’ll help you wash it tomorrow if I can spend the night here with you.” 
You smiled, standing up. “Of course. It’s like five in the morning.”
As the two of you pulled the sheet back, Baekhyun said, “I don’t want you to think that this is all I came here for…”
You laid down on the bed, propping yourself up with pillows. “That’s not what I think. I wanted this too...”
He sat next to you on the bed. He hesitated but he needed to know what would become of them. He looked you in your eyes for a few seconds. “Can we...try again? I know I can’t take anything back but I want to start over.”
You nodded and said, “I forgive you, Baekhyun. Let’s do things right this time, okay?”
His heart almost jumped out of his chest. He never expected things to go like this. He didn’t expect you to forgive him, he didn’t expect to sleep with you, or for things to get as far as they got. It was like all of his prayers had suddenly been answered. He knew that, deep down, he didn’t deserve you. But maybe he did. Maybe everything that had happened was for a reason, reasons that neither of you would ever understand. Over the past few weeks, Baekhyun felt like he’d undergone something like character development. He’d taken you for granted and he wasn’t honest with himself or with anyone else about his feelings. He’d been immature and in denial. This situation, in a way, put things into perspective for him.
This time, you leaned in for a kiss. When you pulled away, you said, “Did you mean what you said before?”
“What?”
“That you love me…”
Baekhyun nodded. That was the one feeling he was one hundred percent certain about. He loved you. “Of course I meant it.”
“Say it again.” 
You thought that maybe it was a ridiculous request and that it was just your insecurities trying to get the better of you. But, in this moment, you needed a bit of reassurance. Most people would’ve told you to leave Baekhyun in the dust, that you deserved better. And maybe it was true. But it wasn’t your truth. The truth was that Baekhyun made you happy. Even though you’d been hurt, your heart still skipped a beat every time your eyes met. You just needed to know that everything was okay and that you were making the right decision.
“I love you,” he said. “I love you, Y/N…”
You kissed again and again as the sun rose, the light peeking through your blinds. You melted into his embrace and he melted into yours. The two of you got lost, drunk, in each others mouths. And, through the blinds, you could see the sun rising. A new day, no—a new chapter was ahead. And you were just glad Baekhyun was here for the ride.
FIN. (like, actually)
Tag List: @shesdreaminginoverdose @multistania @jeonchan26 @myonlyaurora @keloiu @xxluckydreamsxx @multifandomeras @blanknearvana @jddcfc-blog @jummyjammy @mintaemark @kokobyunee @fortheloveofinfinite @littleflowercrown13 @wayvexo @to-all-the-stories-i-love @ggaayyyong @hyuniebaby @giriboyshogu @xyukheix @jekylluv @forbyun @endzii23 @puppyeoliepop @aa-ronpa @jessverdin @princemicorazon @sjkings @marimsun @baekhypnotized @cynthbee @xuyiyangstan @justmitchie @minseoksnz @wooya1224 @stepanielove @deadelline @kimluvwoo @sehunski @desired-love- @bexinini @g0lden-sunset @justineasian @vad-hander @loeygotospacenow @nana-banana @happiestgirlontheeastcoast
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mr-chatterboxs-column · 2 years ago
Video
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vague explanation of why these clips are jointly relevant below the cut
So earlier this month I watched the movie Valley Girl for the first time (Nic Cage Summer woo), which was designed to delight me personally, like a beautiful projection of Romeo and Juliet onto the TMBG song "XTC vs Adam Ant," but with the impressive era-specific datedness of Mannequin, another rom-com I adore because of, not despite, its having aged so badly it reads as a period piece. The thing that thrilled me from the start was the dialogue, even though I couldn't really justify it with logic mid-experience. When I was writing a review and later trying to convey my enthusiasm to my best friend, my instinct was to compare it to Soderbergh even though on the face of it I could not begin to understand why.
I am a known, diagnosed Soderbergh enjoyer slash apologist (don't worry, it’s not terminal, I realize Magic Mike XXL is better than the original) and the speech above from Sex, Lies, & Videotape is one that has been engraved in my brain since the first time I saw that movie, probably in high school. It's got an acclaimed script that is known for its seeming lack of formalism, its realism, but one of my favorite things about that speech is that it is a structural Chekhov's Gun in disguise as realism. It feels like a movie that is full of conversations that go nowhere, but it is actually a movie about "conversations that go nowhere" -- like, they are *a plot point*.
It's about analyzing the value of conversations that go nowhere, about how they are valued in different ways in different contexts and between different people, about when that is good and when that is bad and when that is just something you should notice, like maybe we as people don't always notice when we have replaced doing something with instead just having a conversation that goes nowhere. And that dinner conversation that feels like just an excerpt from an awkward one-act play about "huh it can be weird to talk to college friends you haven't seen in years" is actually expository dialogue establishing "this character actively does not want to be able to lock his fucking front door." I'm sure if Soderbergh did write that one-act play it would be great and probably really fun to watch, but this is a guy who has directed some of the best heist movies of the last 20 years. It's one of those cases where "therapy language" in a fictional setting is being used not because the screenwriter is part of LA therapy culture or because it's an element of the modern comedic mileau but because it's establishing the particular relationship different characters have with Literal Therapy, you know? So in that sense, it's not a realistic script at all. It's formalized, it's designed to feel like Ann, John, Graham, and Cynthia are in these modern Southern harlequinade roles or they're trying to break out of them.
Anyway, for me that's how it ties back around to Valley Girl. I have absolutely no context for whether the slang in Valley Girl is being used "accurately" or "realistically" (it was made years before I was born and I have never been to California) and I don't think that matters at all. All the characters are communicating in a way that serves a function, they're establishing their roles and how they're trying or not trying to defy their roles or reach across the arbitrary barriers they encounter (mostly capitalistic). So many of the big scenes where you're supposed to see chemistry building between Randy and Julie are them talking excitedly with each other at a distance, so their dialogue isn't quite audible, and once the camera reaches them it's not clear what they could really have been talking *about* before; a lot of their most emotional on-screen exchanges are conversations that go nowhere to the point of barely having any nouns in them. But they clearly both know that talking to each other *at all* is defying their roles, and then in the obligatory pre-climactic breakup scene, the true high point, the "one key" moment in Valley Girl, is Randy, visibly shocked at having been dumped and struggling to think of a retort that will hurt Julie in turn, telling her to "fuck off, fer sure, like totally," making fun of her Valley slang in a way that almost feels like breaking the fourth wall, given the bulk of the movie never acknowledges that most of the cast members are using this extremely distinctive mode of speech. This element of the script that has been a source of comic relief throughout has been pointedly identified as a symbol of economic and class divisions, all the social tensions that the movie is *actually* about, for the entire early section that seems like just a by-the-numbers teen comedy.
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kinktae · 4 years ago
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beyond the story: bitchin’
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Hi friends! I hope you are all staying safe and healthy during these tough times! I really wanted to put something out there as a thank you to just how much support Bitchin’ got. You guys really are incredible. So, although this story has come to an end, I wanted to properly close the Bitchin’ chapter by giving you all a behind the scenes look at Bitchin’ and everything that went into writing it. This includes hidden easter eggs, backstories, alternative plot-lines, and a short drabble of the Bitchin’ cast 10 years after the story’s end.
Without further ado, please enjoy and thank you again for all your love. You have all of mine.
CHAPTER ONE – PARTNERS
Ah, yes, the start of this whole wild ride. I’ve always loved the whole nerd/popular person trope in fanfics, so it was only a matter of time before I tried my hand at it too. One thing I was adamant about was not making this a “popular person turns nerd hot/confident/better” fic as its kind of one of my least favorite cliches. With that in mind, and knowing that I was going to allude to TATBILB’s contract, I decided that I wanted Y/N to gain as much from the deal as Jungkook did. No blackmail, no just agreeing for the hell of it – Y/N was going to further herself and her dreams given the opportunity.
The beginning of the chapter is where the two are most separated and dissimilar throughout the whole story. It wasn’t that they were fundamentally different, it was that they approached life differently. Y/N was frustrated at how superficial Jungkook seemed, because she believes there is much more to life than just kicking your feet up and cracking jokes.
On the other hand, Jungkook didn’t understand why Y/N was so tense and on guard. To him, life was meant to enjoy and not take so seriously. Which makes sense, given that he grew up with minimal rules and minimal worries (bare minimum partners wassup !) 
“So, do we have a deal? Partners?” There was mischievous timber to his words, the kind that made you feel as if this would all later come back to bite you in the ass.
Pushing that pestering thought away, you took his hand into yours, holding his eyes as you gave it a firm shake.
“Partners.”
God, this bit. I knew from the minute I wrote it that I was writing the ending of bitchin’ along with it. I knew this was exactly how I was going to end this story, bc the word partners has multiple means right? In chapter 1, this meant business partners, but in the final chapter… it means life partners. Idk, I’m just still really happy with this writing decision :D
CHAPTER TWO – THE CONTRACT
Dearest Yara. We meet her in chapter two don’t we? Yara is completely based off of my irl best friend Yara who is a writer and who helped me A LOT with this story. She was my biggest supporter throughout figuring out this crazy plot. It was initially only about seven parts, but with her help I managed to bump it up to 10! Everybody say thank you Yaraaaa.
You were angry, that much was evident to her. Yara was sat in your shared dorm’s living room, a thick blanket engulfing her small frame. You briefly glanced towards the TV, it was tuned into MTV, the familiar music video of Every Breath You Take by The Police playing, before directing your glare back onto the copper-haired girl.
The song reference is a direct allusion to writer Yara’s fic, which is one of my favorite fics by her. She was actively writing it around the start of our friendship so it only felt right to pay respects to her. The introduction of her character felt necessary imo bc I wanted to make sure Y/N had a life outside Jungkook. Plus, I got to use the scenes between the two girls as a way to reference the music and culture scene. Yara is especially a fan of the powerful women in the music industry at the time, i.e., Madonna, Annie Lennox, Cyndi Laupner, etc.) Yara is a raging feminist and believer in sexual freedom and libery for women, we do in fact have to stan.
“How old do you think your sister is?”
“Hey, don’t sass me. For your information, Lyanna still has all her Care Bear tapes. She threw a hissy fit when my mom tried to give them away last Christmas.” Yara recalled.
Lyanna is one of writer Yara’s past pseudonyms. She always used to joke about how whenever she read it, it was confusing because there was Y/N, Yara and Lyanna, which were technically all her lolol.
FUNNY STORY ABOUT THE CONTRACT I INSERTED INTO THIS PICTURE… Twitter found it and made it into somewhat of a meme because no one knew it came from a fic rip. I was actually rly embarrassed and even wrote some posts about how much twitter scared me on my blog LMAO. but THEN weirdly enough, I actually stumbled upon a small community on twitter who actually found my fic and would TWEET ABOUT IT!!! LIKE REACTIONS TO EACH UPDATE!!! I wish I could go back in time and remember how giddy I was the first time I found a tweet about my fic. The fanfic community on twitter gave me a new love for the site (which I had previously had removed myself from because of its toxicity) and I have met so many wonderful people because of it. People even made themselves a little twitter group chat to talk about my fics, and now we are all friends! I miss posting a chapter of bitchin’ and refreshing my twitter feed as all my mutuals would post memes and live tweet their reactions. God that made me so fucking happy.
CHAPTER THREE – THE ROLLERSKATING DATE
I love the bickering in this chapter, because unlike the bickering in the first chapter, it’s actually less hostile and more playful. Y/N is slowly letting her guard down to the very persistently charming Jungkook.
“Woah. Family of six, huh? So you have siblings then.” He noted.
“Yep. Three.”
“Tell me about them.”
Looking up from where you were slipping on your second skate, you met Jungkook’s eyes, surprised to see genuine interest in them.
I actually originally had Y/N brush him off here. I was going to wait until the drunk party scene for Y/N to open up about her family and relationship with her sisters. But then I kind of thought to myself… Why? Y/N made peace with it and doesn’t hold onto those insecurities anymore. And objectively, Jungkook hasn’t proven himself to be a bad person so… I let Y/N open herself up to him.
“Then there’s the twins, Rosa and Lia.”
“Hold on. Twins? Wait… did they go to our high school?” Jungkook asked, his interest in this conversation doubled.
“Yep. They were two grades above us.” You confirmed.
“Oh shit, yeah, I remember your sisters, they were mad hot.” Jungkook let out a low whistle, before stiffening, flashing you an apologetic look. “Uh, in a totally non-meathead way.”
You offered the scared-looking boy a small smile, shaking your head.
Some of y’all notice but, Rosa and Lia are a blatant homage to my name: Roselia. ACTUALLY some form of my name can be found in every one of the rewind series fics, including upcoming ones. I’ll give a cookie to whoever can find every single mention hehe.
“I told you it was dumb.” You laughed nervously.
It wasn’t that you cared much about what Jungkook thought but you had a feeling a guy like him, who was popular and carefree, wouldn’t be able to sympathize in the way you would like him to.
“No, I’m just… surprised, that’s all.”
Jungkook certainly was surprised. You had built up quite the impression on him from the very moment you two met. It was hard to imagine that the girl who was so unapologetically herself was ever unsure or insecure.
Somehow, the idea tugged at his heart, as if he understood you more if only just a little.
From the get go, Jungkook was extremely drawn to just how confident and secure Y/N was in herself. I knew I wanted Y/N to be unapologetically sure of herself and in her abilities. Something I didn’t want, however, was for frat boy!jungkook’s only personality traits to be liking sex and being a cocky bastard (although I am a big consumer of that trope heh). Jungkook is actually canonly incredibly insecure. He lacks a real sense of self, which is why he is so desperate for Kiri back. His relationship with Kiri at that time was a big part of what he thought was himself. He has somewhat of low self esteem tbh which is why he’ll go back to a woman who treated him unfairly. That’s why he comes off the way he does in the first chapter and why Y/N thinks he has a big ego... he’s overcompensating. He finds it so endlessly fascinating that Y/N, in all her confident glory, was actually once super insecure. He admires her all the more once she opens up about her past.
“Oh, Rosa is an intern for our hometown’s newspaper but between you and me those assholes don’t even let her write. She does coffee and burger runs for men in charge. And Lia sells ice cream at the mall.”
“What about your brother?” Jungkook asked.
“He’s training to be a cop just like my dad.”
“And your mom?”
“She works at a convenience store.”
All their careers resemble people in the latest Stranger Things season (Nancy, Steve, Hopper, and Joyce). Fun Cameo there.
“What’s wrong?” You wondered, following his eyes.
“October 16th, 1985. 6:48PM.”
“Yes. That’s today’s date and time. What about it?” You pressed, growing confused.
“Remember it.” He warned.
“Why?”
“It’s when I fell in love with you.”
This iconic line I actually got from the real Jeon Jungkook himself. While Jungkook wasn’t actually in love with Y/N here, it certainly was a cute way for him to express his admiration for her.
OH HERE’S A FUN FACT: the hickey scene at the end of this chapter where JK and Y/N kiss for the first time was actually supposed to be Yara giving Y/N the hickey like the best friend she is. Ultimately I went with JK giving it for... smut purposes... ≖‿≖ 
CHAPTER FOUR – THE HALLOWEEN PARTY
The decision for Y/N to be Freddie Krueger came from me planning to be him for Halloween. And I was! JK as Glen Lantz just followed naturally. I’ve seen some great edits of him as the character. Truly chef’s kiss.
I really liked that Jungkook came over to the girl’s dorm to get ready. I didn’t want a scene where Y/N was thrown into a situation she was uncomfortable with which is how much Nerd At A Party Scene go so made sure Jungkook stayed by her side throughout the part, going out of his way to introducing her to the people he cared about.
Tae’s character came in when I realized I needed a way to actually put Y/N’s event in motion. He was the missing link and BOY did you guys eat his character right up huh. Love that for me.
Another thing, the confrontation with Kiri was so hard to write guys, I reeaaaally struggle with girl conflict. GIRLS SHOULD SUPPORT GIRLS. However, not everyone gets along in real life so I went with Kiri being more along the lines of petty rather than outwardly a cunt to Y/N. Realistically, Kiri is popular and well liked among the greek life so being unkind to someone she hardly knows wouldn’t make sense. There’s definitely tension between these two but I tried my best to steer away from the typical cat fight/revenge porn/public humiliation trope most movies seem to follow.
CHAPTER FIVE – THE FIRST TIME
Introduction to Erik!!!! It was really important to me that Y/N had a life before Jungkook. That's why I wrote in Y/N having a fiancé. She’s not opposed to love, she just has reshifted her focus. She knows what she wants and is choosing to focus on that, which why when she realizes she’s falling for Kookie she’s so hesitant to admit it because she’s fallen down that road before. Even though Jungkook treats her with respect and acknowledges the parts of her she’s most proud of, she just isn’t willing to possibly give up her passions for love. Which is why she doesn’t immediately confess to him, even once she’s sure she loves him.
“I’m serious, nerd. You’re like… um… the sun!” Jungkook marveled, eyes growing full as the realization dawned on him.
“The sun?” You laughed.
“Yeah, like… you’re this bright, beautiful thing that seems like it’s here in front of me but is really light-years away.”
Jungkook was drunk, and although you were sure he was making more sense in his head, you couldn’t help but feel your face grow hot, unsure of how to react to his drunk analogy.
“You’re the sun, Y/N. You make the world turn for you. Never orbit for anyone else.”
And suddenly, you were kissing him, for no other reason other than you wanted to and that it felt like the right thing to do.
No real commentary here. Just love this bit. It’s probably my favorite interaction between them two ‧⁺◟( ᵒ̴̶̷̥́ ·̫ ᵒ̴̶̷̣̥̀ ) 
“Also… She’s, uh, currently dating Eunwoo.” You told Yara.
Your best friend blinked, silence falling over her.
“Yara?”
“Good for her.” She perked up almost forcibly. “Let her put up with his annoying ass.”
Yara could see the way your expression had turned dubious as if you didn’t believe her nonchalant act.
Yara turned up her nose defensively, “What?”
Ugh yes, some character development from Yara.... the flavor ! Yara (much like Y/N and JK) also struggles with love. She has a real fear of commitment and if far more comfortable with casual sex than relationships. She did develop actual feelings for Eunwoo, she just wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment so she cut him off. Fleed the scene if you will. Typical gemini smh my head.
"I don’t think the contract mentioned orgasms.” Jungkook smirked as you released his thumb.
“I say we let it slide.” You shrugged, leaning into him casually.
“You think?”
“Totally. Think of it as… a bonding activity.” You joked, resting your chin on his shoulder, peering up through your lashes.
“Damn, we’re really committed to this fake dating thing, huh.”
You laughed in the way that you hated, but Jungkook loved; it was loud and abrupt, but it genuine, and it was you.
“What can I say, I’m a method actor.” You sighed dramatically, causing Jungkook to grin before pressing a kiss to your nose, simply because he liked the way it always seemed to make you smile.
GOD THEY’RE SO WHIPPED FOR EACH OTHER ITS DISGUSTING!!!!!! I’m really happy I decided not to make sleeping together a big deal and I got a lot of feedback from you guys agreeing! I had a lot of fun with these two’s sex scenes knowing they could do it whenever they wanted.
CHAPTER SIX – THE STEM EVENT
I started the scene with smut BUT I wanted to point out that much of their time spent together is at Y/N dorm, Jungkook either napping, hanging out or doing work as Y/N would study like she always did. I liked the idea that Jungkook would get bored and would want attention from Y/N because she was so focused. Idk, I just wanted to write a love story about two people spending time together and figuring out how they fit in each other’s lives as opposed to some dramatic I mEeT HiM aNd mY LiFe bEcAmE cRaZy. There’s nothing wrong with that plot line, I just didn’t want that for these two dorks. I wanted Y/N to interact with JK’s scene and crowd but not give up her own which is why most days JK and her just lounged around in her dorm studying.
Also, I don’t know how the teacher/student roleplay made it into the smut, it just did, no further questions (ʃ⌣́_⌣́ƪ).
Then the event scene.
“You’re whipped, dude! Seriously.”
Jungkook felt his face go red, “Shut up, no, I’m not.”
“Hey, I’m not judging. I get it. That’s your girl.” Taehyung shrugged. Jungkook placed a hand on the fold up table in front of him, staring down at the information pamphlet you had worked so hard on.
“She’s just… so fucking driven and passionate about everything she does. Sometimes I look at her, and I’m just like… holy shit, what am I doing with a girl like her? I feel like she’s totally out of my league and being with me is holding her back but— I dunno, man. I just… really like her.” Jungkook revealed, voice growing small.
An unexpected wave of tenderness fell over the two boys, Taehyung throwing an arm over his little brother’s shoulder.
“I’m happy for you, bro.”
Jungkook didn’t know it just yet but dude was talking from the heart and, is in fact, totally whipped :’c
I loved the confrontation scene between the boys and Eunwoo because the boys standing up for Yara really did make everyone feel like a friend group, not just some character who happen to exist at the same time. It wasn’t just Y/N and Yara and one side and the boys on the other. They would all become friends, which is ideal to me. A boyfriend who likes your best friend and considers her a friend so you can all hang out??? Yes please.
Initially, irl Yara and I had noooo clue if Yara would end up with Eunwoo or not. That was actually the original goal actually. But after this chapter four, you guys made it ABUNDANTLY clear that you guys wanted to see Taeyara, despite the two never even meeting! Honestly, it wasn’t until this chapter was written that we decided for sure that Eunwoo was out of the picture for Yara. Part of me really wanted to keep Yara single, but irl Yara insisted on dick and frankly, she’s right. Bitchin’ Yara deserved a shot at love. She definitely has her own story outside of Bitchin’ and will experience a lot of growth in the future.
“God, I know. I do not miss that temper of his.” She chuckled, her words piquing your interest.
“Temper?”
“Oh, yeah. Have you seriously not experienced it yet? He’s got some gnarly anger issues. Not to mention all the lying…” Kiri paused suddenly, straightening up as she flashed you an apologetic look. “Yikes, I’m sorry. I totally should not be telling you this. I’m not trying to be that gross girl that shit talks her ex to his current girlfriend.”
Miss Kiri, Miss Kiri. She really acted up this chapter didn’t she. There was a lot of discussion about whether or not those things she said about Jungkook were true. Which was exactly what I wanted hehe. We come to find out that Kiri had definitely stretched the truth. She really is good at manipulation and understanding how people think and it’s why she is in the role that she is in. Messy queen.
CHAPTER SEVEN – THE ROOFTOP DATE
This entire chapter was inspired by High School Musical with Troy and Gabriella’s rooftop garden scenes. This was my shortest chapter and honestly, probably not my strongest. I definitely went into writing this with zero concept of what I actually wanted to happen. Usually when I write my chapters I have a 4k long outline of it beforehand that I go off of. Not this one though. I really just winged it and I tried my best to write a chapter that really showed off (dialogue wise) just how this couple bounces off each other. I do really like some of the banter they have in this chapter.
You had taken note a little wooden popsicle stick poking up from the soil of the yellow flowers. Acacias, they were marked. Pulling your knees up to your chest, you considered his words.
Yellow acacias stands the value of true friendship and can indicate a secret love! I thought that was very appropriate given these dummies' relationship.
“So, you probably know why I brought you here.”
You nodded.
“You’re proposing, right?”
“Yeah, I– oh, shut up.” He laughed, the serious mood shattering as you joined him.
Even though I knew they were going to have a semi serious talk, what with Y/N asking about what Kiri had told her, these two dufuses realistically are just too comfortable with each other to stay serious for too long.
“Hey, I said that out of frustration, I didn’t really mean it. I’m sure she’ll come crawling back soon.” You attempted to comfort him, hoping to sound sincere.
“Even if that’s true, I’m not entirely sure I want that anymore.”
“What?” You blinked. Jungkook shrugged.
“What about us?” He met your eyes, causing your breath to hitch.
“What about us?”
Jungkook stared at you for a moment, noting the way the timber in your voice had become higher pitched as if panicked.
MORE FUN FACTS LMFAO: I typically do this thing with unplanned chapters where I just go for it and write and usually it works out. But when I wrote this down I remember stopping and being like ??? WHY DID I JUST WRITE THAT ??? I don’t like deleting my writing so I had a serious think to myself about whether this was going to be the moment Jungkook confessed or not.
Canonly, I decided that Jungkook did in fact mean ‘us’ in a romantic sense, but because of the way you perceivably panicked at that possible meaning, he decided against taking the conversation in that direction, instead speaking about ‘us’ in a platonic sense. Poor kookie :(
“Stop. Listen to me, Jungkook, you’re a fucking great guy, okay? You’re charismatic and funny and care about your friends… sure, you almost ruined my event, but it was mostly to defend my best friend when Eunwoo got too pushy, right? You’re a good guy, meathead. I know I joke about your ego, but I really believe you’re capable of more than you think you are. Seriously, Kiri is so lucky to be the object of your affection.”
Jungkook watched the way the sun’s orange light kissed your face, a bittersweet feeling growing in his chest as he contemplated the object of his affection. Just a couple of months ago, he would have had no doubt about who held his heart, but as you held his stare, he found himself unsure and yet, entirely sure all the same.
“Jungkook? You okay?” You frowned, catching in the sadness in his eyes.
“Hm? Yeah, yeah. I just… realized something.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
“…It doesn’t matter.” He smiled, the gesture hardly reaching his eyes.
It’s in this moment that Jungkook decides that there is no way you hold the same affection towards him that he does to you. He mistakes your words of comfort as you pushing him away. You are so kind and encouraging and Jungkook loves you so much that hearing you insist about him ending back up with Kiri hurts him so bad.
But you are still unsure about your feelings and genuinely believe that's still what Jungkook wants. You’re just being a supportive friend!! :( It isn’t until the end of this chapter when Y/N has her talk with Yara that she realizes, oh man, she’s in deep.
CHAPTER EIGHT – THE MISTAKE
BLAH. This chapter is so BLAH, you know? Having to write this chapter was SO HARD. I texted irl Yara complaining about how much I hated having to put my characters through this and that I wanted to just end the story on chapter 7 and keep them happy forever. BUT ALAS! I had planned for this to happen from the start.
You tasted like the mint of your favorite brand of toothpaste. He imagined if he had caught you any later then the mint would have been accompanied by the taste of coffee, knowing the way you rarely started a day without a cup.
God, he had missed the taste of you.
What you guys didn’t see is Jungkook spending the night with Kiri, and immediately kicking her out, freaking out as the weight of guilt washed over him. He knew he had done nothing wrong, that you weren’t his real girlfriend, and that getting back together with Kiri was exactly what he had signed up for. It was what he should’ve wanted. But it wasn't… because you were what he wanted. And that was exactly what he was going to tell you as he marched over to your apartment.
