#like 'hey gimme some spotlight please'

[segnisacfessis]

Me: Wow I'm having so much fun writing this is so great and I'm glad that I'm keeping things reasonable with only one muse Ann, Junpei, Minako, Yuko, Chie, and a whole army of other muses knocking my door off it's hinges therefore obliterating it from existence: Did someone say something???

[stawpny]

AUGH

I’m seeing the TS movie tmrw!!

anyways, here’s some more hc’s :D

NEW JERSEY AND NY EDITION!! (THEY ARE SIBLINGS PLEASE)

-

-New Jersey would say something stupid and NY would just slowly turn his head towards him, looking at him, beaming with excitement that he now gets to bully Jersey over this. (like the ‘mass’ thingy in my fic 😭)

-have you guys ever seen the ‘cat distribution’ thing? I believe that York will fucking just take any cat he finds in the middle of the streets of NYC and add it to his collection. “Fuck the distribution!” Jersey would go over to his apartment and just look at the 11 cats that are meowing and walk right back out. I also think it’s funny that he is a pigeon, rat, and cat person when they all hate each other.

-Ny used to be shorter then Jersey, but York quickly grew taller than him as his land expanded.

-NY & NJ have both worn a dress more than once, and maybe together if they feel silly enough. Nevada and Cal fucking jumping up and down like excited toddlers after getting NY and NJ to model for them.

-“WHEN IS IT MY TURN IN THE SPOTLIGHT?!” “Bitch, yous don’ get a turn.”

-NJ will whisper something in Yorks ear that he knows will make him laugh during a meeting. York just makes a disgruntled noise and cover his face with one hand and slap NJ with the other while he laughs his ass off.

-NY has broken several bones, mostly in his legs and every time he gets greeted by someone in the hospital, it’s always NJ and he always says, “Crippled dumbass. What we’re yous thinkin’?!” Then blah blah blah like the concerned Jersey Shore mom he is.

-York definitely calls Jersey “Snooki”. Jersey calls him “Minty” (like from the candy, York). they both call each other “Tony” though. (I just feel like all people named Tony are from NY or NJ) “AY JIMMY, GIMME A PIZZA WIT’ NOTHIN’!” “Nothin’..?”

-Baseball matches. NY usually wins but when NJ does his ego grows bigger than the whole damn sky.

-NY and NJ used to share a room. you can guess how that went. The pros were that they were there for each other, like reminding the other to eat or sleep and comfort each other when they were upset, The cons though.. fighting. Literally any type, name it and they’ve done it.

-NY loves to barge into NJ’s room and annoy the shit out of him with his stupid questions. NJ does that too but with just starting fights with him whenever.

-literal twins honestly. they aren’t but they might as well be. just jersey hates westies and york is in love with one. <3 (the only exception is Nevada)

majors in every core subject/ dumbass = NY

dumbass/ logical =NJ

—

hey hey hey!

it’s been a while

I hope u liked these!

ik they aren’t NY/CA but I want to try and have him interact with other states

yuh

ANYWAYS, BYE ILY GUYS

<3

[maxwell-grant]

Jumping off from my previous question/suggestion, might I please ask if there are any superheroes you think would make fine Pulp Villains and any Supervillains you think would make convincing Pulp Heroes?

I'm gonna go ahead and remark that I'd personally suggest to anyone who's trying to create pulp characters inspired by superheroes (which would be probably about 90% of you who may want to do that sort of thing) to flip the script around a little. As in, don't try to create pulp analogues to the Justice League/Avengers upfront, but play around with some of the lesser-known icons and filter those through your idea of what “pulp” means (which is gonna be quite different than my own or anyone else’s). 

I’m not gonna really mention characters I’ve already talked about before like Vandal Savage or Namor, instead I’ll pick new ones and see what can be highlighted about them.