But he panicked. His mind already decided that your answer to him would be no– that you didn’t feel the same. So he kissed you. He had you in the only way he was allowed to. He was selfish and impulsive and so incredibly scared that he ended up hurting the person he loved the most.
Initially though, I had Jungkook get back together with Kiri, not that he slept with her right before sleeping with Y/N. But I decided TEEHEE let me just make everything erupt into flames. However, I didn’t realize just how angry with Jungkook you guys would get. I remember thinking DAMMIT WAS THAT TOO SCANDALOUS?? I knew I was going to have to work hard for Jungkook to redeem himself to my readers.
“She wants to get back together.” Jungkook swallowed dryly, eyes wavering between yours as if to gauge your reaction.
“…Oh.”
You shook your head.
“I mean, wow! That’s… That’s great!” You smiled, something tearing apart inside you as the words left your lips.
“Y/N–”
“Seriously! This means it worked, right? This is exactly what you wanted to happen.” You enthused, turning your head so that he couldn’t see the way your eyes had welled up.
Jungkook’s heart was pounding in his ears, fighting the urge to wrap his arms around you.
“Yeah… yeah, no, you’re right. We did it.” He replied monotonously.
GOD THIS PART IS SO UNBELIEVABLY FRUSTRATING! JUST ADMIT YOU LOVE EACH OTHER YOU MORONS! This entire situation is so convoluted because there's so much information missing and not being expressed, I seriously want to ring my own neck rereading this bit.
“Are you mad?” He called out cautiously, a heavy feeling falling onto his chest.
“Why would I be mad?” You quipped back sharply, causing Jungkook to flinch. He shifted in his seat uncomfortably.
“I just thought… I mean we’ve been fooling around a lot lately, so I didn’t know if—”
“If what? I had feelings for you?” You scoffed. “Please, as if I’d ever fall for you.”
And there it was— everything Jungkook already knew but had been so afraid to hear. Of course, you didn’t feel for him what he felt for you. How could he have expected anything different?
IDIOTS!!! THEY'RE BOTH IDIOTS!!! I don't know how y'all put up with this for so long. Forgive me.
CHAPTER NINE – THE BREAK
Okay I actually love this chapter. And for many reasons. Let me break down the three scenes for you guys.
Scene one: Kiri confrontation
Kiri is definitely an opposing antagonist. She is constantly working against Y/N because of their interests directly conflicting. BUT. I would argue that the biggest antagonist to this story is the inner ones – Y/N and Jungkook's lack of ability to admit their feelings constantly holding them both back from their happy ending. That being said, a confrontation scene between Y/N and Kiri was MUCH needed. While I suppose I can understand why Kiri doesn't like Y/N, that doesn't change the fact that she has been disrespectful and catty. So miss Y/N had to put Miss Kiri in her place (•̀ᴗ•́)
Scene two: Yara and Tae at the library
Fanservice. That is all. LMFAOOO y'all reallllyyy wanted it to happen and who am I to deny my people what they want. It was really fun getting to explore my side characters and develop them through interactions outside the two main characters. IRL Yara also mentioned giving bitchin’ Yara and Tae their own chapter as a joke and I was like LOL BET. I fully was going to but then I got the idea for the next scene and was like ahh ok maybe not the whole chapter.
Scene three: Meeting with Erik
So. This was a SUPER last minute decision. Like, it wasn’t until I was writing this chapter that I planned on Erik making an appearance. I saw a tweet with someone saying their bitchin theories and they mentioned Erik appearing out of nowhere and I was like,,, HOLD ON!!!! That could be kind of spicy ≖‿≖ 
I knew for a fact JK was NOT going to be forgiven in this chapter; I needed a way to lay the situation out between the two dorks without trying to seem like I was trying to sway my audience in a way that didn't make sense to the story. Y/N was rightfully angry. But she wasn't only angry about the timing of the sex. She was angry that Jungkook went back to Kiri at all and there was no way she was going to admit that. So who better to lay it all out than calculated, unbiased third party Erik. He deserved some character development after all.
I also liked the idea that Y/N had, in theory, “romantic options.” Losing Jungkook didn’t mean the end of her life. Having my female lead stand on her own was very important to me.
CHAPTER TEN – THE END
RIGHT OF THE BAT I needed Jungkook to suffer. So that whole scene where he tries to interact with his old group only for his presence to make everything awkward MMMM yes, sweet revenge on my part.
You were surprised. His hair was no longer shaggy and long like you remembered it. Instead, it had been freshly cut, looking healthy and neatly styled for the first time since you met Jungkook.
THE WAY SO MANY PEOPLE COMMENTED ON THIS LINE “but Y/N liked it long?!?”  IS SO FUNNNYyyyy. So let me clarify a thing. Jungkook had always wanted to cut his hair right. The only reason he didn’t was because Y/N told him not to. With Y/N no longer in the picture to convince him out of it, he cut his hair. That’s really all there is to it skfjsjf.
You know, I had written this part around the time I had just finished up the third ch believe it or not. And it was COMPLETELY different. I had it planned that Yara and Y/N ignored him throughout class and Yara had gone back after the bell rang to go verbally assault JK. And as the two hashed it out, only then was that when Jungkook would realize that he liked Y/N after Yara literally spelled it out for him.
“You like her, dumbass!” Was what I had written Yara saying. I really had written him in denial for ten chapters, I was a whole sociopath (╥﹏╥). But ultimately, I decided that Jungkook came to that conclusion on his own and the decision to apologize to Y/N would have been made over winter break.
“You said Kiri came over asking for you back, yet you still came over and slept with me the next day. Even though the two of you had sex the night before. Do you understand how that makes me feel?”
“I’m—”
“Like garbage!" You emphasized, the white paint of the door somehow irritating you further. "I felt like I was something you threw away and picked back up whenever you felt like getting your dick wet.”
Your chest was rising and falling rapidly, and you tried your hardest to not let your emotions get the best of you.
“Not to mention to everyone else, it looks like you cheated on me. Which makes me look like a fucking idiot." You scoffed.
Jungkook said nothing in reply, which somehow made it easier to say all you should have said that day in your room.
“It just sucks to realize that someone you once cared about sees you as nothing more than a toy. It fucking sucks.”
Man :( writing this hurt my heart. I really, really, love bitchin!y/n and writing her hurting freaking stinks. But she had to speak her mind. She deserves the chance to get everything off her chest with the way Jungkook hurt her.
Your heart and mind were in constant paradox, torn between wanting him back and wanting him to know just how much he had hurt you. Your mind ultimately won the battle, of course, but as Jungkook stood just a few inches of drywood apart pouring his heart out, it was hard to say which major organ was responsible for your next words.
The creak of the door being pushed open sent Jungkook's eyes wide, revealing your hesitant form. You had your arms crossed over your chest as if to guard the contents inside of it.
You looked like an angel underneath the bathroom's blue fluorescent lights, beautiful and lovely, a stark contrast from your next crushing sentence.
“I slept with Erik.”
Hehe. Ofc my girl Y/N had to have a rebound!!! She knows that life goes on. However, as I wrote in, she definitely regretted it. It was kind of the same situation that Jungkook was in where he pursued something just because it was familiar and a distraction and not because he really wanted it. Both Y/N and Jungkook are flawed characters but that’s okay! If anything, Y/N’s mistake of sleeping with Erik is what allows her to forgive Jungkook. Knowing first hand how complicated their entire relationship really was.
“I don’t need you… but I don’t think I want a life without you.” You finished shyly.
Your eyes were locked with his when suddenly a small noise escaped him, eyes pulling away from yours as his head moved to attempt to hide the way his eyes had grown wet.
I got this line from one of my best friends after her ex broke up with her. It made me physically sad and really sympathize with her so I quickly wrote it down into my notes app to save for later LMAOOOO. Knowing that you are your own person and life will inevitably go on after losing someone, but that your heart still wants and is pleading for the one person you can’t have. SO SAD. I’m happy I got to use this line in one of my fics.
The note Jungkook wrote Y/N,,, imagine him not being able to sleep one night over winter break so he just writes down everything he should have told Y/N while he still had the chance…. I’ll for real cry dude, he’s so cute. Also, the line about him buying you fluffy Halloween socks for Christmas went over people’s heads I think but HECK I THOUGHT THAT WAS SO FUNNY AND SWEET (because Y/N bought Christmas socks when it was Halloween teehee).
"Are you two dorks done crying?" Yara’s voice rang out suddenly, causing both of you to jump apart.
"Yara, you creep! Privacy, dude! Ever try knocking?" You sniffed, wiping at your face hurriedly.
"What? Like you were peeing with Jungkook in the bathroom? Please." She waved you off, walking back into the living room to give you two some privacy. She did say Jungkook had 15 minutes before she’d have to come back in after all. "Anyway, Tae will be over in 10 minutes for the Saved By The Bell marathon that’s on so you guys are more than welcomed to join." She called out from her newly seated position on the couch.
I included this scene with Yara because things were getting too serious for my liking ngl. Plus the idea that the four of them would all come together at the end for a much needed reunion made my happy bitchin heart soar.
Jungkook let out a laugh, his palm finding your cheek, eyes locked on your lips. You were preening for his kiss, mouth parting slightly as you anticipated it.
“Partners?”
The question took you by surprise, eyes widening at your not so pretend lover.
Idiot.
“Partners.” You smiled softly, eyes shiny and brimming with tears as he kissed you for what must have been the millionth time, but still somehow felt like the first.
UGH I LOVE THEM I REALLY DO. I was so happy with how this final scene came out :( They’re partners, they really are I miss these boneheads.
AND NOW, I PRESENT THE CANON FUTURE OF THE BITCHIN UNIVERSE...
10 YEARS LATER
Let’s be honest, Jungkook popped the question the day of graduation, he can’t imagine a life in which you wouldn’t be beside him
You said yes (shocker)
Cue Jungkook being the most wonderful partner and respecting your wish to finish your residency program before having the wedding
You absolutely kick ass at being a neonatal surgeon
Also, Jungkook started a film company! It’s small but he loves what he does and works with colleges and helps out the film majors with resources and equipment <3
SO IT'S THE DAY OF YOUR WEDDING RIGHT
Yara and your sisters are helping you get ready, with your best friend as the ever so reassuring maid of honor
And by that I mean you’re as calm as a cucumber and Yara is one wrong move away from having a stroke
“Y/N… Don’t freak out....The catering company put in two orders of shrimp instead of chicken and steak.”
“Yara, it’s okay.”
“NO ITS NOT???? THIS IS YOUR WEDDING DAY AND YOU’RE GETTING CRUSTACEANS.”
Y/N making Yara take a seat and practice some breathing exercises so she doesn’t upset the baby
Oh yeah, Yara is 10 weeks pregnant
Taehyung is the dad lol
Yara and Taehyung have been together ever since that day at the library hehe <3
They moved in together and adopted a cat and everything (sweet boy Tae wanted a dog but Yara’s afraid of dogs and Tae would do anything for that woman so Yeontan the cat it is)
Yara refuses to put a label on their relationship even after all this time, and Tae doesn’t ask for one. They’re happy and dedicated to each other and don’t feel the need to put pressure on something that’s already so perfect
Yara is actually violently in love with Tae but still scoffs when Y/N tries to bring it up
“Oh my god, you’re so in love with him”
“Huh??? you must be sick or something. Get well soon, damn :/”
Yara likes to come up with different labels for Taehyung every time she has to introduce him. Among her favorites are roommate, rent sharer, baby daddy and penis lender
Speaking of Taehyung, he’d have a hand on Jungkook’s shoulder as he tries to calm down the panicking groom to be
“JK, breathe.”
“What if she doesn’t show up? What if she doesn’t want to marry me? What if I pressured her into this and— and I’ve freaked her out and now she hates me?”
“Dude, you guys have been engaged for eight years. She’s had her opportunity to run. She’ll show up.”
Taehyung scruffing up the younger man’s hair reassuringly, which only flusters him more because DAMMIT he wants to look perfect for you and now his hair is messed up >:(
(You like him no matter what his hair looks like though)
Jungkook literally swallowing down a sob as you walk down the aisle and he lays his eyes on you for the first time
You having a dumb smile on your face the entire walk over because your husband to be is crying and you haven’t even exchanged vows yet
The entire audience going all sobby when you finally do exchange vows because they’re so beautiful and real
The ten years together has not been easy— from financial struggles as you tried to support yourself through med school, to personal conflicts when Jungkook wanted to start a family already
But you guys figured it out
You always do
He’s your person. And you are his.
Y/N’s sisters Rosa and Lia are a WRECK— even your dad is tearing up
Your family loves Jungkook and have been counting down the days until you guys married, let’s be honest
“You may now kiss the bride.”
Jungkook punching the air with a “FINALLY!” before kissing the hell out of you
The cutting of the cake inevitably turning into a food fight
The shrimp entrees turning out to be pretty damn good
Yara catching the bouquet and wagging her brows at Taehyung suggestively
Jungkook pulling you aside to take photos of you outside the venue because you look so so pretty and he loves the way you smile when he’s the one behind the camera
The party is in full session, your siblings tearing up the dance floor like the extroverts they are
You and Jungkook are sat at the head of the room, hands intertwined underneath the table as you watch a tired and painfully sober Yara swing her bare feet onto Taehyung’s lap, requesting a foot rub
Watching your pregnant best friend and her lover together, you turned towards your own, smile impossibly wide
“What?”
“Let’s have a baby.” You’d grin, so stupid happy
Jungkook’s eyes going round and immediately jumping up from his seat because god that’s all he’s ever wanted
Being tugged out the room by a giddy Jungkook, one of your heels flinging off somewhere behind you.
“What’s happening? Where are we going?!”
The two of you find yourself in a storage room somewhere on the hotel floor
“Jeon Jungkook, what the hell—“
His mouth find yourself, kissing you in a way that couldn’t at the altar
You kissed him back without questions, arms wrapping around the man you now called your husband
“I love you.” He’d sigh into your neck, his hot breath causing you to shiver
“I love you too.”
“Let’s make a baby.”
“Yeah let’s— wait, right here? Right now?!”
Jungkook merely nodding as his mouth found the exposed skin of your chest
“Meathead, we can’t just ditch our wedding to have sex!”
“Why not? We did our marital duties. Now it’s our guests' job to get embarrassingly drunk and make a fool of themselves on the dance floor. No one will even miss us.”
“Isn’t baby making what our honeymoon is for?”
“Screw that. I’ve done my waiting. Let’s start our family, nerd.”
Jungkook kissing your protests silent before you inevitably give in and let him take you right there and then, your wedding dress hung around your hips
Husband and wife coming together with shaky breaths and hushed moans as they promise the rest of their lives to each other, making every argument, struggle or moment of uncertainty leading up to now totally worth it
Walk of shame back into the party with nervous hair fixing from you and a proud grin from Jungkook
Yara figuring out exactly why you two had sneaked off to, flashing the newly weds a knowing smirk
The night of your wedding, Jungkook surprises you with a present
You unwrap it in confusion, only to see that it’s a glass frame and inside of it is the wrinkled and worn out lined paper the two of you had scribbled on many many years ago
Jungkook hangs up the contract right above your bed as per your request, smiling as he does and jumping on him the moment he puts down the hammer bc dammit it you’re too heckin excited to make love with your sentimental loser of a husband
And yes, by the next month, you are pregnant and incredibly happy
And of course, your daughter and Yara’s son grow up to be best friends, not a family holiday passing by where they aren’t told the story of the totally bitchin’ way both set of their parents got together
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corvus--rex · 3 years ago
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Next in this bizarre collection of abandoned, semi-abandoned, and deeply sleeping wips is one that has more direct time travel. It's more in the deeply sleeping category as I'm still picking at it. It's also another Omegaverse, so if that's not your thing, feel free to skip it. Also, both Lance and Keith practice polytheistic religions that have been altered to fit an ABO setting
~*~*~*~*~
A few years after the war, the Paladins made the newly rebuilt Castle of Lions their home. Shiro and Adam retired from the Garrison and into diplomatic careers for the Coalition. Pidge’s parents were still with the organization, but she and Matt preferred to be more hands-on, maintaining the places on the castle and with the now-former rebellion. The still close-knit team were still recovering from the recent bonding ceremony for Hunk and Shay, who were also staying aboard the castle, although it was still uncertain as to whether or not human and Balmeran genetics were compatible; they were just waiting on genetic compatibility testing. Lance and Keith, however, were ahead of the game. They had gotten engaged while on the way back to Earth, announcing it to Lance’s family on their return. Not wanting to wait, and with no way of knowing what would happen in their war with Honerva, they’d held a small bonding ceremony the night before leaving Earth for the second time.
Keith had it the worst when it came to post-Hunk/Shay bonding recovery. He wasn’t going to miss Hunk and Shay’s bonding for anything, even if it meant dealing with Lance’s fussing. It had gotten bad enough during the reception that both Krolia and Lance’s mother Mariana told him to sit down and let his pregnant mate be. Keith could understand where Lance’s caution came from. While their little one was only one quarter Galra, and developing as a human child would, Keith’s half-Galra physiology had other ideas, his body and hormones changing like a shorter Galra pregnancy. It meant that he needed to be monitored more closely than he would if the pup’s development and his body’s lined up. It also meant that they didn’t have a concrete due date, and that it was entirely possible he could deliver a premature pup. But at sixteen weeks Earth time, there were still another two months until they needed to watch for their little one’s arrival. They had stayed behind on Earth an extra couple days after Hunk and Shay’s bonding ceremony for some of Lance’s extended family who wanted to see them both before the pup was born. Keith was exhausted from the three days of parties surrounding the ceremony and the event itself, but they were headed back to the castle after that and wouldn’t be back for another eight months, and by then the pup would be at least two months old.
Nadia and Sylvio were excited about their cousin, and had to be reminded that Keith was tired from everything going on. Right then, they wanted to see the inside of the Altean pod the matepair were taking back to the castle. Keith and Mariana burst out laughing when Lance appeared with his niece and nephew each tucked under an arm.
He “dropped” the giggling, squirming pups in front of his oldest brother. “I think you lost something.”
“Who, me? I haven’t lost anything,” Luis said, feigning ignorance.
Still laughing, Nadia and Sylvio began scaling their mountain of a father. Once they got to hip height, he grabbed them both the same way Lance had been carrying them and took off running while mock screaming, making his pups shriek with laughter. Lance just laughed to himself and shook his head at his brother and niblings.
“Like you can talk. You know damn well you're going to be just the same with ours,” Keith called.
“Yeah, probably,” Lance admitted, walking over.
“‘Probably’ nothing, mijo. I know you will,” Mariana said, “Just don’t forget to call when that little one arrives. We’ll be praying for a safe delivery.”
Lance’s parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles all practiced Santeria, and while Lance and his siblings had been raised in it and still believed, none of them actively practiced. His lack of participation didn’t lessen his appreciation of his mother’s intentions. He would have been worried when it came to telling Keith about his family’s practices if he didn’t already know about his Omega’s neo-paganism. Keith, likewise, had been relieved when Lance didn’t immediately declare him insane and instead explained about his own family.
“Thanks, Mami. So will we,” he said, hugging his mother.
“Doesn’t matter where you are in the universe, the Orisha will hear you,” she told him, then pulled Keith in, “And so will your gods, mijo.”
“I know. Thanks, Mami,” Keith answered.
The pod’s comms chirped, and Lance disentangled himself from his mate and his mother, disappearing into the small craft. Mariana wrapped an arm around Keith’s waist and he leaned into it, fully appreciating her maternal warmth. She was one of a very small number of people who had open permission to touch him. She understood that, especially after Lance had explained about Keith’s childhood in the foster care system and that he was largely touch-averse unless you were one of a select few who had earned his complete trust. She’d earned it through being the woman she was and treating Keith like one of her own children.
She reached over, resting a hand on his growing belly. “I pray for this pup every day. You two are going to be wonderful parents. And I know that you both will be safe up there – you and this little one.”
Keith breathed a laugh. “Altean technology makes humans look like we’re still playing with sticks and rocks. I mean, on an interstellar level, we kinda are. I’ve been thinking about that lately,” he admitted, “The ‘we’ part. I’m still half-Galra. Most of the time I feel like the only places on Earth I feel like I belong are out at my Dad’s place, and here.”
“Oh, mijo. It doesn’t at all matter that your wonderful mother isn’t human, or that you share her blood. What matters is what you do with it. And both of you used your heritage to do the right thing. And now she’s leading her – your – people to a new way of thinking. You both have done so much good. Never forget that. Or that you’re family. You’ll always belong here. And not just because you're carrying my grandpup.”
“We weren’t exactly planning on this.”
Mariana laughed. “Neither was I. For any of them. None of my five children were planned. We always wanted pups, but we decided to let it happen however it was going to happen. And we were blessed with five beautiful pups.” She nudged him gently. “Tell me, do you have any thoughts on what your pup might be? I knew for all of them, even when my mother was trying to tell me that I was wrong. Especially with Lance. She was convinced he was an Omega. And then he was born all Alpha.”
Keith nodded, understanding. “Yeah, that’s apparently not just a human thing. Mom said she knew I was an Omega before I was born. I think this one is too. I’m pretty sure it’s an Omega boy. Little brat keeps moving and won’t let us see, so we don’t know for certain yet, but I feel like it’s an Omega boy.”
“Oh, Veronica was the same. We didn’t know until she was an Alpha girl until she was born. And she’s still stubborn and independent.”
{What do you think, sweetheart? You an Omega boy?} she asked the unborn pup.
Her question was answered with a sharp kick.
“Is he always like that?” Mariana asked in surprise.
“Yes. Yes he is. I’ve been feeling him moving for almost two months, but it got more intense about three weeks ago. That, apparently, is a Galra thing.”
“What’s a Galra thing?” Lance asked, walking down the loading ramp.
“How hard the pup kicks,” Keith said.
“Yeah,” he agreed, “It really is that bad. I’ve woken up in the middle of the night before because of it.”
“Now imagine how I feel! Anyway, what was the comm call?”
“Oh, right. Just Allura asking when we were planning on going back up. I told her we were finishing getting the pod packed up and we’d be leaving within the hour. Varga. Whatever.”
Mariana hugged them both again. “Don’t forget. I want to know.”
Keith’s lips twisted in an amused smile. “As soon as we do,” he said.
Lance didn’t ask about it until they were settled in the pod’s cockpit and on their way to the wormhole point. “What are we telling my mother when we know it?”
“Huh? Oh, the pup’s primary and secondary sexes. I said that I feel like it’s an Omega boy, but that we haven’t been able to confirm it,” Keith explained.
“Yeah, he’s being a little brat about it,” Lance agreed, “We will find out eventually,” he added, poking the unborn pup only to be rewarded with another kick. “See? Brat.” He stood up, stretching hard enough to pop his spine. He let his arms drop and extended a hand to his mate. “Come on. Allura’s not opening a wormhole until we’re way out of system, and I want snuggles.”
When they first packed the pod to leave for Earth, Lance had shifted a few things around in the passenger compartment, making room for Keith to set up a nest. He was worried about their pup and was trying to just be a good Alpha for his Omega. Keith was particularly hormonal that day and broke down in tears when he saw the cleared space, his favorite nesting materials neatly sitting in the middle of it. Lance had been afraid he’d accidentally done something wrong until he found himself with his arms full of sobbing, pregnant Omega telling him how amazing he was through hiccupped tears. The nest was built and stayed there until they landed on Earth, where it was taken down and rebuilt in Lance’s old bedroom, right on top of his queen bed. Now it held their scents mixed with Lance’s family’s. Lance also knew about the sweater Krolia had given Keith for the express purpose of fitting it into his nest.
Keith let Lance lead them through to the rear of the pod and got settled into the nest. Leaning back against his Alpha, Keith reached into his shirt and pulled out the crystal he always wore. A clear quartz point, with a triple moon carved from rainbow moonstone woven into the silver wire wrapping the top of the crystal. He ran his fingers over the moonstone, feeling its carved lines and points, the smooth gem comforting. He was safe and comfortable in his Alpha’s arms, tucked into their temporary nest, but he still worried. He knew better than anyone that their pup could come earlier than anyone was comfortable with, especially him. He sighed, letting the quartz drop.
“What’s up?” Lance murmured sleepily into Keith’s neck.
“I’m just thinking again,” he said, the pad of his thumb following the back of his fingers in a small line on his belly.
Lance knew what he was thinking, read worrying, about, and wove their fingers together. “I know. But even worst case, even if he is three months early, he’ll be ok, and so will you. There is literally no one else like you in the entire universe, and all of this is new to everyone. Best we can do is take it one day at a time.” He grabbed the tablet from outside the nest, checking the autopilot. “We still have about an hour before we get to the wormhole point. Get some sleep. I’ll wake you when we get there.”
Keith yawned, curling up in the nest, Lance wrapping his arms around his Omega. “Nap sounds great,” he mumbled, half-asleep already.
Lance didn’t last much longer, drifting off the second Keith’s breathing evened out in sleep.
They were woken by alarms blaring throughout the pod. Keith shot up, startled and growling. Lance went for the tablet, checking the readings from the pod’s sensors. They should still have been twenty minutes out from the meeting point, but the star map showed them being in an entirely different galaxy, the familiar Milky Way nowhere in sight. He leapt from the nest, running for the cockpit. When Keith had calmed a bit and hauled himself out of his spot and to the cockpit, Lance was at the controls.
“Get yourself strapped in,” the Alpha said without looking up, “We’re headed straight for an asteroid field and there’s no time to change course.”
Lance changed the controls to manual and the front shielding changed from opaque to transparent, showing the looming ancient debris in stunning real time. Keith sat himself in the co-pilot’s seat, fastening the 4-point harness over his chest just in time for the first asteroid to go whipping past. He wanted to take the controls, but he knew that his awkward current shape made it nearly impossible for him to fly with the deftness an asteroid field required. Lance had no such problem, weaving through the asteroid field with his usual liquid grace.
When they finally broke through and into empty space, they still had no real idea of where they were. Keith brought up the galactic map. He noted several familiar planets and systems, realizing that they were on the far side of the Andromeda galaxy. As he was relaying all of that to his mate, the pod’s comm chirped with an incoming hail. It was the castle, but something was different and they couldn’t quite put their finger on it. Lance answered the hail, Allura’s face filling the screen.
“Hey, Allura. Do you have any idea what the fuck just happened? We were on our way to the rendezvous point for the wormhole and now we’re here,” Lance asked.
Allura stared at them in complete shock. “I – I don’t understand. How are you two there? You can’t be there. You’re both here on the castle.”
Lance and Keith shared a confused look. “No. We’re not,” Keith said slowly, “We just left Earth a couple hours ago and were on our way to the spot you designated for the wormhole back to the castle.”