Regarding “Superheroes who could make fine/convincing Pulp Villains”, even though he’s a character I've read basically nothing on, Martian Manhunter definitely leaped out to me as an obvious option. He’s a Sci-Fi Superman who takes the first half of the name to an extreme that borders on comical, except he’s not a square-jawed white man, he’s a 1.000 year old green alien from Mars with shapeshifting powers who can look as monstrous as the artist desires. He’s the product of an advanced civilization and genetic modification, and on top of the Flying Brick powerset and shapeshifting, he also has incredibly powerful and extensive telepathic abilities, he can become invisible, phaze through matter, use telekinesis and other weird abilities. A lot of pulp stories closer to sci-fi were based around the idea of taking one of these abilities and extrapolating horrific consequences for them, and J’onn has those by the dozens. He also has an extremely mundane weakness that would allow him to be beaten by Macready with a blowtorch if that’s where the story ended.

He was also a law enforcement officer from Mars who became a police detective and it’s even right there in his name, and again, I have never read anything he’s in (I should probably pick the Orlando mini), I know he’s for all intents and purposes a generally nice man who tends to job a lot in crossovers and cartoons, but the idea of taking all those great vast and horrifying alien powers, combining all of them into a single character who also happens to be the last survivor of a doomed planet (and one who actually lived through it’s collapse), and then making that character a former cop trying to resume his work on Earth? 

That is a Pulp Supervillain begging to happen, and a particularly horrifying one at that. And hey, speaking of The Thing-

Now, Plastic Man’s potential for horror has already been explored quite a bit in some of the darker DC continuities like Injustice and DCeased, and it’s quite funny seeing a lot of these turn Plastic Man into The Thing because there were quite a handful of Wold Newton pages that ran with the idea that Macready from the original story was Doc Savage, and that the secret chemicals that Eel O’Brian was hit by that gave him his powers were actually samples of The Thing contained in one of Savage’s labs. Regardless, the idea of a former street crook suddenly gaining bizarre shapeshifting abilities that allow him to reign terror on his gangster associates could make for a great premise as a pulp crime story that veers into horror as the gangsters gradually figure out what is Eel O’Brian’s deal, and then the story can take a more tragic turn.

The thing about Jack Cole’s Plastic Man that modern takes on the character neglect is that, while Plas was a lively roguish anti-hero (arguably the first of it’s kind in comics), he’s still for intents and purposes “the straight man” (HA, right, Plastic Man being “straight”). He’s the relatively sane hero who plays off Woozy’s wackier misadventures and the imaginative madness that Jack Cole paints his adventures with, and it makes for an interesting contrast considering Plastic Man is already a weird character, having to ramp up the strangeness of the world around him so that he still remains the sane man. There are ways to twist this into something quite horrifying, even tragic for Plastic Man as he either struggles to maintain coherency, or embraces the shifting chaos the world’s spiraling into for better or worse (and definitely for the worse towards those on the receiving end of his vengeance, or even his humor).

Now, onto the flipside, regarding Supervillains that could become Pulp Heroes -

Normally I’d not mention the Batman villains here, because I already have a lot to talk about in regards to them as is, they comprise some of my favorite comic characters, but I pretty much have to make an exception for Two-Face in this topic, as not only a pretty obvious option but one with even case studies to prove it, as not only do we have The Black Bat, a 1930s costumed pulp hero with an identical origin story and several other conceptual overlaps with Batman, as well as The Whisperer, a young hotshot police commissioner who dresses up as a disfigured vigilante to kill criminals without consequence (and who’s somehow less of a maniacal asshole in his secret identity than in his regular one), but it turns out that there actually was a 1910s pulp hero called The Two-Faced Man:

Crewe was created by “Varick Vanardy,” the pseudonym of Frederic van Rensselaer Dey (Nick Carter, Doctor Quartz), and appeared in three short stories and two novels and short story collections from 1914 to 1919, beginning with “That Man Crew” (The Cavalier, Jan. 24, 1914). 

Crewe is “The Two-Faced Man.” 

He is in his forties and has gray hair and a “sharply cut and handsome profile—until one caught a view of the other side of his face and saw the almost hideous blemish that nearly covered it, and which graduated in corrugated irregularity from a delicate pink to repulsive purple.” 