“Earth?! What the quiznak are you talking about?! Stay there. I’m going to tow your pod into the castle and we’ll talk about whatever prank this is.” The shock was in her voice at first, before it became almost angry. She looked back at them from her projected control screen, and then looked at them both more carefully. “Lance, how in the quiznak do you have Altean marks?”
“From you?” he answered, now totally confused. Had she forgotten reviving him after he took the full damage of an energy attack meant for her? Did she not remember that he’d ended up with sky blue Altean marks as a result of the sheer amount of quintessence she poured into him?
“That’s impossible. I can’t give you our markings. And Keith, have you gained weight?” She was still confused, but turned it to the Red Paladin.
“Not in the last three days,” he said, then glanced down and back to her, “Not that way, anyway.”
They felt the pod guided into the pod bay and land softly. “Stay there, inside the pod,” Allura said, “I’ll be right there.” The screen cut out, leaving them alone again.
“What in the absolute fuck is going on?” Keith asked.
“I wish I fucking knew,” Lance answered. “Does she really think this is some kind of over-elaborate prank? She can’t. She knows us. Knows we’re mated. Knows you’re pregnant.”
“Yeah, that was weird. Asking me if I've gained weight. I mean, I know I've put on about fifteen pounds, but that’s almost completely directly related to him. I haven’t really changed anywhere else.”
Lance sighed. “Yeah. I don’t know. We’ll figure it out. But at least we’re back. We can get your nest rebuilt in our suite and take a fucking nap.”
Something told Keith to leave his nest as it was, and he told Lance as much. They also decided not to get back into it while they waited for Allura. The matepair waited in the open seating, Keith nuzzling into Lance’s scent gland. It was something they’d come to realize was a side-effect of his pregnancy. He couldn’t get enough of his Alpha’s scent and would use any and every excuse to get close and scent himself, not that Lance minded it at all. It always stroked his Alpha’s ego that their Omega was so devoted to them.
They both looked up when there was a failed attempt to open the rear door of the pod, which was followed by a polite knock. “Hang on a tick,” Lance called. He extracted himself from his snuggly koala of a mate with a soft kiss to his temple and a gentle hand on their pup.
Allura stood in the doorway, possibly even more shocked than she was on the call. He was still in the faded blue t-shirt and grey sweats he’d been wearing all day, not having been bothered to change. He was expecting an off-hand comment about not being up to his usual standard at most, but she just stood there, staring like he was a new race they’d never met before.
“Allura?” he asked.
“Lance, what the quiznak is going on here? Where’s Keith?” she asked when she found the words.
“I was going to ask you the same thing. And Keith’s right here. The kids were all over him this morning and he’s still pretty tired.”
He didn’t think it was possible for Allura to be any more confused or her eyebrows to arch higher, but she was and they did.
“What kids? Why should he be tired?”
Keith listened to the questions being fired back and forth. Something wasn’t adding up. Allura knew they’d been with Lance’s family. She’d met Nadia and Sylvio before and knew what kind of energy they had. It shouldn’t be a surprise that he was worn out after dealing with them. Keyword shouldn’t. But she was. He decided to see her for himself, or more to the point, for her to see him. He slid out from the seating area, turning the corner to where she and Lance were asking questions without answering any. He stepped up beside Lance, sliding an arm around his Alpha’s waist, his free hand resting on his pregnant belly.
Allura’s jaw dropped. He knew she could tell that he wasn’t faking, and that she somehow either didn’t know or had forgotten that he was four months pregnant, even if he looked farther along because of his body’s reaction.
“I – how?! How did this happen?! When?! What is happening?!”
“Allura,” Lance said softly, “Has anything happened in the last two or three quintants?”
“What? No. Nothing. And you two are here onboard the castle. Keith, you said you would be in the training deck for at least a few vargas, and Lance, you were helping Hunk in the kitchen. How did you two end up out there and in a pod I didn’t know had gone missing? And don’t tell me you were on Earth. That’s utterly impossible. We can’t go back without leading the Galra directly there, you both know that. And how have you been hiding not only your apparent relationship but also – Keith, you're pregnant! How do you expect to be able to fly the Red Lion in your condition?”
The feeling of something being fundamentally off continued to tickle Keith’s brain. An impossible thought hit him. “Allura, I need you to answer this question honestly. How long have we been out here with you?”
“What do you mean? It’s only been about three phoebs, but we’ve made good progress in the war effort. I really believe we’ll win. But you already knew that.”
Lance cut her off before she could voice a suspicion about them being spies. He realized as soon as Keith said it. “I think we somehow managed to go back in time. We really are who we say we are, and so are you. But you obviously don’t know anything about us as we are now. I can promise that we’re not hiding anything from you.”
“Well…I don’t know that we can really say that…” Keith said, trailing off. If the them that Allura knew had only been in space for a few months, then he and Lance were already seeing each other secretly. But then they decided that keeping it from their friends made absolutely no sense, even if it meant that Pidge lost her bet with Hunk.
“Ok, fair,” he said, then turned to Allura, “What was the last major event that happened related to the war? It’ll help us narrow down when exactly we are.”
“You two seem awfully accepting of this,” she said, a note of accusation in her voice.
“We – we’ve been through a lot,” Keith said, intentionally not elaborating. They had been through a lot – alternate reality, quantum abyss, the quintessence field, Bob, finding themselves inside Honerva’s mind – but they couldn’t tell Allura any of it.
“And if we tell you anything, we don’t know if or how it could affect anything,” Lance added.
“Hm, I suppose that’s true. The last major event? Well, we’ve only just found out about your Galra heritage, but after meeting with Kolivan and Antok, I have come to realize that your blood does not define you. You both have only just returned from separate missions. Keith, you and Hunk went to retrieve the Scaultrite from the Weblum-” Keith shuddered involuntarily at the memory “-and Lance, you, Shiro, and Pidge went to rescue Slav from Beta Traz. He’s still here on the castle with us.”
“Wait wait wait – Slav’s still here?” Lance asked. He turned to Keith. “If Slav’s still on board, then he would be able to help figure out what happened. Maybe find a way to get us back to our own time. And hopefully before…” he trailed off, giving Keith a look that the Omega understood. Before the pup comes.
Allura also understood what Lance hadn’t said. “Um, how – how far along are you, exactly?” she asked awkwardly.
“That’s a little complicated,” Keith answered. “The pup’s developing like a normal human, but because I’m half Galra, my body is changing and reacting as if I were completely Galra. Pregnancies are shorter. Six Earth months, or about four and a quarter phoebs, to a normal human ten months or just over seven phoebs.”
“So, you're saying that with how your body is reacting, your pup could be premature?”
“It’s a distinct possibility. But to actually answer your question, sixteen Earth weeks. Almost eleven and a half movements. It gives us no more than five movements to figure this out and get us back to our time.”
Allura nodded, making her decision. “All right. We’ll meet in the lounge first. Paladins and Coran only. Shiro…doesn’t exactly do well with Slav.”
Lance and Keith laughed. “That’s something we will never forget,” Lance said as they followed her out of the pod. Keith turned, locking it with their biometrics. Given the alteration to Lance’s DNA thanks to Allura’s quintessence infusion, they knew that it would stay locked. Their younger selves didn’t have a chance.
They walked in silence for a while, following Allura down lesser used corridors to the lounge entrance that was never used. “Is there anything you can tell me?” she asked, “About your time. How far into our future are you?”
“I don’t know that that’s a good idea, Princess,” Lance said, “You already know that we make it to Earth safely, and I don’t know how that might already be affecting our time. I understand that you want to know if it’s all worth it in the end, but I can’t tell you.”
Allura thought for a few seconds. “I understand. My knowing about the future could affect the present. It could change our decisions about things that will change the outcome of the war. And I take it that however the war does end, it’s the best possible outcome.”
“We think so. There’s a lot more going on than just Zarkon, but if you knew what, I don’t know – there are just too many variables.”
She paused in the doorway to the lounge. “I really do understand. There are more factors and facets to this war than I am currently aware of. Knowing about them now could upset the balance. Well,” she said, gesturing to the room, “Make yourselves comfortable. You already know where everything is.” Her smile was one of genuine affection for the Paladins in front of her.
“Thanks, Allura,” Keith said, maneuvering past her.
Once they were seated comfortably (“Comfort is a bit relative for me at the moment,” Keith told her with a laugh) she called for the Paladins and Coran, and them only, to come to the lounge.
Lance was the first to arrive, ready to drop onto the sunken sofa from the floor above, but stopped himself when he realized he was looking at something that looked like the back of his own head. He only knew what that looked like after a prank involving his siblings and every single mirror in the house. He saw Allura sitting at one end of the semicircle and slowed, turning to her.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“Ah. We should wait for the others to arrive before we explain,” Allura said.
“Actually,” one of the unknown people said and Lance nearly choked at hearing his own voice. A little rougher and maybe older, but it was definitely his own voice. He realized the other owner of his voice was still speaking. “I think we should start now. I know we’ll have to repeat ourselves, but I know that you’re kinda nauseous right now,” a long, tan finger pointed in his direction, “And I really think this is the better solution.”
“If that’s what you –” Allura was cut off by the next arrival.
“Allura? Why are we meeting here?”
Pregnant Keith snorted at how young he sounded. His mate patted his head. “I know. We sound like babies.”
The younger Keith froze.
“Yes we’re real. No you're not hallucinating,” pregnant Keith said without moving. He knew what his younger self was thinking.
“Well, as long as we’re both here,” Lance said, “We should explain as much as we can.”
The younger Red and Blue Paladins walked around to the steps and froze again when they were suddenly face to face with themselves. Their older selves were snuggled together in the middle of the sofa horseshoe, not caring who saw them. There was too much for them to take in all at once, but they did notice Lance’s Altean marks and the undeniable fact that the older Keith was significantly pregnant.
“Yeah,” pregnant Keith agreed, “It’s a lot to unpack. We’ll tell you what we can.”
The younger Paladins sat together opposite Allura, not knowing what to say.
“As far as we can tell, we’re from your future. We don’t know how we got here. We were on our way back to the castle and decided to let the autopilot handle the flying while I had a nap and woke up to all the alarms going off about a half hour later. We realized that we weren’t where we should be and found the castle after clearing the asteroid field nearby.”
“And, I’m – or, you – I don’t even know how to phrase that,” the younger Keith stumbled through.
Older Keith just laughed. “We? Since we’re the same person, just at different ages. But yes, I’m pregnant. I'm due fairly soon, so we need to figure this out as quickly as possible.”
Both his mate and Allura noticed how he phrased himself, but said nothing, understanding why he had done it.
It was the younger Lance’s turn to stumble through a sentence. “So, you’re – and – is that –”
Older Lance snickered at his younger self. “Yes. Yes we are, and yes it is.”
“What?! But -”
“But nothing,” older Lance said, “Although that might have prevented this.”
“Yeah, sure. You try telling my heat brain that,” pregnant Keith said.
The younger Keith pointed at his older self. “That. But, how? I mean, I’ve always been so careful about taking it on time. Unless…”
Pregnant Keith shook his head. “No, that hasn’t changed. It failed. We weren’t planning on this. But it happened, and we wouldn’t change it for anything.”
“Ok, so I just need to know one thing. Not about the future, not that.” His hand went to his chest almost unconsciously. “Just so I know. That you’re really me.”
Without moving from his spot snuggled into Lance’s side, Keith reached into his t-shirt and pulled the quartz and moonstone pendant out, letting it fall to his chest. “It was the first thing I ever bought for myself after Dad died. He taught me the basics of the Craft and I've kept it up ever since. Helps me feel connected to him even though it represents Omegas.”
Younger Keith nodded, holding his own crystal. “Yeah. It does.”
Looking from his not-so-secret boyfriend, the younger Lance turned to his own older self. “And he knows about…”
Older Lance cracked an amused smile. “Yeah, he does. But wait, haven’t you already told him about us?”
“Oh, well, yeah. I guess that didn’t really make sense, did it?”
“No, not really. But the last thing Mami said to me when we left her last was that it doesn’t matter where in the universe we are, the Orisha will hear us.”
“That – that’s –”
“What Mami said when I left for the Garrison. Yeah, she still says it.”
Pidge was next to arrive, and stopped when she saw the two older versions of her friends.
“No, you haven’t been up long enough to hallucinate yet,” pregnant Keith said through laughing.
“Come sit down, Pigeon. We’ll explain once everyone’s here,” Lance said, waving her forward.
They were all surprised that it hadn’t been Shiro to appear first, but he and Hunk were next, walking in together. If they thought that Pidge had been surprised, it was nothing compared to the double take from the Black and Yellow Paladins. Allura had yet to say anything once her Paladins began filtering in, and she still didn’t, letting the two older Paladins take the lead.
“Hi, Shiro,” pregnant Keith said. He still hadn’t moved from his mate’s side, enjoying the warmth and safety of his Alpha’s touch.
“What in the almighty fuck is going on?” Shiro asked, stunned.
“We’re just waiting for Coran, and then we’ll explain.”
Shiro and Hunk sat down, among the other Paladins. Hunk seemed to look for some kind of comfort from the familiarity of Pidge, and Shiro sat himself between his Lance and the older Keith with an expression told them that he was trying very hard to wrap his head around the idea of Keith being pregnant. Coran came running in a few minutes later.
“Oh, my apologies, Princess. The scanners went all wiffeley for a few ticks. They’re perfectly fine now.” He noticed the two new additions for the first time. “Erm, Princess…” he started, scratching his cheek with one gloved finger.
“Yes. It’s why I’ve called you all here,” Allura said, “When I was alone on the bridge briefly, scans picked up a single Altean pod. When I hailed it, well…”
“It was us,” the older Lance finished, “We seem to be from your future.”
Everyone stopped, if only briefly, before exploding into questions and demands. Questions about what happened, how they got here from their own time, how did the war end, what’s it like now, did everyone survive…
Lance put a hand up, silencing the onslaught. “We can’t answer most of those questions. Anything we tell you could possibly alter the timeline, and I can’t risk that.”
Pidge pouted, her curiosity getting the better of her. “Well, we already know you two end up together. And if you're here, then you guys obviously made it out.”
Pregnant Keith shifted, sitting up but not leaving his Lance’s personal bubble. “Yes, we did make it out. And yes, we know what it’s like now. But is it worth it to know about our future when it could change your own?”
For maybe the first time in her life, Pidge didn’t have an immediate answer. Her natural curiosity demanded to be sated. The older versions of two of her best friends were sitting in front of her with the answers to so many questions. So much of her own personal stress could be relieved just by knowing if she ever found Matt and Sam. She could know the outcome of the war. But thinking about those things, she realized that Keith was right. If she did know, it would change what she did, how she could react to things. The butterfly effect wasn’t real, or, if it was, it didn’t quite work that way, but a change to a major event could lead to a cascade of differences. And there was no way to know if those would be good changes or bad. But she didn’t get to answer the semi-rhetorical question because Slav walked in at that exact moment.
“So we’re in this reality,” he said, seeing the future Lance and Keith. He narrowed his eyes at them. “You haven’t told anyone anything, have you?”
“Nothing that wasn’t immediately obvious,” Keith answered, settling back against his mate.
“Ah. Right. I need to confirm things about you two before I can recalculate probabilities, but we should discuss this –” His owlish eyes narrowed again as he looked around the room. “- privately.”
~*~*~*~
Links to the rest of the series:
1 | 2 | 3* | 4 | 5* | 6* | 7 | 8 | 9* | 10 | 11 | 12* | 13 | 14 | 15* | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19*
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everything-laito · 4 years ago
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if I don’t have tendinitis by the end of writing this series, I am officially immortal. anyways here’s the long awaited Laito and Cordelia analysis: Part I
Hi, Corn here! Holy shit I’ve been wanting to write this for forever now; idk how long this series will be but uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I’m gonna wing it.
Lemme get something REAL clear before I begin. Because for some fucking reason I still see people trying to say that Cordelia did not molest/rape/etc Laito. Cuz she did. It’s called grooming and manipulation, sweetie. And I’ll explain that too. 
Also, I’m not defending or justifying Cordelia’s actions (there’s a difference between explaining why something happens and defending it. For example, we know racism is harmful and awful, but explaining what it is and why it happens isn’t defending it). I also don’t defend Laito’s nonconsensual or abusive actions either on here, I also wanna clarify that. I just merely explain his theorized rationale and psyche.
God I don’t even know where to start, or where this is exactly going to end, but my god, time to pop off. I’m going to divide this into sections as well. 
Also I think this is usually a given with all the Laito stuff I put on here, but, spoilers ahead! And trigger warnings galore! Pedophilia/rape/abuse/grooming/depression/anxiety are the ones I can think of now, but all of those are really a given on this blog. Just wanna emphasize it because I’m gonna go deep into em. 
As always,,,,, rant under the cut~!
Section 1: Before the Storm (insert Life is Strange joke here)
There’s quite a bit of back and forth about where Cordelia started doing this. I just finished Dark Fate and the conversation between the triplets caught my eye. Laito mentions in his Dark Fate Ecstacy Epilogue that implies Cordelia wasn’t abusive at first. It’s revealed how Karlheinz used Cordelia just for his Adam and Eve experiment to create a new human race, which is why he blatantly ignores her after courting her and making her have kids that she didn’t even wanna have. Which is. Yikes. I’d say that’s a form of coercive pregnancy abuse.
The conversation turns to Laito who then says that Cordelia lost her mind due to of sexual frustration and then hurt the triplets. Sexual frustration is a real and common thing, but I’m gonna explain the potential logistics of this being turned into abuse. 
Sexual frustration in general can be described as a sense of “dissatisfaction stemming from a discrepancy between a person’s desired and achieved sexual activity” (source). I know it’s from Wikipedia but the phrasing of that definition is just too perfect. (also Wikipedia’s good just to get the basics from ;) ) Sexual frustration can happen from physical, mental, emotional, social, religious, or spiritual barriers. Everyone has some kind of ideal sexual activity, whether it be innate and or learned (like getting used to sexual acts over time, whether that be from a traumatic or consensual experience). However, I can safely say that Cordelia has high libido, regardless of the reason. 
Oxytocin, my absolute favorite hormone to talk about, is huge in this case. Touch starvation (what I’d say most of us are going through now because of quarantine) also depends on oxytocin level. We’re social creatures, and we need touch in some way. Having sexual needs is also not a thing to be shameful of (if you do have them), since that is also very human and very biological. Oxytocin is needed for so many things! From social bonding, sexual bonding, reproduction in general, and general emotional wellbeing. Everyone has different levels of oxytocin needs. With a lack of oxytocin, whether it causes sexual frustration or touch starvation (or both), it can create fear, anxiety, and or depression. This has to do with my favorite part of the brain, the amygdala. It’s this lil almond shaped part (hence, amygdala, which is Latin for “almond”) is responsible for empathy, your fight and flight response, as well as SO many other things. I’ll talk more about the amygdala later, because I’m getting off track. 
Back to the logistics of oxytocin deficiency and abuse. Basically, I didn’t initially think that touch starvation or sexual frustration could get so bad that someone would resort to abuse. Haven’t found anything that supports that either. However, since it is linked to depression and stress, I do believe Cordelia would have other underlying psychological issues that made her response to depression and stress just so much worse. It’s kind of obvious that Karlheinz absurd her, and when someone goes through a traumatic episode, there’s different coping mechanisms or different emotions are triggered. Maybe even before Karlheinz she had issues, but we will never know. I just know that Cordelia seems susceptible to some kind of manic episodes, such as mood swings and intense behaviors. 
Dark Fate confirms that Karlheinz most likely used this, and used Cordelia due to her Founder blood and that her psyche was “optimal” to eventually have the triplets kill her. Karl can see the future and past etc, I believe that was confirmed in Lost Eden too. Anyways, all of this paves the way to what Cordelia did to the triplets.
Section 2: The Beginning
There’s been quite a bit of back and forth between when did Cordelia start sexually abusing Laito? We know that Kanato and Ayato were abused when they were young, but there’s no flashbacks in Laito’s routes that depicts him being a child (to my knowledge). Not saying Laito wasn’t abused when he was a child, but I can assure you that the first time Cordelia had explicit sex with Laito was when he was older. 
Special thanks to @vampiretsuki​ and @amiecris​ for helping me think this through on Zara’s server! 
There hasn’t been any flashbacks that specifically show us the first time that happened. However, I believe that there was a flashback in HDB that shows one of the first times. Here’s a scene from Laito’s Dark Epilogue:
Cordelia: ー Laito…Laito… Laito: …Hm? Is something the matter? Cordelia: I have a favor to ask. It just isn’t enough. You can do it, right Laito? Laito: You really are something…So that’s why you came to me again? Cordelia: Fufufu…That’s right, Laito. Come on, quickly… Laito: …Guess it can’t be helped. I’ll love you plenty. Cordelia: Aah…My cute Laito~ I love you. I really do. Laito: I can do it…right? Cordelia: Of course, Laito. Now, quickly…
First of all, ew. Second of all, Laito’s diction implies that this was maybe the second or third time this occurred. He asks a question, and ends it with “again.” We know by this that it is not the first time, but the question also means that Laito might not have expected to occur again. His tone also implies some surprise to it, at least in my ears. His other question, “I can do it, right?” screams hesitance to me. If this scene took place down the line, or after many times he did this with Cordelia, I don’t believe he’d be some level of surprised or hesitance. 
Now, you may be thinking, “Oh! What about Ayato and Laito’s Versus II CD?! Didn’t it mention that Laito wasn’t in the triplet’s shared bed 9/10 times?!” And yeah, if you remembered that, kudos to you! Yes, you’re totally right. I thought this was some inconsistent writing, but I don’t believe so. I believe Cordelia was grooming Laito as a kid. For some reason, grooming never came to my mind, it was Tsuki who mentioned grooming, and Cris also backed that notion up. It’s not confirmed if Cordelia planned to do this to Laito in the beginning (which I doubt, I think she sexually exploited him on a whim due to sexual frustration and because Karl wouldn’t; and the suitors she had wasn’t “enough” for her) but I think it’s implied that it happened (from the earlier excerpt). As for grooming, here’s an excerpt from the VS II CD:
Ayato: You weren’t even there 9 out of the 10 times. Laito: So you knew, Ayato-kun. Ayato: … Laito: You know, I have been thinking how I came to be the person I am today. I am still wondering why wasn’t it Ayato-kun or Kanato-kun.
God that’s so SAAAD! This is why Laito being groomed from a young age would make sense. It would also make sense as to why he was so dismissive and hesitant to help Ayato out. In Ayato’s flashbacks, Laito is there, but doesn’t interfere when Cordelia gets into the picture. Laito tends to run away from his problems, and this manifests even when he’s a kid. To further the support of the claim, it’s definitely not farfetched that Cordelia would do something to a child, especially her own child. She used Kanato for his singing voice when she was having sex..... yikes. That’s another form of sexual exploitation. So uh, let’s dive right into see what grooming does,,,,, *opens another private window* Here’s the source I’ll be using too. 
Grooming is a process that is typically used to sexually exploit children. Ewewewewewewew. It can be a quick or gradual process. It’s basically harnessing the trust in children utilizing constant contact. There’s not much explicit evidence describing this with Cordelia, but if Laito wasn’t sexually exploited when he was younger in the fashion he was “used” to when he got older, again I do think he was groomed. It would make sense as to why he either avoided conflict with Cordelia as a child. Either that was his own disposition (which to a degree I think it is), or maybe he was confused about Cordelia’s actions towards his other brothers, since he “loved” Cordelia. Young Laito typically fell silent when Cordelia entered the room, which again could be because of his disposition, fear, or he knows not to say much in front of her. 
During the grooming process, a child can result in not being able to see coercion and deception. In general, kids 7 years old and under biologically are not able to differentiate persuasion from their own decisions, which results in the laws surrounding advertisements catering to children. Fun fact. I know we’re dealing with vampires and so their brains might not work like that, but from what I’ve seen, they’re pretty human. Also, we’re still not sure about their ages or how vampire biological ages work, but bear with me on this. 
Another stage of grooming involves cutting off the child’s support system, whether it be family, friends, etc. I made a comment in an analysis that Laito doesn’t have a support system, and at the very least, his brothers. But even that is pretty weak. You know how it’s mentioned how Laito wasn’t even in bed with Ayato and Kanato most of the time? That’s probably due to Cordelia weakening Laito’s bonds with them. Furthermore, on the website I’m using to get information from, it says this:
Control and alienation is exercised in the following ways:
[more bullet points here]
- creating conflicting feelings of love and hate, protection and exploitation, guilt and innocence, entitlements and duties.
OOOOOHHHHHH BBBBBOOOOOYYYYYY!!!!! Ayato and Kanato say that they fucking hate Cordelia. But... Laito’s the only one that says he “loves” her. He also says that he hates her. So, from this, I think it might be safe to say that Cordelia groomed Laito as a child, and continued to use those tactics when he was older.
Well, I’m gonna end it here for part one. That was quite the ride, but I hope you enjoyed nonetheless! Next part, we’ll be getting into Laito when he’s older and the effects it had on him, along with some other crazy dark sides of psychology. I still won’t be answering many of my inbox questions until this huge analysis is finished, sorry! I kinda wanna focus on this first. But feel free to hit me up with any questions! I’ll still get to them :)
Any Cordelia/Laito questions will most likely be answered in this series, just a heads up. But if you have any questions pertaining to Cordelia/Laito right now or after the series, feel free to hit me up still! Any clarifying questions for this post or anything in general are always encouraged as well if you’re confused or want me to elaborate on something :)
Part two is planned to be up next week! See ya then ;) -Corn
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hopelikethemoon · 4 years ago
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Out of Reach (Ezra x Reader) ||{Moonbeam} || [smut]
Title: Out of Reach Rating: Explicit  Length: 5,500 Warnings: Pregnant!Reader, angst, smut (oral sex and regular sex), space drug use.  Notes: Proof that I do love all of you.  Part twenty-two of the Moonbeams series.
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As soon as you entered the atmosphere of Lykaios, all of your nausea vanished. There was true bliss in being able to gobble down a handful of dehydrated biscuit snacks for the first time in a few days. No more shots, no more nausea tabs, and no more… leaving for the time being.
Shiva had taken it upon themselves to stock your transport with two months of food, mostly to avoid interacting with Quinn. There was something new to feel guilty about. If Quinn hadn’t had to reveal his true identity — because of you — they would’ve been speaking.
You could only hope, but Quinn was leaving alone to go back to Ay-7 for awhile. Shiva didn’t even give him a send-off. 
You couldn’t blame them for being upset with him. Shiva, like most people, despised anyone affiliated with Fiorta. But he was still Quinn. Even if his name was actually Riordan. Except it wasn’t — he may have been born as Riordan, but he chose Quinn.
They’d get over it, sooner or later.
Your heart did somersaults when you saw that Ezra was waiting in the clearing for you. It flooded you with false hope, before you quickly reminded yourself of the reality. He was just walking through the motions.
“Welcome back, moonbeam,” Ezra drawled out as he stepped aboard the transport. “How are you feeling.”
“Good.” You answered as you sealed the door closed. “I ate.”
He smiled warmly, “I was worried about you. Nutros only do so much.” Ezra took a step towards, his eyes lowering to your stomach. “May I?”
Your hand rested against the not-so-subtle swell there, “Of course.” You mirrored his expression, smiling at him. “It’s a good thing I went back to the Block to pick up a few new shirts.”
Ezra reached out and brushed his fingers over your stomach, before spreading his hand out over the curve. “It’s surreal to think that part of me is safely nestled right here.” 
“I can’t imagine why it’s surreal,” You teased lightly, reaching out to play with the soft hair that fell across his forehead, before running your fingers down his cheek. “How are you?”
“Better now.” He told you lightly as he rubbed his fingertips over your stomach. “Can you feel them yet?” 
“Sometimes I think I can,” You told him, resting your hand over the back of his. “Little flutters, but not anything substantial.” 
Ezra lifted his gaze to meet yours, “I feel like I should kiss you right now.” He told you as he stared at your lips. 
You curled your fingers around the back of his neck, teasing your fingertips through the hair at the nape of his neck there. “Then kiss me.” 
He closed the distance between the two of you, his lips brushing over yours. But that wasn’t enough, Ezra tilted his head to deepen the kiss, his tongue sweeping over your bottom lip as he sought entrance. 
A soft groan escaped you as you sank into the kiss, grabbing at his shoulder for support. If you could just forget for a few moments, suspend the bitter taste of reality, you could just pretend. Ezra was always so enthusiastic when you came back, always ready to smother you with attention or recite a new line of poetry that captured his interest. 
He broke away from the kiss before you had fully savored the brief brush with your imagination, his breath dancing over your lips as he pressed his forehead to yours. “I’m sorry, I—“
You pressed your fingers to his lips and shook your head. “Not yet.” You whispered, winding your arms around his body and pressing your face into the crook of his neck. He ran his hands down your back, but his touch was awkward — like he wasn’t sure how you needed to be held. There was just enough fumble to pull you back into the bleak moment. 
“So,” You started, twisting yourself out of his embrace and putting space between the two of you. “I apologize for returning so soon. I know I said I anticipated a week.” You had made it four days — not including travel time. 
“You don’t have to apologize for that, moonbeam.” He assured you, shifting his weight from the heels of his feet to his toes and back again. He looked as awkward as you felt. 
“I know, but I told you I would give you space and I’m… Clearly not great at that.” 
The faint smile on Ezra’s lips drew into a tight thin line, “Space. Right.” He clasped his hands together, “You indicated that there was more amiss than what you revealed over the com.” 
You grimaced a little, “Would you like to go sit?” 
“Sure.” Ezra gave a stiff nod, before starting down the corridor towards your quarters, instead of the common area. 
“Ezra?” 
He glanced back at you, “What?” 
“Do you know where you’re going?” 
He stopped, turning towards you then. “Your quarters?” 
“You haven’t been on my transport before… since what happened.” You had spent your last night on Lykaios with him on his transport — before heading back to yours with Shiva the next morning. 
Ezra blinked slowly, “I haven’t.” 
You shook your head. 
“Oh.” He laughed incredulously. “I think I remember…” He looked back down the hallway towards your quarters, brows drawn together. “It’s dark.” 
“It’s alright.” You moved towards him, reaching for his hand. “I don’t expect you to remember anything.” 
Ezra shook his head, “That was weird. It was almost like…” He squeezed your hand. “Like an impression of something I once knew.” 
You brought his hand to your lips, letting it linger. “It’s a start. Another start.” 
He rubbed his thumb over the center of your palm, before guiding you down the corridor to your quarters. 
“You know,” You started. “I would’ve been a lot more nervous to tell you this before.” 
“Bad news?” He arched a brow.
“It relates to Quinn.” 
“Do I want to know?” Ezra eyed you suspiciously and ducked as you swung your hand at him. “I’m joking!”
“Am I laughing?” You protested as the corners of your lips twitched upwards.
He started laughing, “Yes!” 
You put your hands on your hips, “No I’m not.” 
Ezra scooped you up — never ceasing to impress you with his strength — before depositing you unceremoniously onto the bed. “Tell me.” 
You huffed, sinking back onto your bed and propping your legs up on his lap. “It’s not fun news, you know. It’s more like, the Corps might be after our baby.” 
“What?” He stiffened, his eyes locking onto your face. “Why do you think that?”
“Well, at my appointment the medic discovered that the baby and I aren’t entirely compatible with each other. I personally think it only occurs when I’m not on Lykaios — I never feel that bad when I’m here.” 
“But the Corps.”
“I’m getting there. The medic wanted to do some risky procedure, which I vetoed and then… I mentioned that the father wasn’t fully human. Look, you could be Zendovian, Yaelori, or any number of species that have been known to mix with humans, but… my record says the last place I jumped to was Lykaios.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat as he held your gaze, “And then what?”
“I lied. I said the baby was conceived on Ay-7, just to save face. Timing is off if they pull the logs, but…” You sank back and stared at the ceiling. “I don’t think they’ll be a problem.” 
“When has the Corps ever not been a problem?” He seethed. “They’ll come here and ruin everything. That’s what they do.”
“Not always. Especially… considering I discovered that all this time I knew the heir to Fiorta.” 
“Riordan Northcott vanished twenty years ago,” Ezra remarked. “Rumors always suggested he was caught with his pants down with the wrong person.”
You snorted, “That sounds about right.” You tilted your head to look at Ezra, “It’s Quinn.”
“Excuse me?” His jaw dropped. “Our Quinn?” 
You nodded slowly, “Rumors apparently weren’t largely exaggerated. He only told me the need-to-know aspects of his life, but… it makes so much sense now.” 
He was still just staring at you, “And he isn’t involved?” 
“No.” You assured him. “But he’s going to get involved to try to waylay any danger. Given all of their ventures, I can’t imagine that Lykaios or our baby is high on their radar.” 
“And this was what had you so agitated?”
“Well, yeah. Quinn is about to get himself tangled up in a situation he tried to leave because of me, Shiva won’t talk to him, and you’re…”
“Broken?”
“For lack of a better word.” You sighed heavily. “If I hadn’t gone to Arcadia, if I hadn’t made that deal, if I hadn’t… stupidly brought it up with you.” 
Ezra lifted your legs off his lap so he could move up the bed, draping himself over your body carefully. His knees pressed into the thin mattress on either side of your hips, his hands planted beside your head. 
“You have to stop blaming yourself, moonbeam.” He told you, his dark eyes fixed on yours. There was a familiar warmth there, a quiet adoration that warmed you.
“I have a lot of regrets,” You admitted, trying to will the tears you felt welling in your eyes not to fall. 
Ezra’s brows creased together, “Do you regret what we had?” 
“No,” You whispered, before you quietly corrected yourself. “A little. More so now that I know that…” You shook your head slowly. “I didn’t know how serious your condition was, Ezra. You hid it so well.” 
“If I chose not to reveal that to you, perhaps it was because it didn’t matter to me anymore. A person can overlook pain if the alternative is better than they could’ve imagined.” He drawled out, brushing his knuckles against your cheek. “I may not truly know you, little lamb, but I know what the ghost of these emotions feel like.” 
You blinked slowly, causing a hot tear to slip down your cheek. “Everyone has had to make sacrifices because of me. How is that fair?” 
“Haven’t you made your own?” Ezra questioned, “You told me that you died and now you’re carrying our baby — something that is to the detriment of your own life. We all make sacrifices for those we love. We give little pieces of ourselves to the people who matter.” 
“Ezra—“
He ran his thumb over your bottom lip, “I may not remember, but I do know why I would make certain decisions.”
You curled your fingers around the back of his neck, sliding your fingers over the scar that marred his skin there. “Why?”
“I feel the depths of my love for you, even still.” He murmured, his voice dropping low as he leaned down to kiss you. 
This was a dangerous game — one you ached to play. 
You raked your fingers through his hair as you tilted your chin to close the distance between your lips. Your tongue slid out, trailing across his lips as you sought out his. A needy sound rising up the back of your throat. 
Ezra moved above you, planting a knee between your thighs. 
Once again, he broke the kiss before you were ready for the moment to end, breath dancing over your tender lips. “What about slow?” 
“Fuck slow.” You hissed out, reaching down to tug at the hem of his shirt, drawing the fabric up his back. 
Ezra sank back on his legs, peeling off his shirt and tossing it aside. You sat up, reaching out to run your hands over the warm skin of his chest. 
You pressed your lips to the hollow of his throat, letting your lips linger there, before he helped you pull off your own thin sweater.  His hands roamed over your newly bared skin, sliding along the curve of your waist. 
“You’re sure?” He questioned, brows drawn together with concern as he cupped your cheek. 
“Yes,” You nodded, reaching down to unlatch the buckle of his belt, pulling it from the loops of his pants. “I need this.” 
Ezra kissed the top of your head. “Whatever you want, moonbeam.” He murmured, his voice almost too quiet to even hear. But you did. 
You tugged the zipper down and forced the closure apart so you could shove his pants down his hips and thighs. After they were shed, you laid back and let him do the same with your pants, peeling away every barrier that separated the two of you — except for his memories. That was a barrier you couldn’t breach. Not yet.
Ezra laid you back against the bed once more, draping himself over you as he claimed your mouth again. His rough hands wandered, skimming over the swell of your breast, dragging his thumb over your taut nipple, before trailing downwards to grasp at your hip as he rocked against you. 
His cock was trapped between your bodies, rigid against your thigh. He moved downwards, mouth hot against your throat, lips brushing over that spot at the crook of your neck that always seemed to draw him in. 
You let yourself get lost in the sensation. Ezra’s skilled mouth tasting every inch of you from your lips to the soft flesh of your inner thighs. 
“Look at you,” He drawled out as he parted your slick folds, brushing his thumb over clit. “Fuck, you’re soaked, little lamb.”  
It reminded you of the first time your thighs had framed his face, the first time he coaxed a release from you. Your lips parted with a breathy moan as Ezra sank two fingers into your slick center, his tongue sweeping over that aching bundle of nerves. 
Your hips arched up off the bed and his grip tightened to hold you steady. He curled his fingers within you, seeking out that sweet spot that only he seemed skilled enough to find. 
“Ezra.” You moaned, squirming beneath him as he sucked at your clit lightly. You were right on the brink, inner walls fluttering around his fingers. 
Ezra released his hold on your hip, reaching for your hand instead. It wasn’t fair — the way he slotted his fingers in between yours, the way he held your hand as he pushed you over the edge. 
It felt like bliss and agony rolled into one as you came apart at the seams, your cunt gushing around his fingers as he dragged them in and out of you. 
He took his time with you. You watched him lick his fingers clean, before he worked his tongue between your slick folds, lapping at your arousal. 
You pressed your foot against his shoulder, trying to push him away as you twitched beneath his ministrations, your clit far too sensitive to endure the teasing stroke of his tongue. “Ezra.” 
He turned his head and nipped at the inside of your thigh gently, “Tell me I never took this for granted.” He peppered kisses over your skin. “I could devote my life to making you come — just like this.”
“You took full advantage,” You told him with a lazy smirk as you watched him move back up the length of your body. You ran your thumb over his bottom lip, fresh desire burning through you as he sucked your thumb into his mouth. “As did the beast.” 
“I bet.” He released your thumb with a wet pop, before leaning in to kiss you. You could taste yourself on his lips and his tongue, which only fueled your need. 
You curled your leg around his hip, moaning against his mouth as his cock dragged between your sensitive folds. “Please.” 
He pulled back, resting his forehead against yours. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” You breathed out as you reached between your bodies to guide his cock to your center. “I need this. You.” 
Ezra gently cradled your jaw in his palm, keeping his gaze locked on yours as he pressed into you. His lashes fluttered, but he kept his gaze trained on you. “Fuck.” He rasped. “You feel good.” 
“So do you.” You leaned up and caught his bottom lip between your teeth, tugging gently at it before trailing kisses along his jaw. “I missed this.” 
Ezra stroked his thumb down the center of your throat, before planting both hands against the bed beside your head for leverage. He rocked forward, snapping his hips into you before drawing back and repeating the motion again and again. 
It was different — good, but different. It lacked the desperation of that first time with Ezra and it lacked the tenderness that came from loving someone. It was still him. He just couldn’t remember what came before. 
A part of you wished you had rolled over beneath him, pressed your face into the pillow and let him drive the length of his cock into you, but it hasn’t felt right. This felt right. 
Looking up at him as he rocked into you, kissing him each time he dipped down to steal another one from you. There was so much there that just was — memories or no memories. 
Tendrils of pleasure burned through you as you clenched around his cock, fingernails digging into the back of his arms as you climbed to him. 
Ezra picked up the pace, his breath coming out in labored pants as he filled you. Your name slipped past his lips as he buried himself within you and came apart. He kept himself there, rocking his hips slowly as he spilled out. 
He slid out of you far sooner than you wanted, rolling onto the bed beside you to keep from putting too much weight on your stomach. You prepared yourself for him to pull away — to put space between the two of you. But he didn’t. 
Ezra pressed his lips to the curve of your shoulder, molding his body into the shape of yours, his hand wandering over your bare skin, before settling at your stomach. “I don’t know the particular cautions around copulation during pregnancy.” He remarked, his words muffled against your shoulder.
You snorted, “Never change.” 
He tilted his head to rest his chin against your arm, flashing you a cheeky grin. “What?” 
“Copulation.” You rolled your eyes. “You’re the only man I know who would use ‘copulation’ immediately after fucking.” 
Ezra shrugged a shoulder, “It sounded right, little lamb.” He smirked a little, his fingers wandering lower. 
Your lips parted with a breathy sigh as he skimmed his fingers between the slick folds of your cunt, gathering up the mess left behind there. “Ezra.” You whispered, curling your fingers around his wrist as you pulled his hand away. 
He arched a brow as he watched you bring his fingers to your mouth, dragging your tongue over them before wrapping your lips around them. He stroked his fingers over your tongue as you let them go with a wet pop. 
“Fuck, that’s…” Instead of finishing his sentence, he kissed you. The kind of kiss that was bound to leave your lips tingling tomorrow. 
You melted into him as he kissed you, meeting his desperation with your own until you were both nose-to-nose and drawing in ragged breaths. 
“I’m sorry.” He whispered, pressing his face into the crook of your neck.
“Don’t be.” You murmured, kissing his shoulder as you curled your arms around him. “This… you  . You’re all I need right now, Ez.” You didn’t have to pretend. You could just fall in love with him all over again. 
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Ezra tossed his satchel onto the bed beside you as he shook a handful of loose lunaxium in his palm, “You wouldn’t happen to have a mortar and pestle, would you?”
“You brought one,” You finished the last bite of fruit, before sliding out of your bed. “How is it?”
“Thought I could ignore it. We had such a good evening last night, but…” He grimaced and shook his head. 
“Would you be willing to tell me more?” You questioned as you stepped out into the corridor to retrieve the device from the fresher. “You were always downplaying it until, well… You were in rough shape.”
“Right now it’s simply just a mind-numbing headache. Everything is darkly tinged at the corners.” He took the mortar and pestle and started grinding it into a thin powder. “I am almost proud of myself for concealing it. That had to have been no easy task.” 
You watched him as he carefully lined up the lunaxium dust, before snorting it. It didn’t look particularly pleasurable at first. His brows knit together and his jaw dropped, but then his features softened. 
“Sorry,” He muttered, rubbing the back of his hand under nose. 
“No, no.” You shook your head. “It doesn’t bother me. You just always hid when you had to use it.” 
“I was probably ashamed,” Ezra admitted. “I get the impression that I didn’t like the reminders of our differences.” He rubbed at his nose again, before scooting back to lean against the wall beside you. “How are you?” 
“I slept well last night.” You told him as you picked up another piece of fruit from the dish beside you, peeling off the peel. “Someone wore me out.”
Ezra chuckled, cocking his head to the side as he looked at you, “It was quite a way to end my five year dry spell a second time.” 
You pried out a segment of the fruit, biting it in half before offering the other bite to him. “I think it was exactly what we both needed.” 
He leaned over and used his mouth to take the fruit from your fingers, licking the nectar off his bottom lip. “It didn’t feel like scratching the itch.” Ezra drawled out, rubbing his thumb over the center of his forehead. 
“Is it helping?” 
“Yeah.” Ezra exhaled slowly. “Takes a few to kick in.” He slumped back against the wall. You could tell it was working it’s magic on him. His movements seemed sluggish and relaxed. All of the tension in his body seemed to ebb away. 
“Do you think I should take lunaxium?” 
Ezra’s eyes slid to meet yours, “For what?”
You gestured to your stomach, “This little spawn of yours.” 
“Pup.” He corrected with a crooked grin. “I don’t know. You said you get sick when you’re off world?”
“Nausea, cramping, headache, general malaise.” You explained as you took another bite of fruit. “It’s getting worse every time I go back to the Block.”
“Then you should stay here,” Ezra ran his fingers down the side of your arm. “You already proved that you can endure the full moon here. That the beast knows you, little lamb.” 
You laughed softly, shaking your head. “And that’s how I know you’re not you.” 
“But I am.” Ezra insisted, leaning to rest his head against your shoulder. “I’m still the man who loves you.” 
Your expression fell, “Ezra, you’re high.” 
“So?” 
“So.” You muttered, grabbing a pillow to present him with instead of your shoulder as you started to move out of his grasp. “You barely know me.” 
Ezra stretched out on your bed, his arms wrapped around the pillow as he rested his face against it. “But I do know you. I feel you.” 
“Sleep it off, champ.” You remarked as you cleaned up the mess you’d made with the fruit, sitting the bowl of discarded peel on the little stand beside your bunk. 
“Are you listening to me?” He questioned, even as his eyes were tightly closed. 
“Yes, I am.” You sighed, dropping his satchel on the ground as you pulled the covers up and over him. “But you’re high and talking nonsense.” 
“I was confused,” Ezra mumbled. “When you brought me back to my transport. My thoughts were so disjointed and I didn’t mean… I care about you, moonbeam.” 
“It’s all been forgiven,” You assured him, brushing your fingers through the hair that fell against his temple. “Just relax. Hopefully you’ll wake up feeling better.”
“Will you stay?” He drowsily rubbed his hand over the bed beside him. 
“I’m going to call Shiva and then I’ll come back to bed.” You promised. “Just rest, Ez.” 
“I like when you call me that.” Ezra whispered, as his breathing finally evened out. 
You quietly moved across your quarters to grab your datapad out of the charging dock, before heading down the corridor to the cockpit. Shiva hadn’t had enough time to set up the comlink like the one you and Ezra used — this one required an additional boost from the nav system to siphon off the satellite grid. 
It took three rings for them to answer, “Yrica’s frosty nips. I was asleep.” 
“Shit.” You checked the time. “I forgot. So much of our time is spent inside I lose track of—“
“It’s fine.” Shiva assured you. “How are you? Did you stop puking your guts up?” 
“As soon as I re-entered the atmosphere, I felt like new again.” You rested your hand on your stomach as you kicked back in your jump seat. “I carb loaded as soon as I could.”
Shiva yawned dramatically, “I hope you hydrated too.”
“I drank plenty.” You laughed softly. “Ezra was insistent this morning… or whatever time it was. We slept for like eight hours.” 
“How’s that situation going?” 
“Well—“
“You had your second first time with him, didn’t you?” 
“Am I that obvious?” 
“No, but he is.” Shiva snickered. “Despite how deceptive the two of you were being while I was there, his interest in you was blatant.” 
“At least I’m not misreading that situation.” You propped your elbow up on the armrest of your jump seat. “It’s a delicate situation.” 
“How were things after?” 
“Great.” You shrugged. “He’s still… It’s still Ezra. He still does what I would expect from him. We cuddled and he fell asleep. I woke up a little later to use the fresher and he was just as clingy when I got back.” 
“Oh, he was ‘clingy,’ huh?” Shiva taunted.
You rolled your eyes, “And then we slept for eight hours.” You felt your cheeks warm, “You’re not going to hear me complain about the wake-up.” 
“Called it.” They laughed softly. “You’ve got him wrapped around your finger. Where is he right now?”
“Resting. Headache.” You chewed on your bottom lip. “It kills me to know how much pain he’s been in all along, but he hid it from me.” 
“Yeah, well we all hide things from the people we care about.” 
“Have you heard from Quinn?” 
“Who?”
“Shiva.”
“Fuck Quinn.” 
“He didn’t keep that from us for insidious reasons, Shiva.” You sighed heavily. “I don’t understand why you won’t at least give him a little grace.”
“I’ve given him a lot of grace.” Shiva said flatly. “I’ve hauled his ass around the galaxy and bailed him out when he’s fucked up. He could’ve told me. I wouldn’t have judged him.” 
“You wouldn’t have judged him? Like you’re not judging him right now?” 
“It’s different now. He waited too long.” 
“Shiva, I genuinely think Quinn just repressed his past. The only reason it came up was because of me. I don’t think he kept that from us as a ‘fuck you’ to either of us.” 
“Maybe he’ll prodigal son his way back into their good graces. Then I won’t have to be his emotional support person anymore.” Shiva huffed. 
“Yeah, I’m sure he’s just chomping at the bit to get back in there and have his life controlled by his ultra-conservative family.” You snapped. “Quinn definitely seems like the type to be content with that.” 
“We both know he loves glad-handing.” 
“He also loves being free to do who and what he pleases.” You sank back in your seat. “Give him an inch, Shiva. Don’t make me feel guilty over killing your friendship.”
“Then Riordan shouldn’t have lied to us.” 
“I don’t think Quinn was doing it as a slight.” You shook your head. “Just try, alright?” 
“No, but I’ll say ‘yes’ to help you sleep better at night.” 
“I’m honoured.” You quipped. “I should probably go. I promised Ezra I’d nap with him.” 
“Com me later?” 
“Yeah. Go back to sleep.” 
“I’m up now. I’ve got an AI bot to tinker with.” 
“Have fun with that.” You offered, before killing the com. You had to hold onto the hope that the two of them would fix their friendship. They’d been friends too long to see that torn apart because of you. 
Ezra was still out cold on your bed and snoring softly. He looked so relaxed — he always did when he was asleep and unbothered by the pain. You wished he’d been honest with you about all of that before. It hurt a little more to find out from a version of him that was uninhibited by emotions. 
You leaned down to pick up the contents of his satchel that had spilled out on the floor by your bed. The little pouch of lunaxium had lost a few pieces of the rock. You tucked them back into the pouch — all but one. 
If your baby was like Ezra, wouldn’t they need lunaxium too? 
Sinking down onto the side of the bed you placed the rock on your tongue, it tasted like copper and something oddly tangy. The rough texture felt strange against your tongue, but it softened into a malleable enough texture that you could swallow it.  
At least it seemed safer to try lunaxium with Ezra right beside you. It took awhile to feel anything. You’d done dust on At-7 — you knew what getting high felt like. But this was slower, it weighed down your limbs and made your insides feel… different. 
You drowsily slid under the covers beside Ezra, curling into the crook of his body, seeking his warmth as an unusual chill moved through your body. 
Everything felt a little brighter, a little louder… You could feel the life humming from within you. That star that you had plucked from the sky and swallowed. The life that had taken root within you, that was drawing from you for sustenance. 
Light twisted behind your eyes, causing you to fall upwards into an increasing brightness — like you were ascending into a supernova. Bathed in warm light. Was this what Ezra felt whenever he used lunaxium? 
You seemed more aware of your existence. Every little flutter in your womb felt like you should’ve been able to see the movement beneath your skin. If you could even see your own body. It was just light. 
“Moros holds the keys to all of our fate.” 
“Who’s there?” 
You recognised the voice. Callisto. 
“He tricked us to turn on our own brother.” She told you, her disembodied voice like a whisper against your skin. “Convinced Psophis that freedom was his, only to bind him into the form of a wolf for all eternity.”
“Can I get Ezra’s memories back?”
“They’re not gone… just out of reach.” Callisto told you. “Like your own were.” 
“But I remembered.”
“Ezra was weak. The fight was drained from him before he could cling to his mind.” 
“And I’m supposed to trust you?” 
“An enemy of my enemy is the closest of friends.” Callisto assured you. “Arcadia is out of reach for my siblings, but you…” 
“I’m not going back there,” You protested. “Not while I’m pregnant.” 
“Once the child is born,” Callisto said smoothly. “We will spare both of you, if you help to free us.” 
“And Ezra?” 
“Will be free too.” 
“But his memories.” 
“Are just out of reach.” Callisto repeated. “Promise me you’ll help to free us.” 
“I’m leery of making vows after Moros.” 
She sighed, “We’ll spare you and your child, regardless of your success.” 
“And Ezra?” 
“And Ezra.” 
“Then I’ll help.” You told her, blinking at the dark shape in the bright light that surrounded you. You could see her — the outline of her. “But I can’t make any promises.” 
“Hope is enough for me.” Callisto vanished, swept up in a breeze, taking the light with her. 
Stars cascaded above you, falling across the sky rather than downwards. Green light danced through the night sky, transforming into shimmering blue and pink shapes, before vanishing with the stars. 
You fell backwards, falling and falling until you felt the firm pressure of your mattress at your back. 
You gasped, sitting bolt upright in the bed. The movement was enough to jerk Ezra awake, a sharp growl escaping him like he was primed to attack someone. 
“It’s just me.” You assured him, meeting his wild eyes. “It’s just me. I had a nightmare.” 
Ezra kept staring at you, his chest rising and falling unevenly. “I thought…” He blinked, shaking his head. “I don’t know what I thought.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” He rubbed the heel of his palm against his forehead. “I think I was still asleep.”
“You growled.” 
Ezra laughed a little as he sank back onto the bed, “You scared the shit out of me.”
“Did you think you remembered?” You questioned quietly. 
He nodded stiffly, before admitting, “For just a second.” Ezra pulled you towards him, pressing his face into your hair. “Sorry to disappoint.”
“It’s alright,” You kissed his throat and the underside of his jaw. “It’s just out of reach.” 
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Exactly.”
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velaralilas · 2 years ago
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innocents brain worms
in my quest to read all of Furuya Usamaru’s works, i had to read innocent boys crusade. something something got to me in this story. what was it? idk but im hoping that venting about some things might clear up the fog.
the only info i really got going in was that there was at least one part that makes you go "yeah i need to walk away." my friends were very adamant about me not reading it, saying its not worth the trauma. now, at this point, i had read maybe 10 ? of Furuya's other works, mostly his short story collections and 5-8 chapter stories. these are horrid! dont read them! (i will be making a more expansive post about all his works later)
contrary to most of his other works, Innocent Boys Crusade is up there with the ranks of Litchi Hikari Club, BUT but innocents is very lacking in comparison.
ibc is 25 chapters long and follows 12 main boys working their way to jerusalem. obviously, shit goes down, nearly everyone dies, classic eroguro furuya work. i got it now- its how a cohesive story is ruined by plot-points being patchworked in at the end to try and fix up loose ends.