Crewe is two-faced in another way. Crewe is a saloon owner in below Washington Square. But he has another identity: Birge Moreau, portraitist and socialite hanger-on. Crewe uses both his identities to solve crimes as an amateur detective.

The only person to know about both of Crewe’s identities is a police inspector who is also Crewe’s friend and who Crewe helps in pressing cases - The Encyclopedia of Pulp Heores by Jess Nevins

And speaking of obvious picks for Supervillains turned Pulp Heroes,

Assuming I even need to make a case for Kraven the Hunter other than just presenting this cropped panel from Squirrel Girl and in particular the art painted on the Kra-Van, or even just telling you to read Squirrel Girl and it’s take on “The Unhuntable Sergei” (I had no idea most of the people saying “Kraven’s arc in Squirrel Girl is as good if not better than Kraven’s Last Hunt” weren’t actually joking in the slightest and I speak as someone who has Kraven among their absolute favorite Marvel characters, it had no right being that good), I’m going to quote the brilliant Rogue’s Review from The Mindless Ones that lays down in painstaking detail why Kraven could make a killer protagonist in that horrifically over-the-top pulp fashion

One thing that strikes me writing this, is how well Kraven could hold his own comic. There’s always room for a book spotlighting a ruthless, hardcore, gentleman bastard, and Kraven’s raison d’etre makes him supremely versatile, so well suited to any genre, any environment. It’s odd that more writers haven’t jumped on the fact that in a universe where off-world travel is possible – indeed, common – a hunter like Kraven would have a field day. 

I can just imagine the opening scene – herds of weird cthuloid bat creatures grazing in the gloomy green nitrogen fields, bathed in lethal, bone splintering fog, when, suddenly, LIGHT! from above and an unholy bellowing: “CTHGRGN fthgrgnARAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHGN!”

They look up in fear and then they start to run – ploughing into and over each other, tentacles flailing, as from the space-ship’s docking bay Kraven silently plummets, barely dressed for the cold, a glowing knife smothered in elder signs jammed between his teeth. 

You should have seen him one night previous, sipping alien tokay around the Captain’s table with the other guests, discussing the morning’s hunt; and the way he insulted the Skrull dignitary by forgetting himself and accidentally sporting his favourite piece of formal wear: his boiling unstable dinner-jacket of many colours, fashioned from the hide of one of the Ambassador’s super kinsmen.

Whoops!

Midway through Kraven explaining how the best way to irreparably damage a symbiote is to wait until its bonded with you and then seriously maim yourself, the Skrull decided it might be a good idea to simmer down, while his beautiful Inhuman lover hung on every word.

The deeper I get into this the more convinced I am that the MU’s hunter-killer extraordinaire wouldn’t limit himself to bloody planet Earth. And neither would he limit himself to this dimension, or universe or timeline. The guy’d be just as at home leaping, sword raised, onto the back of a T-Rex in the Savage Land, as he would be ploughing through werewolves in the graveyards of Arkham or tracking a howling Demon across Mephistopheles’ realm. 

He’d work perfectly in all these environments because he has a damn good reason to be casting a bloody swathe through them: wherever there’s big game, you’ll find Kraven.

The next choice I guess is an oddball, but not that much of an oddball if you know already what is my main frame of reference towards Marvel

I don’t think people appreciate enough that the main reason Shuma-Gorath has anything resembling a fanbase has nothing whatsoever to do with the comics he was in, but entirely because, when Capcom designers had a list of Marvel characters to pick from to work on Marvel Super Heroes, they took a look at the diet Cthulhu and went “gimme THAT one”, and then went all-in in giving the alien squid monster a funky personality along with a great stage and music and animations and all that great fighting game character stuff, and now he’s maybe the most popular Dr Strange villain along with Dormammu and Mordo, despite having ZERO film appearences or major showings in comic sagas.