Michael, a disciple, follows the group along to prove etienne's miracles are fake. his father is the one who sent him on this mission with the motive of 1. proving etiennes a fake and 2. to take over as leader of the childrens crusade. now why would his dad want him to risk his life to prove a hoax? WELL, you had to be celibate in order to be a higher rank in the church, and michael's father's end goal was to be pope. you see where this is going? in the end he puts all of the childrens crusaders on a boat (including his bastard son) and sells them into slavery! YOU FIND OUT ABOUT THIS IN THE LAST FEW CHAPTERS. ITS JUST THROWN IN THERE. IT WASNT NEEDED. if it makes yall feel any better he doesnt become pope.
Christian.... oh lord.... the jaizera love child. the reason why he goes on this expedition is to get an arab procedure done to become a woman so he can be with etienne. lets break this down a bit. the story takes place in 1212. this is important, because most of society is christian and believes being homosexual is the devils work. Christian finds out about this bottom surgery in arab medicine and sees this as a loophole to be able to be with etienne, because relationships are strictly man and woman. im saying this now, i dont care if yall get mad (if youve even read up to this point) this does not make Christian a trans girl. if it was okay for two men to be together in a romantic relationship, during that time, he would have acted on his feelings. he simply was trying to find a way to be with his crush that wouldnt get them killed or persecuted. i also find it funny how the panel with his corpse looks very similar jaibo. very funny.
Hugo is a piece of shit. I think he could have been written differently to not include his- uh- homosexual humbert humbert tendencies. he made a decent antagonist. his plans to make money and profit off the boys in a society where capitalism doesnt exist yet and getting the other children to join him to sell them off to slavery makes him a great villain. one where you can see and understand his motives.
isabelle, the mute prostitute. when she has sex with gods little miricle etienne, shes able to talk. it feels almost like the little mermaid, but instead of a kiss, its sex. this felt wrong? idk this is one of the things where it makes me a little uncomfy, but doesnt seem that wrong. cause this is how furuya shows that etienne is in fact capable of making miracles. and then! she gets pregnant! THEY DIDNT EVEN HAVE SEX FOR THAT LONG. AND YOU DONT MAGICALLY GET PREGNANT THE FIRST TIME AROUND. i like to say she got "virgin mary'd" cause thats what happened. god was like "yeah, remember when you fucked my chosen one? heres your punishment reward!" god likes pushing girls to have kids, huh?
this is all my brain can think of for now. i will definetly yell more about this. if you made it this far, lets be friends. <3
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uomo-accattivante · 4 years ago
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Great comprehensive interview with Elvira on the making of The Letter Room and filmmaking, in general. One interesting tidbit mentioned: she is currently developing a podcast about sex. 👀🤔
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For most of her creative life, Elvira Lind has been behind the the lens compassionately capturing true stories as a documentary filmmaker. Her debut feature, Songs for Alexis, observes two young lovebirds navigating a long distance relationship and challenging views on gender identity in the modern age. While her sophomore feature, Bobbi Jenne, explores the life of a famous dancer fighting for her own creative and personal independence.
Despite her prolific doc work, a story that couldn't simply be told in its raw form kept circulating in her head: a dark prison comedy about the secret life of a correctional officer trying to bring humanity to the prison system. When he gets transferred to a job in the letter room, he finds himself a little too involved in the private lives of the inmates.
Far along in her second pregnancy, and with the support of an incredible team of collaborators, Elvira took on the challenge of writing and directing her first narrative short, "The Letter Room." The film stars Oscar Isaac and Alia Shawkat, and has had an all-star festival run, screening at Telluride, Tribeca, and the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Here, Elvira reflects on the joys and challenges of creating your first short film—putting empathy first, reshaping the tropes around pregnancy, and screening in the COVID era.
vimeo
FTW: How did you become a filmmaker?
Elvira Lind: I’ve always loved film. I was very drawn to documentaries because it felt like you were entering something that was really happening. You opened a door and were already inside the film. You’re just trying to keep up with what’s being thrown at you. As opposed to fiction where you have to conjure it up from nowhere. I loved imagining and writing stories when I was little, but I didn’t have the confidence to pursue it.
I didn’t come from a family of filmmakers. And I came from a time when people had a little shitty camcorder that you borrowed from someone’s uncle, and buying film was expensive. Things opened up and changed a lot when cameras became more accessible.
I could only afford one year of film school in Cape Town, where I met some amazing people and learned about so many different ways of storytelling. I came back to Denmark and found myself working for free a lot for other filmmakers while doing a side job. The paid work was very hard to get, but I’d rather work for free with filmmakers that I loved and have more responsibilities than have access to nothing. It wasn’t easy to find my way in, but it’s so worth it. 
And now you live in New York. How does this global background affect your general filmmaking style and approach?
I definitely bring a lot of Danish documentary traditions with me and hold it very dear. There are a lot of kick ass female documentary filmmakers in Denmark that have taught me a lot. There’s a good support system for women there. It’s an incredibly privileged place in that there’s funding from the government to make films. You can make things that, in my opinion, are often far more interesting because it’s not reliant on how it’s going to make money in the box office.
You’ve shot many of your documentaries in the past. So what was it like this time to be working with a cinematographer?
I always wanted to work with a cinematographer on my documentaries; we just couldn’t afford it. Now for “The Letter Room”, I worked with Sam Chase, who has got such a brilliant eye and it was wonderful to have someone to work with on composing the look of the film because I’m usually doing it by myself. It is kind of like a marriage. I work with the same editor on all my projects as well. You enter this symbiotic sort of dance together. For me, it also means you have to fight about things and disagree and then make up and hear each other out. My editor, Adam Nielsen, is the kind of guy who just comes up with genius ideas while in the shower or on the way home from work on his bicycle. You have to find these key people in your life where you can bounce ideas back and forth with.
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Where did the idea for “The Letter Room” come from?
It was a story that was brewing in my head for a long time, but I wasn’t sure how to put a narrative film together. I just started to write it down and then it kept developing.
There was a podcast that I listened to that really inspired me. It told the story of different men who were all unknowingly writing love letters to the same woman. She started to ask for money and help with rent, but the letters she wrote were so wonderful and all these men were very in love with her. These very lonely men felt like magic had entered their lives. They all eventually found out that the woman was actually a man writing to different people trying to get their money. They were all heartbroken, but one of the men said that the worst part was losing these letters and that the fantasy was gone. He wished they could just keep writing to each other. So much of life is fantasy and trying to live through other people’s lives. I’m very drawn to stories of loneliness and bottled up feelings.
And then I am firmly against the American prison system. It’s heartbreaking, frustrating, and I can’t make sense of it. How do you even begin to explain this system to a child?
It’s a society that doesn’t care about humanity. I wanted to show the monotony, the repetition, the sadness. I don’t see the bigger goal or purpose of locking people away for countless years  and taking away all the things that makes you feel human, that makes life joyous. I really believe that we can all change and this system teaches people nothing. “The Letter Room'' is the combination of these two concepts that I’m very passionate about.
And then I got pregnant for the second time and I hadn’t made a film between the two. It was a crazy feeling to be taken over again by pregnancy. A wonderful friend of mine, Sofia Sondervan-Bild, came to me and said, “I think you should make this film and I’ll make it with you.” Initially, I freaked out and thought I didn’t know how to do fiction and doubted how I could make a film in a prison, but she inspired me and told me to do it. She’s just one of these incredibly powerful people that you want to go on an adventure with. She made me feel like my pregnancy wasn’t going to stand in the way of me making this film. We ended up shooting while I was far along in my pregnancy in a prison in the middle of a summer heat wave. It was crazy, but it was the best thing that I could’ve done at the time.
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When you were directing on set at that stage of pregnancy, did you feel like you were reshaping tropes of what women are capable of? 
It was insane. The funny thing was that the crew was like, “we can’t complain that we are tired because she is extremely pregnant and still running around.” I was so high off of that experience. When we finished, I collapsed. I fell straight onto the couch and then I have a two and a half year old screaming my name. That was more work for me than directing the short. I edited the film right before I gave birth actually, and then I gave birth and did sound right after. I was pumping breast milk in the corner in the darkness during the sound edit.
I’ve learned a lot from surpassing whatever I thought was physically possible with being pregnant. I learned that being in a creative process gives you so much energy that it allows you to be in whatever shape, size, form, mental space you can. People are ready to give you their support, if you choose the right people. I’m really grateful that I chose such wonderful collaborators who supported me through it all. Even when people were questioning my choice to direct a film while being pregnant in a prison. Why not? Women get pregnant and then we still need to be supported so that we can continue to make the things we want to do.
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What was your experience with getting “The Letter Room” funded?
It’s really hard, let’s be honest. There aren’t a lot of people sitting around waiting to fund a short film. We ended up working with Topic, which is a part of First Look Media. They are just incredible and really support filmmakers with whatever their vision is. I’ve had great experiences and some really bad experiences with funding, so I know this was an ideal scenario.
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Having a short that is over 30 minutes long seems like a feat. At what stage in the process did you know this was going to be a longer piece? And how did that decision affect the shoot in both positive and difficult ways?
It was way too long at first, and when I shortened it, it was still 32 minutes. We could only afford five days of shooting, and a lot of it is shot on active prison grounds, which have an insane amount of protocol. We almost used everything we shot.
I’m not used to being able to have different angles to choose from in my doc work, so I think I just knew exactly what I wanted. I know that my producers were worried that I wasn’t getting enough, but to me, I was like, I’m getting double of what I usually get on a documentary! Everyone was quietly concerned, but everything worked out when we got to the edit.
The short’s length hasn’t done any favors for me so far, but you need to breathe as an audience, you need to pace it out. If I cut out certain minutes, it would’ve felt rushed and you wouldn’t have believed the arcs that the characters had.
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I loved the concept of placing a very empathetic character in a setting that is contrary to that personality type. You included so many details that made the world feel so three dimensional and cared for. Can you talk about those decisions to create that feeling?
It means so much to me that it made you feel that way. What frustrates me about the prison system is that it lacks any empathy or understanding of human nature and nurture and who we are. What we need to become better people. It takes all of that away.
I spoke to people who have spent a lot of time in prison and they told me that you have to hide your feelings and that showing any signs of weakness will be a disaster. It’s the worst possible scenario you can imagine yourself in. Being robbed of every privacy, anything that makes you happy, anything that makes you feel like yourself. I imagined the character of a caregiver in this setting who wants to help and finds a silly way to do so. I was very inspired by that story of the love letters that I talked about earlier. What does it mean to lie if you’re making someone else happy?
It’s the morning of your first day of the shoot — how do you feel?
I was very nervous. I had never said ‘action’ before. I’ve been on a lot of sets, but I didn’t want to seem like I didn’t know what I was doing, but it’s also okay not to know. Mistakes are going to happen, and sometimes they become gifts. At the same time, I was very excited. You come in and there are all these people there with you who are there to make this thing you’ve written come to life.
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What are some things you would do on set to create a safe space and vulnerable environment?
We did everything we could to make the set a safe space. It was very difficult and stressful to shoot in an active prison, but we made sure to actively ask our crew if everyone’s feeling okay and if we can do anything to make the situation better. I’m very vulnerable and encourage all of my crew to be vulnerable with me. Mistakes are welcome.
It's a short film, people come and work on this not because they’re making a million dollars, but because they want to be there and are being incredibly generous with their time and energy. It was such a good environment that even when challenging things came up, it was still a lot of fun.
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What was it like working with actors for the first time?
That was one of the biggest challenges for me. I’ve heard so many different stories in passing of the least helpful note or worst thing to say to an actor. You want to be respectful and actors have their way of working. Ultimately, they are all really talented actors and all of them came with so much energy and a lot of ideas.
I spent time with each of them talking about their character. Those 1 on 1 conversations helped me a lot in the writing process as well because you’re bouncing ideas off of each other and they’re asking you questions about how they would respond to a certain situation.
I had always imagined Alia Shawkat as Rosita and she ended up wanting to do it and came from LA to film it. I had tears in my eyes when we were filming the scene of her and Oscar. They were excited to do the scene together. It was all a dream.
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What was the experience of working creatively alongside your partner like?
We were joking a lot about it before because there was already the stress of being so pregnant and we have a 2 year old at home, and now I was putting us in another highly intense and demanding situation. Either it was going to be great OR we would drive each other nuts. But we had so much fun. It was wonderful to work together. I was so happy to be on set and make my film and he’s just so talented and fun to be around. Those little moments where you know each other so well—I’d give him notes and he just kept surprising me and was so respectful of my directions.
He found this photo for him to connect to the character and it became very fundamental to me. It was this incredible black and white photo from the 70s of a prison guard. I had always imagined that he would have this inner salsa soundtrack playing in his soul and we would play Rubén Blades and 70s salsa music and Oscar just morphed that into music into everything and created this unique character. 
And he was wearing a fat suit the entire shoot and I was pregnant and Alia Shawkat had her pregnant belly on. The three of us—it was so funny.
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It seems like the perfect first experience of going into narrative with people that you really trust and support you.
Definitely! Find the people that you can team up with that really believe in your vision and who will push you to do exactly what you had in mind. People who never try to push you into these conventional routes. Our creative voices are so fragile. You want to be on the same page so that they see what you’re trying to do and want to bring that out of you. Where they’re treating your film as a sacred thing that you’re creating together.
How do you know when a film is done?
Fiction is very different from documentaries. With documentaries, it never feels like it’s done because there are so many options. That’s also why I love fiction so much; It’s so much faster. It’s a whole different beast to tame a documentary with hundreds of hours of footage where you’re reinventing the wheel every day.
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How have you built up your own confidence as a director and your unique voice?
Stubbornness. I’ve had many experiences working with people who didn’t believe in my project. You have to stick to your guns and trust your instincts. Once you find your voice, you find people that want to go on that ride with you and find your vision interesting. It’s a miracle when any of us gets a project made, so your confidence can’t come from how much money your movie made. It has to come from somewhere else. Did you do justice to the people you portrayed in your story? Did anyone walk away feeling like something had changed within them?
What is a good director to you?
Someone who is driven with passion without letting that passion take over and become any source of frustration that’s taken out on other people. It should feel like a collaborative effort. And having gratitude every day that you’re making something with other people who are donating their time. You’d be nowhere without them. One of the most important things is making sure that your crew is treating everyone equally. It depends on the size of the production, but having someone who can sense what’s happening in all different departments and having department heads that are there to protect everyone. Listen to each other, and make sure everyone feels safe and is in the best place to be creative.
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With COVID, what has the adjustment been like to being in an online space for this festival run? 
I’m really deeply saddened by not having the human interaction aspect of it. It feels so crucial to be in the room together, to meet and see each other's projects and share the experience, to cry and laugh next to people you don’t know. I’m grieving to be honest. We just gotta get through this time. It reminds us of how sacred it is for us to gather and how that feels, and I hope that all of that will come back after this and that cinemas will survive. We really need them.
What’s next for you?
Right now I’m writing more fiction and working on a new documentary feature that I am kind of researching and shooting at the same time. I am also creating a podcast about sex, called “The List” with my friend, writer and photographer Kirra Cheers, based on a book and play she wrote. My husband and I just started a production company together, Mad Gene Media, in order to develop and produce our own material. So. lots of exciting things to continue with in the new year.
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Born in 1981 in Copenhagen, Elvira Lind graduated from School of Media and Creative Arts in Cape Town in 2006 majoring in documentary film where she received two awards for her final year achievements. She has worked within that field since directing and shooting documentaries of various lengths for TV, cinema and web on 4 different continents.​In 2020 she premiered her first fiction project, a 32 min short film she wrote and directed. The film was sold to Topic and was invited to various festivals including Telluride and Tribeca FF. Elvira's feature doc BOBBI JENE premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2017 where it won all awards in its category including Best Feature documentary, best editing and best Cinematography. The film had theatrical release in US, Spain and Scandinavia.​Elvira's first documentary feature Songs for Alexis premiered at Toronto HOT DOCS in 2014 and screened and competed at a long list of international festivals. Her 8 part documentary TV series "Twiz and Tuck" was bought by VICELAND and launched in 2017. Elvira now lives and works out of New York.
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monstersandmaw · 4 years ago
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Male changeling x female reader  - Part Three (nsfw)
Edit which I’m including in all my works after plagiarism and theft has taken place: I do not give my consent for my works to be used, copied, published, or posted anywhere. They are copyrighted and belong to me.
Wow, I’ve had Issues™ trying to post this tonight. Anyway, here is a late Sunday treat for you, after being up on my Patreon for a week on early release.
This is part three, in which we go to the Spring Equinox Festival in the little village of Iska's Well, and meet someone there that we were not expecting!
Contents: fluff, smut, a bit of feels/angst amid the smut, some more smut, and a sappy ending. Knotting, unprotected sex (fem. reader is on the Pill), and Dunnock's shape-shifting. Words: 5189
Previously: the reader took some time off work to go back to her father’s old cabin in the woods just outside of the tiny hamlet of Iska’s Well, where she rescued a monstrous creature - part bear, part wolf, part... fae - from a nasty trap, and realised that those ethereal blue eyes were the same shade as those of the little boy with whom she used to play in the woods there as a child...
Part One, Part Two
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The equinox festival was just as Dunnock had said - the entirety of the little hamlet, plus the outlying farmsteads and houses, poured into the clearing between the trees, filling it with lively music and chatter. Someone had organised a hog roast, and there was a vegetarian stand too, while in another corner a couple of local cider and schnapps makers had set up stalls of their own. The mile or so walk along the road from the cabin had warmed you up since there as still a bit of a nip to the air, but the huge bonfire that was crackling merrily in the centre of the clearing provided a welcome source of heat and light, as well as a focus for the gathering.  
A small folk band had assembled on one side of the clearing and their lighthearted tunes drifted across the crackling fire towards you, drawing you in like a chant in a temple.  
You weren’t usually the type who just showed up at things like this on your own, but something about the event had seemed more inviting than usual, and the moment that Martha from the village store noticed your arrival, she bustled over and began to coo over you.  
“Oh, my dear, you look lovely!” Martha crooned, “I’m so glad you came. Let’s get you a drink and introduce you to some folks, alright?”
“Sure,” you smiled, amused by her genuine warmth and somewhat busybody nature. The only thing that was lacking was Dunnock. Of course, he couldn’t have attended something like this with so many people, and your heart weighed heavy in your chest at his absence. 
It became clear almost instantly that Martha was trying to set you up with someone’s nephew, much to the chagrin of both of you. However, the moment you both cottoned on, you grinned at each other and reached an unspoken agreement to get along just to get them to stop fussing.  
Robin, it turned out, was actually incredibly sweet, and not interested in the least bit in women, and you sat on a log together and spoke for almost an hour about his work as a potter. He had just begun to experiment with using the natural clay of the area to make his wares, slips, and glazes, and was selling both online and in the local shop. Interesting though it was, after a while you started to get a little chilly. Rubbing your arms, you had just amicably excused yourself and stood up with the intention of heading closer to the large fire in the centre of the gathering when a movement out of the corner of your eye snagged your attention away from quiet Robin and his talk of pottery.  
A tall, broad-shouldered man had just arrived and was apparently staring straight at you from across the leaping flames. Sparks whirled suddenly upwards into the sky as a fire-blanched log crumbled further into the heart of the blaze, and as they twisted wildly and glittered like white hot moths, you caught a flash of intense, supernatural blue on the far side.  
Your heart lurched and leapt in your chest and you instinctively turned your eyes upwards to look for the moon in the sky.  
A huge, pearlescent, completely full moon hung low over the trees, silvering the needles with its soft light and you gasped as you snapped your attention back to the young man. Dunnock’s words about only being able to shift on the full moon washed back into your mind and your jaw went slack as you stared at the stranger.  
Wearing a well-loved and much-patched, waxed fabric jacket in a nondescript shade of brown, he walked slowly around the stones of the fire pit, with hands shoved deep into his pockets and his gaze locked on your face. When he came to a halt in front of you, you stared openly at him.
“Dunnock?” you hissed and his full lips twitched, eyes twinkling. He had a short, dark beard that looked surprisingly well-cared for, and although his skin was weathered, it still carried all those myriad freckles you remembered from the little barefoot boy. “Is it really you?”
He blinked slowly - that telltale, slow, almost lazy movement giving him away as much as the colour of the eyes behind the long, thick lashes. “Surprised?” he asked in a husky baritone.  
“Uh, yeah?” you snorted, smacking him playfully on the chest with the back of your hand. “Look at you! Wow! And why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”
His answering chuckle - low and deeply satisfied - set heat tingling between your legs and you bit your lower lip. His blue gaze shifted to your mouth as he replied, “I wanted to surprise you, that’s all.”
“Well you did!” you laughed. “And wow, you… you grew up handsome!” You laughed and brushed your index finger fleetingly along his dark, close-cropped beard and added, “I like this.”
Before he could answer, Martha had reappeared at your elbow like an unwanted hummingbird and looking a little put out at the potential rival for your affections. She looked Dunnock up and down as if he were the town’s unwholesome rascal, and tutted softly. “I don’t think we’ve been introduced,” she said rather tartly.  
You looked from her to Dunnock and unthinkingly opened your mouth, “This is…”
“Dan,” he interrupted, extending a rough hand to her. “Pleased to meet you.”
“Martha,” she said and he quirked his lips a little and inclined his head. “You two know each other then?”
“Oh, we go way back,” you grinned, digging Dunnock in the ribs. His torso was invitingly solid beneath the softness of the jacket. “I just didn’t know he was going to be here tonight.”
The changeling was still grinning his lopsided smirk when Martha’s little gaggle of friends appeared to sweep her away like an unwelcome flock of cooing doves, and he tugged your arm and twitched his head towards the other side of the fire pit where there was a small dance space.
“Dance with me,” he murmured in your ear and you nodded, suddenly breathless as he slid his hands into yours.  
You weren’t the only ones moving softly to the folky music from the little group nearby, but everything faded to two pinpricks of blue in no time. It felt like the most natural thing in the world as Dunnock’s rough hand slid to your waist. He held you close and you inhaled the soft, mossy scent of him.  
For a long while, neither of you spoke, letting your bodies take over, pressing closer and closer with each step until you tilted your head to look up at him and saw an even brighter blue light burning in his gaze. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered without breaking step. His grip twitched slightly and he blurted, “I want to kiss you…”
With a smile you slid your hand from his shoulder up to his neck and gently scrunched a fistful of the grey-brown hair at the nape of his neck in your fingers. He swallowed - growling audibly, his Adam’s apple bobbing, pupils widening, pulse thudding in his neck. Gently drawing him down to you, you kissed him.  
The soft groan he made as the two of you kissed kindled something warm, flickering, and a little fragile inside you again. He kissed you breathless until you drew back, laughing quietly. His hand had sunk to the very base of your spine, and he stared at you with slightly glassy eyes.  
“I’ve wanted to do that since I first saw you again,” he admitted.  
“I didn’t know it was a full moon tonight, otherwise I might have stayed at the cabin instead of coming here.”
He twirled you softly beneath his outstretched arm, resuming the dance as if you’d never paused. “Then I wouldn’t have got to dance with you,” he said in a low, soft voice. Gods, but it was doing things to you that you hadn’t known your body wanted to do any more. It made you ache everywhere, inside and out until you weren’t sure you could bear it any longer.  
The warmth of his palms and the closeness of his body drew you even closer to him and you laid your cheek against his chest. “Would you still have… looked like this if you’d come to the cabin tonight?” you asked hesitantly.  
“Mn,” he hummed. “I wanted to show you, but I was… in two minds.”
Your head twitched up to look at him and you found a complicated expression on his handsome face. “Why?”
He rolled his big blue eyes and shook his head. “Can’t you guess? I look like… that for most of the month…”
“And you think I���d, what, regret you showing me this somehow?”
He shrugged. “Something like that.”  
“Dunnock…?”
“Mmm?”
“Kiss me again?”
Unquestioningly, he did, and you poured as much of your heart into the gesture as you could, this time leaving him breathless and dazed instead. “Stop,” he growled playfully, “People are staring.”
“Let them.”
How long you danced and talked and shared food beneath the moon that night, you couldn’t have said, but it felt like hours. The moon rose fully and then began to dip towards the trees as midnight came and went.  
“You want to head back to the cabin?” Dunnock eventually asked as the pair of you sat on the log, fingers intertwined in his lap, thumbs tracing idle arcs over each other’s skin.  
For an answer, you stretched up and kissed him and he laughed quietly, though he returned the gesture with the same enthusiasm he’d had for it all night. With a nod, you slipped away through the trees with him. You could feel the eyes of a few of the remaining village folk boring into your retreating backs and figured you’d probably be the talk of the place for a while. Whatever. Let them gossip away.  
The pair of you had barely gone ten paces when he winced and grunted softly.  
“Dunnock?”
“M’fine,” he mumbled, catching your hand in his and squeezing fiercely. He stopped walking and drew you close to him with an easy tug, and then with a fervour that had apparently only been in the background before, he kissed you so hard you saw stars. Groaning behind the kiss, he backed you up against a tall pine and ran his hands along your jaw and into your hair, breathing hard.  
With a frenzied gasp, you tipped your head to one side and he began to leave nipping, rough kisses down the exposed skin, all teeth and tongue and desire.  
“I want you, Dunnock,” you found yourself moaning, rolling your hips against him and finding him more than half hard already.  
He bit off another grunt and buried his nose against your neck. “I want you too,” he snarled. “Gods, I want you…”
“Come on then,” you grinned, wriggling free and tugging him down the path through the pines towards the road.  
He walked beside you, holding your hand and protecting you from any oncoming traffic by placing himself between you and it, though you only passed one car on your whole walk back.  
The moment you stepped off the road and onto the gravel track that led to the cabin, he kissed you again.  
Tactile in a way that you’d only suspected until now, Dunnock was a sensitive and vocal lover. Soft, animalistic growls emanated from him from time to time, reminding you that he was not human despite his current appearance. When his eyes were closed, it was easy to forget that he was a changeling, a Fae, and that he spent much of his time in a form that was very much not-human.  
At the foot of the stairs to the cabin, he lost patience completely and picked you up, hoisting you up so that you had to hook your thighs around his hips while he held you. He backed you into the cabin door hard enough to drive the wind from your chest for a moment, and he began to growl and snarl softly as he kissed every inch of exposed skin that he could reach.  
“You’re so beautiful,” he chanted over and over as he worshipped you, setting your skin tingling with each kiss, each nip of his teeth, the scratch of his beard and the press of his fingers into the muscles and curves of your body.  
You were wet and shivering with want by the time you finally managed to convince him to put you down long enough to unlock the cabin door. In a rush punctuated with more kisses, the pair of you began to strip in the living area of the cabin. You only managed to get his shirt off before he was back, hands beneath your own top, lifting it up so that he could kiss down between your breasts before dropping down to kiss your bare stomach on his knees with obvious reverence.  
It took some work, but you finally convinced him to get back on his feet so you could finish undressing him, and you worked your fingers into the corded muscles of his back in encouragement. He threw his head back and let out a broken, shuddering moan; half howl and half snarl. None of the noises he made could have been mistaken for human in the slightest.  
“You like that?” you asked, raking your nails over his tanned back before shifting them to undo the old brass buckle of his worn leather belt and the button of his jeans.
“Mnph,” he grunted before surging forwards and tipping you carefully back onto the hearth rug. He loomed over you, biceps bunched as they bore his weight with easy grace while his hips ground against your body.  
“Clothes off,” you barked, cutting off roughly as he drew back the cup of your bra to lave his tongue around your hardening nipple before taking it between his teeth and sucking briefly. “Ah - Dunnock!” you grunted. The sound of his name seemed to penetrate the fog clouding his mind and he leaned back.  
“I…” he blinked slightly, still holding a perfect, unwavering plank above you. “I shouldn’t…” he faltered, panting. “We should…”
“We should keep going,” you encouraged emphatically, “But we need to take the rest of our clothes off first.”
“Are you sure?” he asked in a tiny voice, doubt flooding into his handsome features. “I’m not even human…”
“I know,” you smiled. “Dunnock, I want you.”
His blue eyes rolled closed and he lowered himself back down to lie atop you, his weight pressing you into the soft rug beneath as he breathed in the scent of your skin and hair for a moment.  
“Dunnock?”
He groaned again but didn’t move.  
“What is it?”
“My name,” he finally mumbled into your hair. “When you speak my name…”
“But it’s not your True Name,” you scoffed, remembering what he’d said about the Fae and the power of True Names. “Is it?”
“I have no other,” he said and you went perfectly still beneath him.  
“Tonight…” you began, casting your mind back, “When I introduced you to Martha… You stopped me speaking your name.”
“Mmm.”
“Dunnock…”
He shuddered almost violently and mouthed at your pulse point with his teeth, grinding his groin against you; claiming you.  
“Dunnock…” you whispered right against the shell of his ear and he let out another fractured, wounded noise. “Roll over…” you said, encouraging him to lie on his back so that you could finally finish undressing him.
He splayed out almost comically, arms outstretched, thighs slightly apart, chest rising and falling rapidly as his inhuman, lust-blown eyes tracked your every movement. Your fingers worked the still-open waistband of his jeans down and over his hips, and he helped a little by lifting himself up. His legs were lean and muscled, and as you skated your palms up his bare thighs, he shuddered and began to gasp and pant. His erection made an obvious tent in his boxers and you palmed it, feeling the hard heat of him, and he tipped his head back, exposing his throat, and keened.  
As his thighs began to tremble, you continued to palm him through the fabric of his boxers and he rocked his head from side to side under the delicious torment. Eventually he grunted your name and moved as if trying to take himself in his hand and do what you had only hinted at. Swatting his hand away, you relented and drew his black boxer-briefs off as well.
His erection sprang free, printing a bead of pre-come onto his abs and leaving a connecting line from his stomach to his cock. It twitched and you watched his balls clench a little under your gaze. “You’re beautiful, Dun,” you smiled.  
His answering reaction wasn’t quite what you’d expected, and his eyes turned sad.  
Hoping to distract him from his thoughts, you took his cock in your hand and ducked low to lick a long stripe from base to tip. He reared a little into the gesture and then fell back against the rug, head clonking on the floor as he collapsed. “Fuck,” he hissed. “Fuck, that’s - ah - that’s so good…” he panted as you squeezed his cock and worked your hand up his shaft, your free hand cupping his balls and stroking them gently.  
When you thumbed through the pre-come that was beading profusely at the tip, he gave another broken grunt and his hips rose again, toes curling.
“You’re so sensitive,” you smiled.  
“I…” he began, but he cut off, cheeks flushing. The heat crept down his face, warmth spreading visibly all the way to his collarbones. He tried again. “I’ve never…”  
That made you pause. “You’ve never been with anyone?”
He shook his head, eyes closed.  
Heat roared inside you knowing that he trusted you enough to do this with you, and you redoubled your efforts to make this feel good for him.
It obviously worked because he slowly became a shivering, whimpering mess as you worked him, easing off when it got too much, and increasing the pressure when he started to relax again.  
“You’re going to kill me,” he rasped some time later. “Please… I can’t…” and he eased himself up onto one shaky elbow and looked at you with those searingly blue eyes. “Please…” he breathed.  
“You want me to make you come?” you asked. “Or do you want…” you bit your lip. You were on the pill, and clean, and if he hadn’t been with anyone, it should be safe enough… It wasn’t exactly safe sex, per se, but somehow you figured you could deal with anything else later. The risks were low enough. “Do you want to go further?”
Shyly, he nodded.  
“Which?”
“Further. I want you… it’s all I’ve been able to think about for days…”
“You’ve thought about me while getting off at night, have you?” you asked teasingly, suddenly imagining Dunnock as he was in his other form, huge and dark, with those big teeth and clawed hands, lying on his back in a bed of bracken with his big cock in his hand, moaning your name. You felt yourself grow wetter at the mere thought of it, lust coiling.  
Dunnock gasped again, but this time it wasn’t anything you’d done. He grunted softly in pain and grimaced, his stomach clenching.  
“Dunnock? You ok?”
“Mn,” he hummed, though he’d gone a shade or two paler. “Please…?” he asked, opening his eyes and looking a touch frantic.  
“Alright…” you smiled. “How do you want me?”  
He looked up at you and seemed a little lost for words.  
“You want me to ride you?” you asked coyly, trailing a fingertip up his thigh and sending him sprawling flat onto his back again. “Yes?”  
Dunnock nodded, cock twitching and drooling. “Yes…”
Straddling his hips, you dragged your wet heat over him and he arched into you, mouth opening. His canines were longer than you remembered them being, but you didn’t have time to think more on that as he adjusted his position beneath you and his tip slid inside you.  
He froze, but you instinctively rocked back against him, taking him deep inside you and he let out a long, low, keening howl that was anything but human.  
After pausing to let yourself adjust to taking his cock fully inside you at that intense angle, you rolled your hips a few times and his breath began to quicken, harsh and loud.  
“Oh gods,” he swore, writhing a little. “Oh gods… You feel so good. You’re so tight… so hot… I… oh gods… I can’t…”  
The way he filled you was delicious, enough to drive the air from your lungs with the perfection of each stroke, and you’d pitched forwards with your hands braced on his shoulders. Sweat glistened at the ‘v’ of his throat, and he was noticeably trembling all over. His skin was still paler than you recalled from earlier.  
“Dunnock?” you asked and he whimpered. Pausing your rhythm, you called his name again, but this time he didn’t respond. “Dunnock? Look at me?”
Reluctantly, he did and you found his eyes blazing even brighter. “I…” he struggled to talk suddenly and tears rimmed his eyes. “I think I’m going to shift…” he whispered. “I can feel it… I… Oh gods, no… I’m sorry…”
Tears spilled suddenly down his cheeks and disappeared into his thick, ash brown hair, and his hands moved to your hips with a fluttering hesitancy that reminded you of butterfly wings.  
“No…” he all but sobbed.  
“You need me to move?” you asked and he nodded.  
Drawing off him left you feeling empty, but your concern for Dunnock took precedent over anything else.  
He’d begun to spasm a little now and he pushed himself up onto all fours, cock somehow still flushed hard and drooling pre-come liberally onto the bare floorboards despite the pain evident in the rest of his body. “Don’t look,” he hissed, but the sound turned into a growl as his back rounded like an angry cat and thick, black hair began to ripple down his spine from the nape of his neck to his tail bone. “Please…” His voice distorted, becoming deeper and rougher as his body changed.  
There was nowhere for you to go while he shifted, but you looked away, and in only minute or so, it was over. “Dunnock?” you asked when the dull crack of shifting bones had faded and all that filled the room was the sound of his heavy breathing.  
“It’s over,” he said in a winded, dejected voice.  
There, still hunched over on all fours but much larger, was the Dunnock you had met in the forest: dark, rippling fur; large paws, claws; a slender, strong body; stocky hind legs and long forelimbs; a head somewhere between that of a wolf and a bear, with long canines and fierce blue eyes; and the soft, leaf-shaped ears of a deer.  
You had barely moved from where you’d rolled out of his way, but now you came back to him on your hands and knees and sat beside him. He turned his face away, ears pinned flat against his head, horrified.  
“Dunnock, look at me,” you said again.  
“No…” he snarled, voice a little deeper now,  but just as rough as before. “I… I should go.”
“Please don’t…” you blurted, reaching for his arm.  
He flinched away as your fingers touched his soft fur, but you refused to let go. Squeezing the solid band of muscle around his upper arm, you shook him gently. “Dunnock…” you repeated. “Nothing’s changed…”
In a flash, he whipped his head around to face you, eyes blazing, teeth bared. “Everything has changed,” he snarled; a vicious, volatile creature. “Look at me!”
“I am looking!” you fired back fiercely. “And I’m telling you that nothing has changed about the way I feel for you.”
At that, Dunnock went completely still. Unblinkingly, he stared at you, and then lowered one hip to the ground to sit, stunned, and continue staring at you.  
“Say something?” you half laughed, vaguely thinking about covering up now. Was it too late? Had the moment truly passed?  
“What do you want me to say?” he asked in a heartbreakingly broken whisper. “I wanted one night with you. And I couldn’t even have that…”
“Sun’s not up yet,” you smiled. “Though I’m assuming the moon has set?”
“Probably,” he said. “I don’t normally stay shifted for the whole night anyway. I thought… I thought I had more time…”  
An idea occurred to you and you shuffled a little closer. He watched you warily, but let you put your hands on his flank. You stroked gentle circles there, smiling as he involuntarily began to stretch that hind leg out under the invitation of your touch, taloned toes flexing. “Lie down again for me?” you asked and to your surprise, he complied.  
He didn’t take his intense eyes off you though.  
Splaying your fingers wide, you ran them the ‘wrong’ way up through the thick fur of his belly and chest, and he shuddered bodily, head rocking back again.  
Nothing’s changed, Dunnock,” you said again, and mounted his hips in a single smooth motion as if straddling a skittish horse. He was significantly larger like this, and his cock had retreated into what appeared to be a large sheath, covered with short, velvety black fur. As you rocked your hips over it, feeling it nudge luxuriantly against your wet, swollen clit, he let out another dark moan and whispered your name.  
“You… You don’t have to…” he began, but you cut him off with a second roll of your hips.  
“I want to,” you said fiercely, grabbing a fistful of the thick fur at his shoulders in each hand and tugging. “I want you, Dunnock.”
In response, he rocked his hips against you a little and his jaw slackened a touch to reveal the monstrous teeth behind his black lips. It didn’t take him long for his cock to slide free of the sheath, and you glanced down to see that it was thick, beautiful, flushed red, and drooling everywhere.  
To your surprise, a second later, he rose up and bowled you over onto your back to switch positions with you. “Is this alright?” he managed to gasp as he paused with his tip lined up with you, teasing you.  
“Yes!” you cried, spreading your legs wider in invitation. “Please, Dunnock, I need you.”
In his present form, he loomed over you, dark and hulking and nothing but muscle and teeth and fur and blazing blue eyes. He seated himself inside you in a single stroke that left you both winded and reeling.  
“Fuck, you’re so tight,” he hissed, bringing his muzzle down to your ear. His hot breath fanned out over your skin and down your neck, bringing goosebumps to life along your whole body, and sparking pleasure along your spine with the sheer size of him inside you like this.  
“Move, Dunnock,” you grunted, reaching for his ribs with your hands and scratching your nails along his skin.  
A series of tremors ran through him, though whether it was from your touch or the repeated use of his name, you couldn’t tell, but either way, he did start moving. Slowly at first, as though afraid of hurting you, he nudged his hips against yours, but when you hooked your legs up around his waist and drew yourself further onto his cock, he let out a deep, shuddering growl.  
His teeth clacked as his jaw worked, and a moment later he had opened his mouth and latched his maw gently around your neck. He was holding you in place with everything he had as he picked up the speed and force of his pace, pounding into you. Soon, each thrust had you seeing stars, and he seemed to be stretching you wider and wider each time. Drool slid down your neck from between his teeth and his rough tongue laved at your skin before he withdrew the sharp points of his teeth and reared up, catching you deep and making your back arch. The sensations were almost too much. A searing, white hot need was building, coiling, crescendoing inside you in a way you’d never experienced before.  
“I’m going to knot you…” he suddenly admitted, raising his head. The thought of that took you by surprise and then left you delighted at the idea. “Fuck… I…”
“Dunnock!” you gasped, snatching breaths between each powerful, mind-blankingly beautiful stroke. “I want you. I’m so close. Dunnock, I want all of you…”
And with that, you felt what had to be the knot at the base of his cock slide inside you. A second later, Dunnock came with a roar, hips flush to yours as he emptied himself into you. Over and over his hips almost spasmed, his powerful legs thrusting into you as deep as he could get, filling you, and as he came, so your own vision blanked out and you clenched around him.  
“Oh gods,” you heard him curse as you came, milking every drop from him. “Fuck… oh gods…” and the rest of his orgasm rammed into him. Every muscle was locked, rigid and trembling as the force of it ripped through him.  
It took a long time for his orgasm to fade, but when it did, he seemed to crumple, all the strength leaving his immensely powerful body in one go. He sagged forwards on top of you, barely taking his weight on his elbows as his spine bowed downwards and he lay on top of you, seated deep and breathing hard.  
Your hands traced patterns through his fur until he was finally able to withdraw some minutes later, the loss of his knot and cock leaving you almost devastatingly empty again. His release slid out of you, over your thighs and onto the floorboards. He whispered your name and you felt the power of it thrum through you.  
In answer, you breathed his own True Name back at him. “Dunnock…”
After that, he staggered to his feet and then easily picked you up, placing your exhausted body onto the bed in the corner. He joined you after a perfunctory clean, and the heat of his body as he nuzzled up beside you sent you drifting towards a blissful sleep. “Stay?” you managed to hiss. “Please? Don’t go back to the forest tonight.”
“Mm,” he replied, tucking you tightly against his side with a lethal-taloned paw and drawing the covers up over both of you. “I’ll stay.”
With the comforting pressure of his body cocooning yours and the weight of his arm slung over your waist, you let your body be finally claimed by sleep; memories of sparking embers and searing blue eyes swirling through your mind’s eye.  
“Dunnock,” you breathed one more time as you teetered on the fragile edge of waking and sleeping.  
“Mmm?”
“Dunnock.”
___
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annebrontesrequiem · 3 years ago
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Femininity and Bridgerton
So 27 days ago a lovely anon said that they’d be glad to hear my thoughts on femininity and Bridgerton, and since I’m now finally free from school I decided to stop playing Genshin Impact and binging Disney movies and actually do something.
This is going to probably be very long (spoilers it’s 1,800 words long), so more under the cut.
So, a few things. Firstly I am specifically talking about Bridgerton, as the way that femininity is portrayed in media is a very complex and arduous topic. Secondly this is obviously just my opinion and you can absolutely disagree, even tell me if you do I love listening to different perspectives. Thirdly I’m talking about a show that is very heteronormative (the painter and Benedict aside as I’m focusing mostly on Daphne in this post), and presents a very specific part of straight, cis, upper class femininity. So keep that in mind as well. Also as I’m going to be talking about patriarchy, femininity, and masculinity I know that there might be a few TERFs that crawl out of the woodwork and just… don’t. This isn’t for you and while I’m at it please go read some actual feminist texts. Also I know that this is a period piece but I will be addressing that don’t worry.
Also I am going to be talking about that one scene so trigger warning I’m going to be talking about sexual assault.
Also full Bridgerton season one spoilers.
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So, all that set up out of the way, let’s talk about femininity in the Bridgerton series.
A good deal of Bridgerton focuses on the ways in which women are often confined by their role as women in society, as well as how they subvert that role for their own gains. This is used well in some cases, such as when the Viscountess uses the network that is forged between servants and women of the upper class to subvert Daphne’s marriage to Nigel Berbrooke. Being a period piece with a (mostly) diverse cast it also allows for women of color, specifically black women, to be portrayed in a very feminine light, where in society at large they are usually not allowed to inhabit such a space. However in attempting to subvert the status that women often occupied in Regency England the show accidentally reinforces views of femininity and its value.
Let’s talk about Eloise and Daphne. Eloise is very outspoken about the difficulties that comes with being a woman in society, wishing to break out of the confines of femininity. Daphne, on the other hand, wishes to stay within the traditional woman’s sphere, get married, have children, run a household. And while in text these two women often debate the meaning of their position as women, each making very valid points about their status and how they’re confined by it, the framing makes it seem that Eloise’s position is ultimately the “better” one.
Full disclosure, Eloise is my favorite Bridgerton character. I love her outspokenness, her determination to make something out of her life, the fact that she attempts to make the oppression of the society around her explicit. However I think the way she is framed as this, for lack of a better term, “girlboss” in the making is often reductive. The show seems to have this idea that Daphne is in some ways inferior in goal to Eloise. That is, Eloise’s value isn’t that she is an ambitious person whose status as a woman hampers said ambition, but rather that she is in some ways morally and intellectually superior to Daphne by rejecting her femininity and repressing qualities that are considered less masculine and thus lesser.s It presents this idea of women’s empowerment wherein one is only empowered if they deliberately step out of traditional femininity, either in appearance or in life path, rather than confronting a society that sees femininity as inferior. Daphne’s wish to continue in the traditional sphere of womanhood is somehow lesser, and she only becomes truly empowered later in the series when she becomes more aggressive (we’ll talk about that later).
That Eloise has her own book where she presumably falls in love and gets married makes this all the more confusing. Does she then lose her intellect and her status as an empowering woman? The messages feel very mixed. In portraying Eloise as enlightened for actively resisting the woman’s sphere and Daphne as needing to learn to be more “assertive” to gain said enlightenment, the show accidentally presents femininity as inherently passive, inferior to the assertion that is more traditionally masculine. This is something that modern period dramas often fall into. Empowered women are only empowered by attempting to transcend their femininity, to become more masculine. The bottom line isn’t to present women and femininity as equal in all ways to men and masculinity, but femininity is something reductive that must be shed to truly become equal.
Since we’re talking about Daphne I want to examine her character arc within this lens as well. Daphne is adamant that she wants a love-match. She is also very aware of the importance of presentation, as well as the importance of reputation. This is a very solid foundation, as is a way where Bridgerton taps into the complexity of the role of women in regency society in a good way. However as the show goes on this complexity seems to fade in favor of making Daphne, again I’m sorry, a “girlboss”. This is made explicit in the scene in which Daphne violates Simon’s consent, as well as the way in which this act is framed.
Now you can tell immediately from the framing of the scene in which Daphne violates Simon’s consent what this is supposed to be interpretated as. From the music to the triumphant looks on Daphne’s face, this is supposed to be a moment in which Daphne has finally gained control of her life. And yet in doing this, and in presenting this whole scene as a result of Simon’s “betrayal” – and thus something his has to take the blame for – the show is making a value judgement. Daphne can only become strong by becoming “assertive” (ie aggressive) to the point of violating someone’s consent.
The topic of rape culture is a very long and arduous one which I will not be diving into, but I do wish to point to the fact that men are supposed to be aggressive, both sexually and otherwise. Men are the ones who always “want it”, who are uncontrollable, and who are willing to be aggressive to get what they want. This toxic idea of sex and masculinity is what I felt Daphne dipped into during this scene, and instead of presenting it as horrifying or a betrayal on Daphne part, it is presented as the climax of her character arc. I believe a showrunner once said that it was imperative to the “education” of Daphne Bridgerton. Thus is Daphne’s strength no longer her determination to be happy within the sphere she has been placed in by patriarchy, but her willingness to take back her life, no matter the cost. And yes this could’ve been a message about how men are also assaulted, but that is not at all what the showrunners wanted you to get out of this scene.
Lastly I want to touch on the men in the Bridgerton universe, because the devaluation of femininity also affects men no less than it does women. All the men in the Bridgerton universe are either bad people or rakes. Name me one (1) man in the Bridgerton universe who is presented as feminine, either in appearance or personality. And no femininity is not the same as being gay, the painter is not feminine. To be a man worthy of screen time or romance in the Bridgerton universe one must be as traditionally masculine as possible, and ready to make that your defining character trait.
Now I know that this is a large romance novel issue, as someone who has read three of the Outlander books I am unfortunately aware of how romance novels fall into this derivative state. But just because something is common that doesn’t mean it is any less worthy of criticism. The argument that it’s simply being “period accurate” is also something I don’t accept. Yes the regency era was incredibly patriarchal, but that does not mean that the women within it were helpless and could only break out of that helplessness by rejecting their own femininity. Jane Austen is a classic example, but I will also point to women such as Elizabeth Gaskell, the Bronte Sisters, and George Eliot in terms of English women who were highly intelligent and worthy of acclaim despite still associating themselves with their status as women in society. For a broader historical view I’d also like to present Catherine the Great and Empress Josephine who, despite being viewed in an often very derivative manner by the men around them, rose to great prominence and power.
In the end this is a larger societal issue and not one that my post will magically fix. But I will say this: we need to stop telling women and girls that the only way to get rid of patriarchy is to reject femininity. In doing so we say that masculinity is indeed the better trait, that by repressing one’s emotions and one’s femininity one can attain equality. We also need to stop telling men that the only way to ensure their own value to be aggressive, to tap into that toxic masculinity which we spoon feed them from birth. This hurts everyone, men, women, non-binary people. It makes the world a worse place and only when we stop trying to wiggle our way out of femininity and actually acknowledge its status as equal to masculinity will we achieve this.
I believe Bridgerton wanted to do that, wanted to present the complexities and anxieties of women living in a patriarchal world and the way in which they can subvert that world to their advantage. However it falls into the same trap it seems to be attempting to get out of, and at the end of the day one is left with a sense of vapidness. Though I may like Bridgerton (so much so that I binge watched the series twice and am even considering reading the books) I think that we need to acknowledge its flaws, because only then will we be able to move forward and make media that is more enjoyable, more nuanced, and ultimately better in terms of expectations and norms.
Like I said this is a very complicated topic, but I hope I got my point across well. Thank you if you read all the way through this and I hope you have a lovely day!
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illneverrecover · 5 years ago
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is that so? (M) | jwy
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➛pairing: Jung Wooyoung x Reader ➛genre: non idol!AU, established relationship, fluff, smut ➛word count: 5,094 ➛rating: M ➛warnings: oral sex (female receiving), food play if you squint?, marking, biting, slight roughness, praise, anal play (female receiving), butt plugs, unprotected sex, wooyoung being a loud sweet man. ➛summary: You’ve had a rough few days - hell, weeks - at work, and your new boyfriend Wooyoung knows just how to show you how much you’re appreciated.  ➛notes: EEEE, My first Ateez fic! I’ve been following Ateez since debut and fell completely in love with them, so I was excited when one of my fave clowns ladies, @thiccasswonhoruinedmylife​ commissioned me to write a Wooyoung piece. She requested something with Wooyoung cooking for an anniversary present with smut and fluff, which fits him perfectly tbh. Love you Bri, I hope you enjoy! 🖤 ➛song: Try/Effortless - DVSN  & Say My Name - Ateez 
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Fuck, you’re tired. 
You’re always tired.
You can’t remember the last time you didn’t feel exhausted, where you felt well rested by the time your alarm went off at the crack of 5 am. Work was draining you to the dregs, long hours with even longer meetings (that could have been EASILY summed up in an email) and copious hours spent hand holding grown men on how to do their jobs (but getting paid infinitely less than them.) They take their toll, and now you dread going - hell, even looking at the building could kill your mood.
The only saving grace was your amazing boyfriend.
You hadn’t been dating too long, about two months, but it was one of those things where you had an instant connection, the click of two puzzle pieces fitting just right. It had been at one of your friends house parties (the ones you normally skip due to wanting to catch up on sleep) but this time she had insisted you come, adamant that you met her boyfriend’s friend who had recently moved back into town. You had brushed her off; knowing her for as long as you had, there was a solid chance that whomever her and her long time beau, Seonghwa, were trying to set you up with was either not your type, a fuckboy, or a combination of both. 
However, she had badgered you enough that you agreed to go, if only to get her off your back for the next few soirees (and to get her to lay off the dramatic gifs she had been spamming you with). Running late from work, you showed up in your business casual a few hours after it had started, the place eerily quiet as you could see silhouettes of guests mingling on the back porch. Taking advantage of not being noticed quite yet, you had decided to make yourself a strong glass of liquid courage before facing her and whatever fuckery was afoot for the evening.
You had just reached into the back of the fridge for the bottle of strawberry soju you knew was waiting for you when a voice had you jumping. 
“Anything good in there?”
Whirring around, you had found a blonde man eyeing you, hair swept off his forehead to show off his glistening skin. Your eyes dropped to his mouth, his plush coral lips curved up into a sly smirk as he leaned his forearms down against the counter. 
“Yes, as a matter of fact,” you swallowed, raising a brow at the stranger. “I know Red always keeps a bottle of strawberry soju in her fridge for little old me, hidden in the back so Seonghwa doesn’t steal it.” You had popped open the lid, choosing to chug straight from the bottle instead of fussing with a glass. “I promise I’m not just rummaging through there.”
He had laughed then, his voice pitching higher than you had expected, and it had made you smile. 
. He held his hands up in a surrender, palms out, a toothy grin on his face. “Hey, no judgment. I was about to do the same - but for food. Seongie is out there trying to grill but he’s such a perfectionist it’s taking forever, even Red is threatening to call for take out.” 
Chuckling, you shook  your head. “Sounds about right. I’m Y/N, by the way,” 
Holding out a hand, you had waited until he placed his palm in your own, giving it a firm nod.
“I’m Wooyoung, Seongie’s friend. I just moved back into town.” 
Ah, so he was the mysterious unofficial blind date.
You had eyed him then, fully taking him in from head to toe, assessing him as if you’d be able to tell his character from undressing him in your mind. He had been wearing some kind of dark button down, the top buttons open to bare some of his tanned chest, a jean jacket thrown over top to keep it casual. A few black chokers circled his neck, emphasizing the muscles there, matching the wash of his inky skinny jeans that were so tight you weren’t totally convinced that they hadn’t been painted on. 