Capcom's designers redefined Shuma-Gorath from a nebulous cosmic evil into a comically smug cartoon bastard who can rant about devouring all dimensions and souls horrifically while also cracking poses and zingers like “How do you expect to win a fight with only two arms?” and having dinners with Dhalsim or hosting Japanese game shows in his endings, and it kills me that none of this ever made it’s way into any depictions of the character outside of MvC. 

So that’s kinda what I’d go with. I’d take Capcom’s Shuma-Gorath, depower him a bit obviously from his canonical power, and run with the premise of his MvC3 ending where he decides that, well, if he's the unlikely savior of this pathetic planet and these wretched human dogs like him so much, and he’s clearly having a much better time here among them than he ever had drifting among the stars cealessly consuming life, then maybe he can take a break from all that eldritch business and keep up hosting the Super Monster Awesome Hour and maybe fight whatever PITIFUL villains think can take HIS planet. I mean, he’ll probably still end up destroying the planet by the end, but why not give this hero business a try?

Just until he gets his full powers back of course. 

I mean you can’t deny he DOES look pretty good in that bowtie, surely The Great Shuma-Gorath wouldn’t be so unmerciful as to deny these vile wastes of flesh something good to look at in their brief and miserable lives.

[childotkw]

Do you think an AU where Harry is the dark lord for once could work? He's just comfortable with the dark magic and decided to venture down that path while Tom is a wannabe dark lord that thinks Harry is taking all of the spotlight so he sets out to take his place but be better

Oh yeah absolutely. Harry is a mirror of Tom Riddle, so anything that Tom can do / did do is conceivably in reach for Harry as well, in my eyes.

I could see it being a Harry is the one that grows up in the 40s and becomes the Dark Lord and then cocky little shit Tom Riddle rocks up like I’m the Dark Lord now, and Harry just snorts and smacks him down, while almost encouraging Tom to keep getting stronger and try again? Kind Like:

Tom: gimme your title

Harry: you can come over here and pry it from my cold dead hands, brat

Tom: that sounds like a trap

Harry: no, seriously, please try to take it, I’m supremely bored being Dark Lord and want to retire but want my successor to be cool. pls fight me

OR

I’d probably do one where Voldemort is already a Dark Lord and Harry is the wannabe? I just think that’d be hilarious. Imma run with this and see where my brain takes it.

I could see it happen in a no-prophecy AU, where Britain is still in the grips of a civil war between the ‘Dark’ and ‘Light’ - but it’s still very much in the background? Like, everyone is aware of what’s happening, but it’s so subtle that most of the population can almost trick themselves into thinking everything’s fine.

So Harry, the Potter heir, grows up knowing his parents are soldiers and that he’s on one side of a largely invisible war. He is kept away from the fighting and goes to Hogwarts, growing up relatively normal all things considered (because Hogwarts is off limits, both sides have quietly decreed). 

But let’s say that Harry grows up apathetic. He looks at the war and deaths and corruption and a part of him just shrugs, uncaring. He graduates Hogwarts with average grades, never reaching the ‘genius’ and ‘prodigy’ statuses of his parents, and slips away like a ghost from his home country and his family that are so entrenched in the fighting that they never had time for their son.

He travels, and as he submerges himself in different magics and cultures and ideologies, he starts to change. A silent shift in beliefs and perceptions, and suddenly Harry doesn’t like the way societies are run. He doesn’t like the rampant injustice and deceit festering in his world.

So he decides to change it.

He starts quietly, working in the underworld and, er, cleaning house. Stopping a crime here, killing a murderer there. Saving a pack of orphaned werewolves, lending a hand to some young starving vampires. His actions quickly gain attention, and over time Harry finds that people...support him? He’s just doing what he can to fix things, but soon he has people seeking him out and asking if they can help him with his mission?

And from there, suddenly he has followers, people that look at him with adoration and whisper his name reverently. People that are so fervent and desperate to assist him that they’re tripping over themselves.

Harry spares a moment to worry that he’s seemed to have started a cult - but hey, they’re willing to listen to his ideas and are eager to make a difference, so he’s kinda okay with it?