His eyes had widened at your appraisal, but he hadn’t spoken a word, instead giving you another smirk while waiting for you to comment.
“It’s nice to meet you, Wooyoung.”
And it really was. From that point on, you two had been inseparable, even once rejoining the official party. Staying hip to hip, you talked about anything and everything, from the most mundane to the downright unexpected (you don’t think you have ever seen a grown man discuss Harry Potter with such wonder in his eyes), and you found yourself not wanting to go home, even as everyone else cleared out.  It was only natural to accept his invitation to continue your evening, to  be squeezed into a 24 hour diner booth discussing movies until the bleary hours of early morning over a plate of french fries. You just didn’t want the moment to be over, for the night to end, for the spell to dissipate. 
Luckily, you had both been on the same page.
Fate had taken its course from there, and there wasn’t a day that passed that you and Wooyoung didn’t see each other, even if it was just over FaceTime as you warmed up leftovers after work. He was so attentive, so sweet, so funny, bringing back a spark into your life that you hadn’t even been aware of that was missing. 
Maybe you had moved a little fast in the perception of others, but to you, it had just felt instinctive to exchange love declarations after the third week, to swap apartment keys sometime during the fifth. 
Unfortunately, your work schedule has been relentless, your days still painfully long and showing no signs of stopping. Wooyoung is understanding, always offering to run your errands for you and asking how he can help make your life easier. Even when he can’t help, when the load gets too heavy to bear - he holds you, lets you rage cry out your frustration, rubs soothing circles into your back until you feel a weight lifted once more. “I’d do anything to see your smile, Jagiya,” he’d tell you with a wide grin, light in his eyes.
And he went out of his way to make that promise come true as often as possible, from little notes left on your door when you come home at night, to silly dance moves in your kitchen as a Britney Spears song blares from your Bluetooth speaker. He even made sure to make your one month anniversary special by having  your favorite flowers waiting for you when you got home, your bedroom turned into the vision of comfort with blankets and pillows and a large bowl of popcorn, perfect for a movie marathon.
He was truly the perfect man, the reason you got out of bed in the morning, the inspiration to fight through the longest of shifts - and  you were so thankful to have him, always hoping he could feel how much his love meant to you.
So it wasn’t a surprise when you came home to him cooking inside your apartment one Friday night after work. 
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You had actually gotten off work at a decent time for once, feet crossing the threshold just as the clock showed it was a quarter after 5, and you had sighed heavily with relief when the smell of sauteed garlic hit your nose. Kicking off your heels, you wandered towards the kitchen, your heart skipping a beat when you saw your boyfriend standing at the stove. 
He has a bright red apron tied around his neck, a flash of words on the front though you couldn’t quite read them. Instead, you were too focused on the ingredients piled onto the counter, the slight flush in his cheeks from working over a hot stove. Candles were placed everywhere, setting the room into a soft glow, and there was a bottle of wine aerating next to twin glasses on the table, plates waiting to be filled. 
He spins when he hears you, grinning at the soft look on your face. “Hey, Jagi. How was work?”
You click your tongue. “Don’t ‘how was work’ me, what’s all this for? Are you trying to spoil me?”
He moves towards you then, giving you an eyeful of his “May I suggest the sausage?” apron, complete with an arrow pointing down to his crotch, making you snort. 
“First of all, how dare you. I’m always trying to spoil you.” Sliding his arms around your waist, you rest your face on his shoulder, melting into his touch. “Second of all,” he murmurs, lips pressed to your crown, “it’s our two month anniversary, so I thought I’d surprise you.”
“You are too good to me, Woo.”
Humming, Wooyoung sways, keeping you trapped in his arms for a beat longer before moving to plant a peck on your cheek. “No such thing as too good for you. Now, go sit down, rest, let me finish up. I’m just about finished.”
You do as ordered - moving to sit at the table, deciding to wait until after dinner to change, not wanting to take your eyes off of him. Instead you poured yourself a glass of wine, sipping it slowly as you watched him cook. It was endearing; seeing him work around the kitchen, brow furrowed in concentration when he would double check the recipe on his phone screen, tongue poking out the side of his mouth when he measured out a spice. He seemed to be taking it so seriously, making sure each step was perfect before moving to the next, which in comparison to the mess he was leaving in his wake, is amusing.
For what he lacked in skill, he makes up in confidence, wielding the knife with ease as he made the final slices to the meat, tossing them in a pan to saute. With a final stir, he adds them to the pot, gathering the sides with oven mit clad hands before sitting it down on the table.
A quick glance told you it was some kind of ramen, noodles and vegetables simmering in an aromatic liquid, steak lined on the top with some hard boiled eggs nestled next to it. Moving to the fridge, he grabs a few more bowls and side plates wrapped in plastic, bringing them to join the other dishes.
“I thought we could have my world famous ramen for dinner tonight,” he explains, tearing the plastic off to reveal the side entrees. “It’s a bit of a mashup of Korean kimchi ramen, but I also wanted you to have options on what to add to yours.” 
He seems nervous, vibrating with untapped energy. Smiling, you reach out and squeeze his hand. “It’s perfect, seriously. Thank you, Wooyoung.” 
Like a true gentleman, he fixes your initial bowl, walking you through all the side entree options and flavors, giving suggestions based on your preferences. Only once you are settled does he prepare his, grinning like a madman when he finally takes a seat. 
Instead of tearing into the food like you expected, he stares at you, eyes dancing with mischief. Your hand hovers over the bowl, spoon suspended half way between your food and your mouth, and you raise a brow at him. “What?”
“Nothing! It’s nothing.” he leans back, placing both hands behind his head. “I just want to see the look on your face when you taste it, is all.”
“And why is that? Is there secretly an entire ball of wasabi in here or something?”
He giggles, head shaking. “No!” he protests, voice echoing off the walls. “No, I would never! How dare you!” you join his laughter, despite your spoon still being frozen, waiting for him to continue. “I just want to see your face when you taste the excellence and decadence that is Jung Wooyoung’s cooking.”
“Is that so?” you purr, cheeks starting to hurt from all the smiling you were doing. You couldn’t help it, he was just so cute. 
Nodding, he slides his hands under his chin, propping his face up to look at you. “Yes, it is. Some would even liken it to a religious experience. Please,” he gestures a hand out, waving it. “Humor me.”
Without dropping his eyeline, you bring the spoon to your mouth, pursing your lips to blow a puff of air onto it before it reaches your tongue. It was the perfect blend of flavor and kick, the kimchi adding a satisfying crunch. 
“So?” he prompts, practically bouncing in his seat. “What do you think?”
“I think this might be the best thing I’ve ever put into my mouth,” you sigh, already scooping your next bite. 
He shouts victoriously, throwing his arms in the air. “Yes! I knew you would love it! You aren’t just saying that, are you?”
Swallowing the warm liquid, you lean forward then, grabbing his arm to leverage yourself as you plant a wet kiss to his cheek. “I’m not just saying it, Woo. It’s delicious, thank you so  much for making it for me.”
His eyes crease as a wide grin takes over his face, adoration shining and mirrored within your own gaze. “Of course, Y/N. I’m glad you like it.”
The rest of the meal is shared over tales of your days, you filling him in on all the craziness of the office, while he tells you about the appointments he had and how his dance class went. It was always relieving, to come home at the end of the day and have someone to lament to, to share your life with, especially when they were so willing to do the same, and there isn’t a moment of silence as you and your boyfriend finish your dinner together.
You move to stand and clear the table, reaching for his bowl when he smacks your hand. “Absolutely not, Jagi. I am here to spoil you, and that includes cooking AND the cleaning. Sit back down.”
Giving him your best glare, you try to protest, but he isn’t having it, swift hands pushing you back into your seat as he grabs your bowl and heads to the sink. “Plus, who said the meal was over yet?” he calls over his shoulder, placing the bowls down.
“Oh yeah?” you chuckle, crossing your arms. “What else do you got for me?”
His expression changes then; previous playfulness melting away and leaving an edge to his smirk, a darkness to eyes. “Well, dessert, of course.” 
You continue to eye him as he moves to the fridge, pulling out a domed container before walking it back to the table. Placing it in front of you, he removes the top with a flourish, kneeling down to your seated height. “I made your favorite,” he husks, voice low. “Peanut Butter Chocolate cheesecake.”
The cheesecake itself was beautiful; he had attempted to decorate it with some chocolate syrup and crushed Reeses, and the evident effort softens you once more. “It looks amazing!” you gush, looking to meet his gaze. “You really have gone all out, haven’t you?”
Instead of answering, he serves you a piece on a small plate, handing you a fresh fork. Grinning, you immediately cut into it, shoving a bite into your mouth inelegantly. Closing your eyes, you let out a groan at the richness of the flavor, chewing slowly to savor it. It really was delectable - the cheesecake a perfect dense yet fluffy texture, peanut butter swirling with the chocolate in harmony.
You were so lost in thought you didn’t pay attention to where Wooyoung had gone; why the room had fallen so silent as you revered your treat. You move to cut another slice off your serving, placing the fork between your teeth when you feel a palm slide up your thigh.
“W-Woo?” snapping your eyes open, you look to the side, expecting your boyfriend to still be kneeling there, but coming up empty.
Peering down, you instead see him crouched between your legs, wicked devilry glittering in his gaze. He slides both hands up your bare thighs, fingers tracing patterns right above the seam of your skirt. 
Before you can say a word, he grips your legs and bows them out, making more room for his body, his mouth dipping to press a wet kiss to the flesh above your knee. 
“You had such a long day. You work so hard, you’re always working so hard, Y/N. I thought it would be a nice little treat if while you enjoyed your dessert, I could also enjoy mine?” his voice was honeyed with molten lust, but it was still a question - still seeking your comfort. 
Groaning, you lick your lips, breath hitching at his touch. “Of course you can,” you rasp, eyes closing once more when you feel his fingers caressing closer and closer to your core.
Dropping your fork, the cheesecake is all but forgotten when Wooyoung continues to trail his lips up your inner thighs, digits reaching for the now dewy panties at the apex, sliding them off your legs. Hand fumbling, you move to work at the side zipper of your skirt, wanting to give him more access, when thick fingers circle your wrist.
“No, Jagi. I want you to leave it on,” he murmurs, hands now moving to bunch your skirt up around your waist. “Like this, you’re so perfect like this.”
Whining, you rake your fingers through his blonde hair, tugging gently at the roots in a silent plea to have him move closer. Chuckling, he acquiesces, pupils wide as he takes in the sight of your dripping cunt. 
He hovers for a moment, hot breath fanning over your sensitive flesh, and just before you could beg he drops his mouth to your center. Tongue flicking out, he swirls it around your already engorged clit, tracing the lines of your labia down and back at an unhurried pace, tasting you. Repeating the movements, he groans against you, lips sliding to suckle at your bundle of nerves until your thighs were shaking against him.
He coos praise at you in between long licks against your core, his finger dipping into your wetness briefly before being pressed inside of you. “You taste so sweet, feel so good, Jagi,”
 Crying out at the sensation, your hand pulls at his hair once more, wanting the friction, wanting him deeper.  He gives in for a moment, tongue rolling against your clit, pulling it between his lips and suckling harshly. You feel your high building rapidly, tension rolling from your bones to deep in your gut, threatening to snap at any moment.
Instead of hurtling you over the edge, he pulls back with a moan, resting his head against the cushion of your thigh. He watches his finger disappear inside you one last time before pulling it out, immediately popping it into his mouth.
Wooyoung looks up at you then, lips shiny with your arousal and eyes blackened with need. “I thought I’d have the patience to finish you off like this, but I don’t. I want to be inside you, now.”
Before you can even finish nodding your head in agreement, you're pulling him to you, cupping his face and pressing your mouth onto his. The kiss is hungry, desperate, dripping in passion, his tongue sliding against yours so deliciously that you feel like you’re drowning in him.
He pulls away enough to trail small kisses down your jaw line, your pulse, until he laves the tender skin at the base of your throat, making you whine. As he sucks and bites his claim onto your neck, you feel his arms grab your legs, guiding you to lock them around his waist before he’s shifting you up into his hold.
The low growls he makes while working over your throat have you distracted, arms coming to brace yourself around his neck as he carries you towards the bedroom. You’re gasping into his mouth when he spins to push you against the wall, pinning you in place under the lithe lines of his body. Throwing your head back, your fingers come to tangle in the hair at the base of his skull, hips grinding against him.
“Fuck, Wooyoung,” you pant as he alters his attack to the other side of your clavicle, insistent on leaving twin marks to claim you. His anguished desire excites you, has you clenching around nothing when he returns to peck at your lips. 
He ruts up against you, and for a moment you think he’ll take you right here against your bedroom wall - not that you would mind - but then he slows his hips, releasing his tight grip on your legs as he pulls you towards the bed. 
It's there that he undresses you completely, kissing each inch of bare skin as it’s revealed to him, murmuring words of love  until you are naked and flushing before him. Sitting up on his knees, he quickly joins you - pulling his shirt off and throwing it haphazardly, kicking off his jeans and boxer briefs. 
He stares at you reverently, eyes and hands always roaming the lines of your form. “I have another surprise for you tonight, if you’re up to it,” he husks, lips quirking into a grin.
“Is that so?” you repeat your words from earlier, unable to stop yourself. He chuckles lowly, leaning over you to open the drawer on the bedside table where typically you house your small collection of sex toys. You follow the movement, curious to see what would grab, but your eyes widen when you see him holding something you weren’t familiar with.
It was stainless steel, bulbed at one end before tapering out and flaring into a large circle at the base. The base had a beautiful violet jewel in it that twinkled when the light hit; a small bottle of lubricant nestled beside it in his large palm.
He had bought you a butt plug.
Seeing your expression, Wooyoung chuckles nervously, dropping the items onto the bed in order to hover over you. “I know we’ve discussed trying this in the past, and just thought that after the time we used my fingers, that this might be a good next step…” he trails off, eyes imploring yours. “However, if you don’t want to or don’t feel comfortable, that’s perfectly fine, Jagi. I don’t want to pressure you at all.”
Excitement tore through your nerves, your body lighting up at the idea of doing this with him. He was so thoughtful, so sweet, and you knew in that moment that you trusted him explicitly. 
“I want to,” you purr, leaning up to bite at his collarbone. “I want to try this, with you…”
His face illuminates with a smile as he moves to sit up on his knees once more, grabbing the plug. “I want to try this with you too.”
Ignoring the lube for now, he closes the plug in his fist as he moves to lay down between your legs. For a while, he just kisses you everywhere, lets his fingers drag through the slick of your slit, gently rubbing at your nub until you are panting and relaxing against his touch. When your eyes start to close, he grabs for the bottle of lubricant, squeezing a generous amount onto the plug before doing the same against your tight ring of muscles.
Jumping at the sensation of cool gel against heated skin, you take a deep breath, letting yourself get lost in the sensations he was providing you. A thumb was still rolling your clit, while another finger was gently massaging the puckered skin of your ass. Your body felt like wildfire, molten and burning too hot, and yet all you wanted was more. 
“I-I think I’m ready, Woo, please,” you whine, hands fisting in the sheets. “Please put it in.”
He groans, fingers stuttering at the wanton sound of your cries. He wanted to drag this out, to tease you until you were blubbering and begging, but between his throbbing cock and your sinful noises, he didn’t think he could wait any more. 
Slowly, he starts to push the bulbous end of the plug against you, thumb of his free hand still working against your bundle of nerves. You tense when you feel some pressure, but Wooyoung is there to talk you through it, guiding you to breathe and relax as he takes care of you, edging the plug in. 
You sense when it’s pushed in to the hilt, the jeweled edge nestled against your rim, and you sigh in relief at the pleasant buzz of the stretch.
Wooyoung slides to sit up on his knees, a hand coming to smooth circles on the flesh of your inner thigh, while the other palms at his hardened length. 
“How does it feel, Jagi? You feel okay?” he breathes, slotting himself between your legs and closer to your center. 
You nod, reaching out to grasp at his hips. “I feel so good, baby,” you praise, guiding him until his cock was dragging against your dripping cunt. “Now I just need you inside of me too, please,”
He hisses at your words, pressing the thick head of his length until it was slipping inside the welcoming heat of your walls, slowly moving to bury himself deep inside of you.
The fullness was overwhelming, delicious, his pelvis resting flush against your own. His brow was furrowed, mouth agape in a silent moan as he started to swivel his hips.
“F-Fuck,” you groan, nails dragging down the skin at his sides as he began to pump in and out of you, slowly at first, as if he wanted to make sure you were feeling every inch of him against your engorged walls. The plug was the perfect size to enhance each movement, the dual sensations making you mewl. 
“Does it feel good?” he husks, voice impossibly deep as his thrusts increase. “Does Jagi like being so full of me? Likes having that little plug in her ass?”
Whining at his words, you chew at your lip, hands reaching out to tug him closer to your mouth. “Yes, I do, Wooyoung. Just for you, all for you.”
He growls then, hips moving at a punishing pace, basking in your sweet cries of his name, wanting to make sure you were fully wrecked and falling apart for him. He could feel you squeezing against him, so impossibly tight, and knew you were close to unraveling. 
Dropping his lips to yours, he licked into your mouth, swallowing your moans as he slid a hand between your bodies to rub at your apex once more.
You broke the kiss to sob, head thrown back against the mattress. “Fuck, I’m gonna come, baby,” your orgasm so close you felt your cunt pulsating, your vision going white. After a few more pumps of his cock and probing circles of your clit, you finally come undone, walls constricting as electricity shoots through your veins, gasps tearing from your throat.
Wooyoung doesn’t last much longer, burying his face in your neck as he finally releases deep inside you with staccato thrusts, only stopping when he was sure every drop was nestled into your tender core.
Catching your breath, you lay for a few soundless moments, fingers tracing patterns on his back while he steadily came down from his high. When he finally moves to get cleaned up, he insists you stay put - instead bringing a wet washcloth and removing the plug for you, wiping you clean.
“Happy Anniversary,” he quips, slapping playfully at your ass, and you can’t help but laugh along, rolling your eyes at him.
After a quick trip to the bathroom you’re back in bed - and his arms - snuggled against his chest, eyes closed in contentment. Wooyoung is so tender, asking every few moments how you felt, if you needed anything. You couldn’t shake the feeling that you were luckier than you ever thought was possible, and you told him so.
“What do you mean, Y/N? I’m the lucky one here. You are so beautiful and smart and successful, and you let me be in your life, let me support you. It’s all I could ever want.” he murmurs, eyes intense as he presses a kiss to your nose. “Plus, you laugh at all my jokes, eat my cooking, and are willing to try new things in the bedroom. You’re basically my dream girl.”
You laugh then, slapping at his arm. “Well, that’s good to know, and right back atcha.”
“What? I’m your dream girl?”
Giggling, you snuggle closer to his chest once more. “Yes. You’re my dream girl and I’m so glad I get to be in your life.” Leaning up, you meet his eyes. “I love you, Wooyoung.” 
The responding smile is so bright you think it may blind you, but his joy was infectious as he whoops loudly. “I love you too, Y/N. So much.”
For a moment, there was nothing but peaceful calm, twin hearts beating rapidly as you let him lead you in a chaste kiss, pulling away to rest your forehead against his own.
“Even if your dirty talk could use some work, I love you and I’m still glad to be here-”
“HEY!” he yells, pushing back to look at you, face incredulous. “What do you mean my dirty talk could use some work?! My dirty talk is perfect!”
You shrug, a sly smirk on your face. “Is that so?”
Scoffing, he tries to slide out of your grasp, pout heavy on his lips. “Yes, that is so! What, was I supposed to call you ‘my greedy little ass slut’ right out of the gate? I mean, I knew you were a freak, Jagi, but I was trying to be a gentleman.”
Choking back your laughter, you lock your arms around him, bringing him back against you until you are spooning him tightly, cooing apologies in his ear. It took several minutes of cuddles and reassurance before he would turn to look at you again, his gaze still hard.
Grinning, you cup his face, your finger resting against the plush fullness of his lower lip. “Oh yeah? And what if I don’t want you to be a gentleman?” 
“Then I guess we’ll have to go for round two.” he growls, before claiming your lips once more.
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anarchy-n-glitter · 3 years ago
Text
RE: Betrayal
Summary: After surviving long enough through her own personal hell, Jolene begins to experience what life has become for those outside the mines, and she begins to worry about her old friend Zoe.
(Warnings: Referenced sexual assault, gore, graphic depictions of violence, abuse)
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PART 2
CHAPTER 4
The next few years were an awful, never-ending cycle of torture for Jolene. She was forced to stay within the confines of her new bed, trapped within the white walls of the mines. The sheets she sat upon were scratchy against her bare skin, and within these few weeks, cuts and bruises had emerged on her skin. This, however, was not because of her sheets. Lucas did this; one of her best friends since childhood and one of the few people she actually trusted. Within time, she felt like a fool. She felt cheated. But most importantly, she was broken.
He came in every other day. He didn’t just want sex, but most of the time it was that, or it was something that would lead to sex later on. Again, it was a viscous cycle she was subjected to on the daily. Jolene missed the sweet taste of freedom, she missed her family and her friends (her old friends, that is, not the ones she barely recognized). Lucas, on the other hand, couldn’t seem to realize that what he was doing was not helping him in any way, shape, or form. He loved her, he had all along. This infection had given him the strength to do what he had wanted to do all along. He wanted to make her his, and in his messed up state of mind, this was the only way to do it.
The next time he came in, she looked as if she could be dead. Lucas thought that she was sleeping at first, but then he realized that she wasn’t breathing. He couldn’t have cared less at first, but then something within compelled him to save her. With a groan, he made his way to her. Leaning over her limp body, he silently searched for any signs of life. He was able to find a pulse. It didn’t take too long for her hand to shoot up and reach for his neck successfully, her small hands wrapping around his neck and squeezing. His hands grasping at her arms as she threw him down onto the bed.
“The key.” She spat.
“Where’s the fucking key for this thing?” She then moved her foot so he knew what she meant. His eyes began to bulge, but he refused to blink. No matter how badly she wanted to snap his neck, she couldn’t do it, and he knew she wouldn’t; because they both knew that she couldn’t kill him, or else she’d die in there.
His eyes began to roll back and his eyelids lowered, forcing her to let go. She was still on him, though, as he gasped for air and tried to claw away from her.
“Where is the key, Lucas?” He weakly reaches for his pocket, where he extracts a ring of keys. Hastily, Jolene grabs them and immediately got to work on the shackle on her leg. Lucas sat up and pulled himself away from her to watch her struggle to find the right key, and when she did she was going to get severely punished. They jingled as she went through them, trying her best to jam it into the cuff on her ankle, only to find that it wouldn’t fit and move on to the next key. And repeat.
Each time she would look over her shoulder, she’d see Lucas standing in the middle of the room, watching on, the look of anger present on his face. He was waiting. She had to get out of there. She had to get that thing off of her ankle or she’d regret it for the rest of her life. After a few moments of waiting and frustration, he began to move toward her.
“Don’t you fucking come near me.” She practically growled. Lucas visibly jumped back as he saw it. Her teeth were bared, and he could see the fangs that had grown in. Her veins were showing through her pale skin, but they weren’t the usual color of veins. He soon realized that his dear Jolene was turning. If he wasn’t careful, she might actually be able to hurt him. He knew he had to work fast. If Jolene was turning she’d soon be under Eveline’s influence… and he couldn’t have that, could he?
Jolene shook her head and groaned in pain. She could feel the transformation happening to her, and it was far from pleasant. Her muscles ached, which began to agitate her further. She tugged on her chains, which, to her surprise, began to give way. The metal piece attached to the calcified salt wall that held the chain in place moved. Half of it was bent away from the wall, and Jolene knew that if she tugged once more it’d give, then she could grab her clothes and get the hell out of there. However, she was so focused on getting the chain loose, she didn’t see Lucas walking toward her again. She was stronger now, and if she learned to control this new power, she’d be out of there in no time. He grabbed her by the shoulder before shoving her into the wall head first, causing her to partially revert and curl into a ball, holding her head with both her hands. Lucas grabbed her hair and pulled her up to look at him.
“You dumb slut.” He spat before shoving her back into the mattress. Her instincts kicked back in and she felt her fingers burn and ache as her nails grew into what could only be described as claws. As he snatched the keys back up, Jolene lunged at him like a ravenous animal. She had cut his right hand open, which prompted another angry response from Lucas.
“I swear to god, girl! If you don’t cut it the fuck out, I’ll fuckin’ kill ya.” He warned and shoved the keys back into his pocket. He grabbed her hair again and her hands flew up to grab at his, as if it would lessen the pain. He pulled back, forcing her head up to stare at him.
“I don’t know why I even bother tryin’ to keep you alive.” He spat, venom dripping in his voice. He stared at her for a long time, observing to see if she had any fear left in her, to see if she would keep fighting. Despite her terrified exterior, he could see a glint of defiance shining in her eyes. He had to work fast and he knew it. He threw her down again, like a rag doll. She landed face first into the mattress, but she remained there. She didn’t look up to see that he had left. Instead, she turned her head toward the wall, laying her cheek on the scratchy sheets. A single tear dripped down the bridge of her nose. ‘It was worth a try.’ She told herself. She thought about this long after he was gone. How he could have killed her while she was looking for the damn key. And yet, after everything that has happened to her, she still couldn’t believe that this was happening to her. Despite what she’s seen, despite what she’s endured, she wondered if she was better off dead. She stared at the undone sheets in somewhat of a daze. She really didn’t want to die, but if it were to get away from Lucas… maybe it wasn’t that bad.
2
A few days later, Lucas returned. He was in much better spirits than the last time they had seen each other, and he was hiding something behind his back. Normally, something like this would scare her, but she welcomed it. Whether it be good or bad. Maybe it was a way out, or it was just something to prolong the torture.
“Jolene, sweetie, I brought something for ya!” He giggled sadistically. She felt as if her disgust and distain for him was radiating off of her. He, however, was not stopped by her lack of a response. He had a plan and he was going to go through with it, and he wasn’t going to let her trick him again. He stood by the end of the bed, facing her relaxed form.
Lucas then brought the two items in front of him, as if to present them to her. She refused to turn over still. In his hands was an oversized t-shirt and a leather leash, complete with a collar.
“C’mon Jolene, get excited! I’m takin’ you for a walk today!” He exclaimed. She looked over her shoulder to see what he had brought her, and her heart leapt into her throat. The first thing she had saw was the t-shirt, and she was immediately overjoyed. She hadn’t gotten to wear clothes in years, and there he was, presenting her with a shirt for her to wear.
She turned over completely and sat up, but that was when she saw the catch. He could see her excitement disappear at the sight of the leash and collar. He smiled and picked up the collar, twirling it around his finger.
“Now, ya didn’t think I’d just let you roam free, did ya?” He taunted. She closed her eyes. Clothes in exchange for wearing a stupid collar? It was worth it, she knew that, but why did she still feel gross about wearing the damn thing?
She didn’t say anything.
“I’ll let ya put the shirt on first, think of it as a gift.” He giggled again.
“After all, isn’t it your lil brother’s birthday today?” He asked tauntingly. She looked up at Lucas, fear striking through her.
“Adam?” She asked. He burst out laughing.
“So ya can talk! I thought ya lost your voice for a couple seconds there. Ya know, after all that screamin’.” He winked, implying that she was yelling for more than just help, which was far from the truth. She felt tears welling up in her eyes.
“Why did ya bring up Adam? What did ya do to him?” She asked, this time more sternly. Lucas tossed the shirt to her and she caught it, holding it against her chest as a cover.
“Nothin’ yet. Just listen to me and nothin’ will.” He warned. Jolene slipped the shirt over her head and let it fall over her. It was much longer than she expected it to be, and when Lucas helped her off of the bed to stand it fell down to just above her knees. He wrapped the collar around her neck and fastened it, before putting the leash on it. Then he took the key out of his pocket. Jolene watched and realized that the key to the shackle was never on the ring of keys and he saw that as some game too, even if it infuriated him.
She put her left leg down onto the floor and Lucas tugged at her leash.
“C’mon girl, we got places to be!” He shouted gleefully before dragging her toward the metal door, where she’d see the outside world again after years of being underground.
CHAPTER 5
He led her down winding tunnels of white, where fluorescent lamps secured by thin wires were their only source of light. He walked ahead of her and kicked away any molded that got in their way. Some were large, standing at seven feet tall with skin that was bubbling and melting away. Others would crawl on all fours. They were much smaller and faster than the other ones. Lucas had a harder time fending them off compared to the tall ones. All of them reeked of rotting flesh. The mere sight of the molded creatures struck fear into the heart of the poor girl. She had no clue what they were, and she had no plans of being acquainted.
Soon, they would reach an elevator. Lucas pushed the red button on the right side of it, allowing the cage-like door to open the small space before them. It seemed to screech in protest and nearly got stuck at one point. Jolene looked over at Lucas wearily, and he merely smiled and gestured for her to enter first, which she did without any fuss. She got to go outside again; she could get out of the stuffy mines.
He was quiet the whole way up, lost in thought. He knew that Jolene would be seeing Eveline sooner or later, and he didn’t want to explain to her what he was doing with a girl locked in the mines; especially if she was a candidate for the family. Lucas wanted to avoid this at all costs, Jolene was his and no one else’s. He had what he wanted and Eveline was going to have to pry her dead body from his hands if she got to her.
That was another thing. If, and only if, Eveline managed to get into Jolene’s head Lucas would have no choice but to kill her. His whole cover could be blown if Eveline was lurking in her head. Not to mention that the research conducted by The Connections and himself suggest that Eveline could still kill those infected, even if they weren’t under her influence.
The elevator rattled and screeched as its rusted foundations struggled to bring the two up. Jolene felt anxiety bubble up within her as she thought about why Lucas was actually taking her out of her little room in the mines. Perhaps he was finally going to kill her, despite how many times he told her he couldn’t do it no matter how hard he tried. She knew that, under the right circumstances, he’d be capable of it and he’d do it in a heartbeat.
After a few more moments, the elevator stopped. The door slid open again, rattling loudly in the process. This time, Lucas stepped out first, tugging on Jolene’s leash as he moved farther away from her, causing her to stumble and trip on her own feet.
The mines soon became a cleaner area with an actual tile floor and drywalls. Jolene’s jaw fell open as she gaped in surprise. This whole time there had been a lab underneath the Baker estate and she had no clue about it. They had been building this place over her head almost the whole time she was there.
“What the hell?” She muttered to herself, drawing the attention of Lucas. He didn’t look back at her as he spoke.
“Take it in, baby. Now ya know where I’ve been when I wasn’t with ya.” He told her in a smug voice. She walked a bit faster to catch up with him. For once she wanted to look him in the eyes as she spoke to him. She wanted straight forward answers.
“What do ya mean?” She asked. He looked at her and realized she didn’t look like the meek, scared woman she was in the mines. If he wasn’t careful she could be dangerous. He’d have to break her down again.
“Better wipe that look off’r yer face before I do somethin’ that these nice people wouldn’t want to see.” He warned. Jolene furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.
“What do-”
“I said cut it out!” He shouted. Jolene gasped in surprise and tried to back up. Lucas tugged on the leash harshly, knocking Jolene over onto her knees. When she was on the ground he grabbed ahold of her hair and forced her to look up.
He saw it then, the look that she had in her room in the mines. The fearful eyes, ones that were filled to the brim with fear. He felt relieved and almost overjoyed at the sight. Her small, cold hands were enveloping his own cold hand that was wrapped around a clump of her hair, and he felt the electricity of her touch. He felt as if he could hear her heart beating; beating faster as the seconds passed. His own blood began to flow throughout him, unbearably warm and fast.
“L-Lucas, yer hurtin’ me. Please, please stop.” She begged. She continued on with the begging, but it was all white noise as Lucas tried to control himself. He tried to remind himself that he would get in trouble if he took her right then and there, despite how little he cared about the rules. He was looking for every reason not to act on this impulse he felt, and her begging made it worse. He pulled her up, holding her small frame against his as he brought his lips to her ear.
“Ooh baby.” He groaned, causing a shiver to run up Jolene’s spine.
“Keep beggin’ like that and see what happens.” He continued. Jolene went limp, knowing that if she tried to struggle, tried to get away, he’d just get angry with her again. His left hand trailed up the back of her thigh, the rope from the leash leaving brief, ghostly touches on her leg, making its way to the hem of the shirt she was wearing. She knew that she was indecent underneath but she knew she wouldn’t do anything to stop him.
She felt him grow hard against her and felt her stomach lurch at the idea of him taking her there. She wanted nothing to do with him and she wanted to push him away, tell him to stop. Yet she knew that he wouldn’t stop. If she pushed him and ran he’d strangle her with the damn leash.
The hallway was silent. They were the only two present and Jolene assumed that anyone who was there were either dead or working in one of the doors. Lucas’s groaning and panting echoed through the corridor, bringing a blush to Jolene’s face. ‘What if someone hears him?’ She thought to herself, feeling embarrassed by the thought of someone walking out to see them.
“Lucas.” A voice cut through the air like a sword. A sword to slay the dragon. Jolene’s head turned and she looked at the source of the voice, ready to cry out for help.
There was a man standing there. He was tall and thin, but, unlike Lucas, he wasn’t deathly thin. He seemed healthy enough. He had short brown hair that was swept away from his face, not quite slicked back but it was enough to keep it from being a liability in the lab. He wore round glasses that sat on the bridge of his nose. He glared at them coldly.
“Please, I’d advise you not to do… whatever this is… in the middle of the hallway. Some of us have places to be.” He scolded. Jolene could hardly believe it. She thought for a brief moment about trying to call for help again, but her voice got caught in her throat.
“Ah, Dr. Reed, I’ve been lookin’ for ya. I got somethin’ for ya.” Lucas told the man as he turned Jolene around and shoved her toward the man. Dr. Reed simply looked at the girl at his feet as she slowly got back up. He took note of her condition; pale skin, black-colored veins. He knew that she was infected.
“And why, exactly, are you bringing her to me?” Dr. Reed asked as he stared Jolene down.
“Well, ya see, I’ve had this little thing going with her for the past two weeks and, uh, I’d rather not have Eveline intervene in that.” Dr. Reed looked up at Lucas finally, glaring at him as he put the pieces together. He didn’t exactly like Lucas, or the things he’s implying he might have been doing to this girl, but he could admit he was a bright man and had a future at The Connections… even if he was insane.
“So what do you want me to do about that?” He asked Lucas, who simply laughed.
“C’mon doc, I want ya to whip up some of that good stuff ya made for me.” Lucas replied.
“The serum?” He responded.
“Yeah! That stuff.” Dr. Reed yanked the cord of Jolene’s leash out of Lucas’s hands, and suddenly Jolene felt a glimmer of hope. He wrapped the leash around his fist and led her through the halls, toward two, large double doors.
The room itself was clean and simple. It had a blue, white, and green color scheme to it and it had a metal observation table. There was a counter with a sink and a few laptops set up along it. There were empty test tubes set up near the wall on the counter and a clipboard next to those. Jolene felt a bit intimidated by the new setting, but hoped that maybe the doctor could pull a fast one on Lucas and help her escape.
“Ma’am, would you mind sitting on the observation table?” Dr. Reed asked. Jolene nodded and walked over to the table before hopping onto it. She watched as Dr. Reed and Lucas whispered to each other and wondered what the hell was going on.
“You don’t want Eveline to know about her?” The doctor asked.
“Course not, she’ll want her to herself.” Lucas responded. Dr. Reed merely sighed.
As their conversation dragged on, Jolene felt her head become fuzzy. Her surroundings took on a greenish hue and everything bled together when she would look around. She felt as if she were going to pass out. When she thought things couldn’t get weirder, she saw a little girl standing in the doorway. Dr. Reed went to shut the double doors and Jolene wanted to warn him, but something prevented her from doing so.
A faint whispering filled her head and grew louder every second. As the doors swung closed the girl disappeared, but they reopened again, this time the gap was slightly smaller than the gap before and the girl was there again, staring at Jolene. When the doors closed again she was gone, as Jolene expected. However, she wasn’t there when they reopened either. Jolene took in a sharp breath, but the men didn’t seem to notice.
The girl appeared in front of Jolene, and she jumped back.
“Who are you?” The girl asked, her voice sounding like it was the loudest in the world. Jolene winced at the pain it caused her. The girl looked around, trying to figure out what was going on.
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know.” Jolene answered. The girl turned her attention back to Jolene.
“Are you lying to me?” She asked.
“No.”
Jolene’s rambling caught the attention of Dr. Reed and Lucas, causing Lucas to panic. Dr. Reed rushed over toward one of the drawers and grabbed a syringe.
“Now she knows where we are!” Lucas shouted. The doctor nodded, waving Lucas off as he reached into the fridge and pulled out a container filled with a dark green liquid. He uncovered it and stuck the syringe in, drawing the liquid into the chamber. He then rushed over to Jolene who, at the sight of the doctor, returned to normal. The girl was gone and her vision had cleared. She looked up at Dr. Reed, her head and eyes feeling heavy.
“W-what was that?” She asked. The doctor didn’t answer, instead, he plunged the needle into her neck and released the liquid into her. She sat still and let the warmth flood her body before passing out.
CHAPTER 6
Jolene woke up a few hours later with no recollection of what had happened before she passed out. She remembered leaving her room, and she remembered the large, tar-like creatures that seemed to inhabit the mines.
Her head felt light and she sat there for a few minutes as she watched the world around her spin. She didn’t remember what happened and she didn’t want to remember. A voice could be heard from outside the door. It was low and spoke in a harsh whisper. Jolene went to get up, but realized that her ankle was shackled to the bed frame again. She closed her eyes and listened.
The words were muffled, seemingly bleeding together into one long word that made absolutely no sense. From the slight accent she realized it was Lucas and all she could do was close her eyes and hope he wouldn’t come in. She hoped that he was leaving and got caught up with other things. She hoped that whatever he wanted to do he had already done.
Then she heard it; the one name that brought hope back into her, the one name that reassured her that everyone was there.
“Zoe.”
Jolene sat back, leaning against the salt walls to think about the girl she had completely forgotten about.
She couldn’t believe it. From the sounds of it, Lucas sounded pretty pissed off about her, and Jolene wondered what it was that she had done.
She thought of her as she knew her, hoping that she was the same bright eyed girl she knew. She thought of her thin, pink lips that were always curved into a smile when she was around her. Her eyes, those beautiful grey eyes that Jolene would give anything to see again. Then there was her pale skin that would tint pink on the warmest days of the summer.
Jolene stopped and realized that she was looking back on Zoe as if she were in love with her. It was funny, after all, she did always favor Zoe over Lucas, and it wasn’t just because he was slightly… unpleasant. Jolene never thought about it before, how she never really understood the drama in school over guys. She had convinced herself that she just wanted to focus on school, but deep down, despite how deeply it was buried, she knew that wasn’t the reason.
The door burst open, causing Jolene to jump in shock. Lucas stood there, looming in the doorway like some monster that lurked in the dark,
(Like the real monsters that lurked in the mines)
huffing angrily and bearing its teeth. He stared Jolene down, scanning her face for an emotion, any emotion. In reality, he was looking for a reason to take his anger out on her. He wanted to blame his failures on her.
The traps were destroyed?
She did it.
Someone escaped and now dad was mad?
Her fault.
Some of the molded got into the labs and now a guy went missing? And they blamed Lucas?
Jolene killed him.
But he knew it wasn’t that simple. Jolene had been sleeping this whole time. Hopefully she was cured. Dr. Reed had told him that she needed to stay in the labs so he could observe her and make sure she didn’t reject the serum. Lucas declined and carried her over his shoulder back into her room in the mines. As he carried her away, he ended up confirming Dr. Reed’s suspicions.
He looked at her, seeing the fear in her eyes, the horrified look of a victim. He smiled maliciously at her, as he approached the bed. The door remained open.
She brought her knees to her chest and pressed herself up against the wall as much as she could as he inched closer to her. Her breathing became ragged as fear coursed through her veins. Now she was sure she wanted nothing to do with him. She wanted to distract him, she had to think of something quickly.
“Why’d ya mention Zoe? Is she here?” She asked without thinking. Lucas glared down at her, anger boiling back up.
“All I wanted was to forget about that stupid bitch and now you’re bringin’ it back up!” He yelled in her face. Jolene flinched as his hot breath hit her along with small specks of spit. She calmly wiped her face off before speaking again.
“I won’t just drop it, Lucas. I heard you talkin’ bout Zoe and now I wanna know.” She demanded. He groaned angrily, rubbing his face in the process as he stood up. Jolene was treading on dangerous ground, and she was still visibly frightened, but her constant questioning couldn’t go without punishment. She watched him pace, stomping around like the infected from all those years ago.
“She’s alive?” Jolene asked softly, hoping that her tone would calm him down.
He acted without thinking again. In the blink of an eye he was on her, his right hand wrapped around her throat. He looked in her eyes as she grabbed at his hand, silently pleading for him to let her go. Zoe was getting in his way again, and he’d be damned if he let her take Jolene away from him.
But it wasn’t Zoe who was taking Jolene from him.
She began to kick, first at him, then anywhere she could. She realized that if she kicked hard enough, she could take the chain off of the wall, like she had almost done before, and maybe then she could use it as a weapon.
She wanted to die, but there was still a part of her that wouldn’t let go. The part of her that urged her to survive, to get out of there and see her family again, go to college and live her life. She refused to let Lucas win.
“Quit kickin’!” He yelled, his other hand reaching out behind him to grab ahold of her left leg. She avoided it and continued, her head beginning to pound. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the lack of oxygen or something else, but it hurt like hell. Her jaw ached, as did her fingertips.
Her mouth opened and a strained cry came out. Her eyes were closed tightly in pain as something tore through her gums.
Blood. She tasted blood.
Her fingers felt like they were being set on fire.
She could have sworn something was crawling through her lower back.
Lucas looked at her as she screamed in pain, thinking it was all his doing. Tears fell from her eyes and he found himself smiling. His breathing quickened and he found joy in her agony, watching her writhe in pain, gasping for air and trying to get away from him. He could end her, but torturing her would be much more fun.
Then it happened. He felt something sharp dig into his hand. He looked down to find blood flowing from where her fingers were attached. He let go of her throat and tried to yank his hand away from her grasp, but soon realized that her nails were inside him. He took a closer, albeit more panicked, look at his hand as it gushed blood.
The crimson liquid pooled onto her bed, soaking the scratchy sheets and the mattress. He wanted to be with her, didn’t he? Now he had no choice. His blood was there; he’d be with her as long as she remained in that room. He gasped at the sight of her long, black talons protruding from his hand. They had gone right through.
He wanted to scream, to rip her claws out of him and run, but he knew what state she was in. If left unattended, she’d escape.
(Or she’d die trying)
She pulled him closer and bit into his neck, allowing her fangs to pierce his skin. This time he did scream. He put his good hand on her head and tried to push her off of him, but it didn’t work. She simply bit down harder, which caused him to lift his hand from her head. Her other hand reached up to grab his, and she had effectively pierced through his other hand.
She then pushed herself onto him, knocking him over and onto the bed, where she hovered over him, her teeth still buried in his neck. Blood gushed from within her mouth and bubbled down the side of his neck.
She was stiff on top of him. She looked like she weighed nothing, yet here she was, holding Lucas down like she was a boulder. Her claws were buried deep inside of Lucas’s hands and the mattress, effectively pinning him onto the bed. She hoped that she could keep him down long enough so it’d take him a while to heal… even if she knew he’d come back to hurt her even worse later.
He couldn’t speak. He could feel the blood pooling in the back of his throat. Her teeth dug deeper into his flesh and it was a sharp, searing pain, causing him to open his mouth. It was as if he wanted to scream, but he couldn’t. So he sat there, with her on top of him practically ripping his throat to shreds, his mouth open and gaping like a fish out of water. He couldn’t lift his arms; her strength had increased due to the mutation that occurred. If Lucas wasn’t being attacked, he would have quickly realized that her mutation was triggered by stress. Sadly, however, he probably wouldn’t have stopped if he knew this.
Jolene felt tired. Her mutation normally took a toll on her, and this was the longest she had ever been able to maintain this state. Her jaw loosened and more blood gushed from the wound. There was a strangled cry that came from Lucas as her claws slowly left his hands. Jolene began to sit back, feeling extremely light-headed. Her eyes felt heavy again and her eyelids began to close. She leaned backward, finally falling asleep.
Lucas laid next to her, bleeding out on her mattress. She was asleep like nothing happened, his blood smeared around her mouth like makeup. He took deep breaths, unsure of how to react to the situation or how he would address it next time he saw her. As he drifted off to sleep, he thought of what he’d say to her when he woke up, what he’d do to her. It was only a matter of time.
CHAPTER 7
Bright lights flashed, lighting up both the room next door and the room with both Lucas and Jolene in it. Jolene, who was laying on the floor, shifted in her sleep. She could faintly hear Lucas’s loud, obnoxious voice as he taunted someone. The lights were enough to wake her from her slumber, but combined with the yelling that was going on? She woke up.
The room they were in seemed to be by the boathouse, next to the barn. She looked at the monitors and the cameras that sat on the walls, all focused on Lucas. Next to her was a box of cameras. Some of which were cracked but others seemed fine, they were hand-held ones, and really old. Jolene wondered if any of them still worked, and she wondered if she could sneak one out with her.
“And the winner is… Clancy!” Lucas boomed as he hit a button next to him, startling Jolene. He heard her gasp and turned his head slightly to look at her, smirking to himself. He turned off his intercom and let the two men in the other room continue their game.
“Well, look who’s awake.” He said, spinning around in his chair. Jolene’s hand immediately went to her neck, where she felt the collar once more. Lucas chuckled at this.
“Did ya really think I was gonna let ya sit in here with nothin’ holdin’ ya in? After what happened last night?” He taunted. Jolene went to say something, but she was cut off by the intercom.
“I’ll stay.”
“I’m gonna stay.”
Lucas whirled around in excitement.
“And the winner is… Clancy!” He announced once more before pushing the button again, which prompted a recording of people cheering. A man groaned, which was followed up by screams of pain. Jolene jumped back again.
“What the fuck was that?” Jolene asked. Lucas smiled sadistically at her and rolled away from the monitors. He gestured her to come over. Jolene sat there, staring wide eyed at him, unsure if looking was truly the best idea.
“Why don’t ya come and look for yerself? I made sure that leash of yers was long enough so ya could…” He stopped to giggle to himself.
“Join in on the fun.” He finished. His phrasing made Jolene uncomfortable. She felt dread spread throughout her and she became sure that looking wasn’t going to be pleasant, but she knew that if she didn’t she’d have to deal with Lucas.
She looked at the screens and saw two men sitting at a table. Another screen was focused on the cards they had in front of them. They both wore bags over their heads. The men would wave their hands and ask for another card, or say that they’d stay. Jolene quickly understood what game they were playing. But what truly unnerved her was the giant saw that was placed between them. The loser would have to pay up, wouldn’t they? And what better way to pay?
“How long have they been at this?” Jolene asked, tracing her finger around the applause button. Lucas rolled back up next to her, shooing her hand away.
“’Bout an hour now.” He answered. They both said they’d stay and Lucas quickly acted. Their cards flipped.
“And the winner is… Hoffman!” He hit the applause button, but a chorus of groans came from the room on the screen. The saw began to move toward the other man, and he struggled to move away from it. Just as she thought it was going to hit him, it stopped. Its blades barely grazing the burlap sack on the man’s head. Jolene let out a sigh of relief.
“I wouldn’t be too relieved for him, princess. We still have one more round to go.” He told her as he laced his fingers together and placing his head on top and watching the screens intently. As the game went on, Lucas had an idea. He could make her deal the last blow; have her kill the loser. The idea excited him even further, and the more he thought of it he became sure he’d do it.
At last the men announced that they were done, and he called her over. She stood behind him and watched as he refrained from flipping the cards.
“Lucas, just tell em who won.” She said, annoyance present in her voice. They sat there, looking around and waiting for Lucas to come back on the speaker and tell them who won.
“Come ‘ere.” He demanded again. She refused to move closer. He reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her toward both him and the controls.
“Press the button.” He told her. She looked up at him, wide eyed.
“What?”
“Press the damn button.” He began to pull her hand toward the controls again. There were two buttons, one pointing up and the other pointing down. It was impossible to tell where it would be going, seeing as the screens showed the men from different angles, two of them were positioned behind a man and facing the other. Jolene looked back at Lucas, silently pleading for him to stop.
“I’m not gonna tell them who lost until you press the button.” He told her. She felt tears well up in her eyes. She wanted to resist but… she had to think about what would happen to the men if she refused.
“Lucas, please, I’ll do anything! Don’t make me kill those men!” She begged. He laughed at her pathetic attempt at bargaining.
“You’ll be lucky if I let ya blow me after this. We still haven’t talked ‘bout last night yet.” He said, not holding back at all. Her arm was beginning to become tired, the dull aching tingled underneath her skin. Lucas wasn’t going to let up anytime soon, and she knew this.
“Which one?” She practically shouted. Lucas smiled and leaned over to the intercom. He spoke without breaking eye contact with her.
“And the winner is… Clancy!” She looked down at the controls again.
“Which one, Lucas? Which one?” She yelled again.
“Up.” He answered, his grip not letting up on her wrist. She hit the up arrow without hesitation. The saw began to spin, moving slowly to the person she hoped was Hoffman. It was messed up as it was that she was hoping it’d hit anyone.
Blood flew through the air and splattered on the cameras, covering the image in small specks. Jolene flinched, feeling horrible for what she had just done.
“We’re done now? Right?” The man asked. Everything was quiet, and all of them sat there. Lucas leaned back, his lips pursed as he thought. He put his legs up on the table, each foot on the other side of the TV, so he could clearly see the screen. Jolene felt as if her and the man were sitting on the edge of their seat. She knew that Lucas was pissed at her for what had happened the night before, and this man wanted his freedom. Lucas hit the applause button again.
He turned the camera in front of him back on and sat there for a few moments, looking unimpressed. Jolene stood behind him, looking at the screen curiously.
Clancy saw her and wanted to bring it up, but decided that it wasn’t important. He had to get out of there.
Lucas began to clap sarcastically. Clancy said nothing as he stared at Lucas.
“Will you let me go now?” He asked over the sounds of Lucas’s slow claps. He shifted, bringing his legs off of the table and adjusting his position in the chair.
“You are one cold son of a bitch.” He stated, directed at both Clancy and Jolene. She felt guilty once more, knowing that she had just taken a life. Clancy felt a little guilty, but he knew deep down that it was him or Hoffman.
“Now you impressed me so much I’m gonna give you an extra reward.” Lucas said, pointing to the screen. He leaned back, pondering his own thoughts again.
“We gonna play another game, you an’ me.” He told him, his voice barely concealing how excited he was about it. He laughed. Jolene took a step back, hoping she wouldn’t have to participate in this one.
“Ain’t life grand?” Lucas asked in a sing-song like voice. Clancy shook his head frantically.
“No! I can’t take this anymore! Please!” He screamed. Lucas shook his head, chuckling to himself once more before turning the camera off. He looked over at Jolene, who was backed up against the wall near the door. He shut off all the monitors before standing and making his way toward her, stalking her like a predator would to prey. She cowered.
“Is your offer still up?” He asked, his fingers gently caressing her arm.
“N-no.” She told him.
“Darlin’, I don’t think ya have a choice.” He told her before forcing her down onto her knees.
2
Jolene walked through the mines with Lucas guiding her. She felt disgusting. Not only did she just kill a man, but Lucas had just forced himself on her again. He hadn’t done that in a while, and despite the many times it had happened, she would never become desensitized from it. She’d always feel awful afterward; always have this lingering feeling. Always know that she was violated and he didn’t care.
Her arms were wrapped tightly around her chest. It was her comforting herself, yet at the same time it was her covering up what she had stolen.
In her shirt was a camera. She wasn’t sure it worked, hell, for all she knew all of the cameras in that box were broken. But she had faith. She would record a message in the mines for someone to find, maybe Zoe, or someone else who could help. That’s what it was: a cry for help. She couldn’t take this anymore. There’s only so much she could take.
Lucas shackled her leg again as Jolene shifted onto her stomach. After he was done, he laid the sheet over her small frame without a second thought. She felt her nose wrinkle in disgust and she rolled her eyes.
He left without saying a word.
Jolene sat up, taking the camera out from underneath her shirt and turning it on. It glowed a bright blue after she hit the button and a name was displayed on the small screen. She quickly flipped the small display so it was facing the side with the actual camera before turning the camera around so it was facing her.
She hit record.
“Zoe? Anybody? Please. I’m still alive, I’m here, and I know that people are probably lookin’ for me. Or at least I hope they are. I just want the person who’s watching this to know that I’m alive! I’m alive but I don’t know for how long. I… I think I’ve been infected with somethin’. I saw somethin’ the other day before I was given some sort of medicine, I didn’t hallucinate after that. But I know that I have these powers of some sort, and I don’t want to end up like those monsters out there. If anybody finds this, send help. Please, I’m in the-”
The door opened… and Lucas stepped in.
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