Meanwhile, everyone else everywhere is panicking because holy shit there’s rumours of another Dark Lord cropping up in Greece and Turkey and Ethiopia???

Voldemort is, naturally, pissed off beyond belief.

[clumsyclifford]

you said i should say less about new ace content in general and i immediately understood that as say more so please gimme some ace stuff and please make it fluffy. i don't particularly care about the pairing but i'm always down for lashton and/or malum but any atl ship works for me as well so like just do your thing i guess wow that was a useless sentence this messy ask is further proof that i should go to sleep so bye love you!! -fiancee

well i ran with ace lashton in an interesting way i hope you enjoy it this is not based on real life but maybe it could be. in a better world it is. that’s all i’ll say about that, i hope you like it

read here on ao3

-

Luke likes going to the movies. He likes staying home and having a home-cooked meal. He likes quiet, simple, intimate activities.

He does not like parades.

“But it’s Pride,” Ashton wheedles. “D.C. Pride! One of the biggest pride events in the country!”

“You made that up, and I don’t care,” says Luke. “I don’t want to go. I don’t like parades.”

“It’s not really a parade.”

“Also not true.”

“Okay, but it’s not about the parade, it’s about the gathering,” Ashton says, gently shaking Luke. “It’s about a bunch of queer people all coming together and uniting in one space. Celebrating our differences and our similarities. Celebrating community.”

“That’s beautiful,” Luke says. Ashton looks hopeful. “Still no.”

Ashton huffs. “I don’t wanna go alone.”

“Go with Michael and Calum,” Luke suggests. “I’m sure they’d love for you to tag along.”

“And third-wheel all day? No thanks.”

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you,” Luke says, and carries on setting the table for dinner. If his mum comes home to a half-set table, the blame will fall on Luke, of course. Ashton takes the cue and begins laying out plates.

It’s quiet for a moment. Luke can tell Ashton is trying to come up with a way to convince him to go to Pride, but it won’t work. Luke’s avoided Pride for seventeen years. He doesn’t intend to start now. Staying at home with his boyfriend and watching Rent is about as much as Luke cares to celebrate Pride Month. Maybe they’ll make out a little. Standards are low.

“Okay, how about this,” Ashton says, and Luke sighs deeply. “No, hear me out. And keep an open mind, okay? Think about compromise.”

“I’m listening.”

“What if we go before the parade starts?”

Luke frowns. “Then what would be the point?”

“There will still be people there,” Ashton says. “But it won’t be nearly as many people, and the festivities won’t really be happening yet, so we can still say we went to Pride but we won’t get caught up in the whole big thing.”

“But I thought you wanted the whole big thing.”

“Ah, whatever,” Ashton says, waving him off. “I’d rather go with you than see the parade alone.”

Luke feels bad. It’s obviously important to Ashton, or else he’d have given up already on trying to make Luke go. And as much as Luke knows he shouldn’t feel obliged to prioritize Ashton’s wishes over his own comfort, this makes him want to.

Compromise. “Okay,” Luke says. “Fine.”

Ashton blinks. “Really?”

“Did you think that wouldn’t work?”

“I—” Ashton’s face breaks into a smile. “I don’t know, not really, to be honest. Really? You’ll come?”

“Yes,” Luke says, and the delight in Ashton’s face makes up for the dread pooling in Luke’s stomach. 

Ashton shuffles around the table and presses a warm kiss to Luke’s cheek. “Thank you,” he says, warmth also bleeding into his voice. “I’m excited. You’re gonna like it.”

Probably not, but Luke keeps that thought to himself. He doesn’t need to rain on any more of Ashton’s parades.

-

Luke and Ashton are excited about Dupont Circle for different reasons. Ashton is basically vibrating out of his seat on the Metro as they approach their stop, where the parade is slated to begin at half past noon. It’s only eleven now, but that doesn’t seem to matter to Ashton. He seems confident that there will be enough Pride to satisfy his excitement without overwhelming Luke.

Luke’s just looking forward to the Krispy Kreme at the station.

They take the escalator out, and sure enough, there’s Krispy Kreme to the left. Luke grabs Ashton’s hand and yanks him towards the shop.

“Seriously? We’re at D.C. Pride and your priority is donuts?” Ashton says, but he allows Luke to tug him along until they’re at the door.

Luke turns to him and very seriously says, “Ashton, my priority is always donuts.”

“Yeah, that’s fair, I walked into that one,” Ashton mutters as they enter the store.

Five minutes and two donuts later, both of them exit, Luke munching contentedly on a strawberry-frosted donut (with sprinkles, of course) and Ashton carefully biting into his jelly-filled one. 

“Okay, starting now, we’re at Pride, and you can’t be a Negative Nancy,” Ashton declares.

“I promise not to be a Negative Nancy,” Luke vows. “I swear on this donut.”

Ashton beams. “Yay! Okay let’s go explore.”

You’d think this was Ashton’s first Pride for how excited he gets over everything. He stops at almost every stand, even though they’re all selling different versions of the same thing, and somehow manages to spark up conversation with any passing person who looks queer and interesting. Luke loves this about Ashton, how charming and outgoing he is, how he could befriend a vaguely human-shaped plant. People are drawn to him; Luke’s no exception. Ashton is very much the main character, even more so because he doesn’t seem to know it. He's just Ashton, and Luke loves him for it. Even when it means the halo of Ashton’s spotlight draws attention to Luke by extension.

Luke is not a charming, outgoing person. Luke is quiet and reserved. He’s never cared for the spotlight. Sometimes it’s a good thing that he has Ashton to pull him out of his shell a little. Sometimes he wilts under the scrutiny. It's a toss-up, but Luke appreciates that Ashton never stops trying.

Most of the tables selling merch boast shirts, hats, flags — the kind of thing you’d wear or own if you wanted to be loud and proud about your identity. Luke’s not really that kind of person. Luke’s way of coming out is to subtly slip into the conversation the fact that he has a boyfriend. Before he had a boyfriend, it pretty much never came up. Big, colorful flags have never been his cup of tea. 

And anyway, that’s only half of his identity. The other half never comes up, and Luke’s okay with that. It’s not like being ace is the kind of thing you can casually mention. It has to be a whole thing, every time, and Luke doesn’t want to deal with the whole thing, so he just doesn’t bother. Most of the time it doesn’t really matter. As much as Luke is able to fly under the radar, that’s what he intends to do.

“Hey, pins!”

Ashton is not like that.

“Luke, you like pins, right?”

The table they’ve stopped at is covered end-to-end with pins. Enamel or plastic, every single pride flag Luke has ever seen in his life is represented here, in a variety of shapes and sizes. The kaleidoscopic display is fun to look at, at least. There’s nobody behind the table at the moment, which means in theory it would be pretty easy to steal one, but Luke’s not like that, and even if he was he wouldn’t feel good stealing a pride pin from a small-business owner.

“I don’t really have an opinion,” says Luke.

“Ha,” Ashton says. “O-pin-ion. Haha.”

“I’m leaving you,” Luke says, turning away with a wry grin.

“No, come back.” Ashton grabs his wrist and pulls him closer, so Luke wraps an arm around his waist and rests his head on Ashton’s shoulder instead. “I like pins. They’re a very understated way of coming out.”

“Having a boyfriend is an understated way of coming out,” Luke replies.

"I resent you calling me understated," Ashton says in faux-indignance. Luke giggles.

“I’m so sorry, I had to run and grab some water,” says a voice, as a person bustles around them to stand behind the table. Their pink fringe is pushed back by a bandana and they’re wearing a jean jacket with so many pins and patches that the fabric is practically invisible. A sticker on the front pocket of the jacket introduces them as Alex, he/they :). “Can I help you with anything?”

“Just admiring the collection,” Ashton says brightly. “I love your jacket.”

“Thank you very much,” says Alex. “It’s been accumulating pins for about five years now.”

“Damn,” Ashton says, wolf-whistling. “That’s a good collection. I don’t have a good jacket for pins.”

“Wish I could tell you where I got mine, but it was a gift from my boyfriend,” Alex says. “I’ve heard thrifting is a good way to go.”

“You wanna go thrifting, Luke?” Ashton says, nudging Luke, who shrugs.

“Sure,” he says. He reaches for one of the asexual flag pins, a small enamel rectangle, and smoothes his thumb over the surface. “These are pretty nice.”

“You should buy it,” Ashton says. “Start a cool jacket. Then we could be matching.”

“You don’t have a cool jacket yet.”

“I know, but we could.”

“But neither of us have a cool jacket. So it’s not even—”

“Fine, ruin my fun,” Ashton harrumphs. To Alex, who’s watching them with amusement, Ashton says, “So how long have you and your boyfriend been together?”

“Oh, uh…” Alex’s gaze diverts to the air like he’s counting invisible numbers. “Six years? Almost? I think it’s gonna be six years in July.”

“Six years,” Ashton repeats in mild awe. “Holy shit.”

“Yeah, high school sweethearts, blah blah blah,” Alex says, smiling. They shrug. “Everyone thought we’d break up when we went to college, but when you know, you know. You know?”

Luke swallows. Ashton says, “Good for you. That’s impressive.”

“I like to think so,” Alex says. “What about you? Are you guys together?” He winces. “Should I not have asked that? I’m sorry, to be honest this is Jack’s business, I’m just running the stand because he wanted to go look around a little before the parade started. My boyfriend Jack, I mean. Sorry.”

“No, no, it’s all good,” Ashton says. He hip-checks Luke gently, which Luke takes to mean something like is it cool if I tell him? It’s nice that Ashton is asking, but Luke had kind of figured everyone would assume they were together because, you know, Pride, so he doesn’t really care.

“Yeah,” he says. “For, what, eight months?”

“Eight months,” Ashton confirms.

Alex grins. “That’s great, I love it. What are your names?”

“Ashton,” says Ashton. “He/him.”

“Luke. Also he/him.”

“It’s nice to meet you guys,” Alex says. “I’m Alex. He/they.”

“Yeah, your thing says,” Luke says, pointing.

Alex laughs. “You’d be surprised how many people don’t see it. Or they see it and think it’s just another decorative pin.”

“Do people wear pronoun pins as decorations?” Luke wonders. “That seems strange to me.”

“People are ineffable,” Alex says solemnly. Then he grins. Luke likes Alex. In fact, little though Luke’s actually spoken today, he likes most of the people whom Ashton has stopped to chat up. Queer people are so friendly, is what Luke is learning. It almost makes him happy to be here. 

Except now Alex’s words are ringing in Luke’s head, and he can’t stop hearing them. Everyone thought we’d break up when we went to college, but when you know, you know. 

Ashton’s going to college this fall. Luke’s managed to forget about that fact because it’s only June, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Ashton’s leaving and Luke’s going to finish his senior year alone and what if something happens to them? What if they’re fooling themselves thinking they can do the long-distance thing? What if they’re doomed already and this summer is just prolonging the inevitable?

“Well, personally I would love to buy a pin,” Ashton says. “Luke, choose one.”

“What?” Luke says, blinking himself out of his spiral. “Why?”

“I’m buying you one,” Ashton says.

“I don’t—” Luke bites his lip. He’s still fidgeting with the ace flag pin, and he kind of likes it. Maybe he can subtly come out in different ways. Maybe he can just wear it, and wait for someone to ask. Then it’s way less of a big deal because it’s not like Luke has brought it up. 

There’s enough shame in the world. Luke doesn’t need to add to it.

“Okay,” he says instead. He holds up the ace flag. “This one.”

“Great choice,” Ashton says, digging out a five to give to Alex. He hesitates, then pulls out a ten instead. “Actually, maybe I’ll also get one. Then we can actually match.”

“Right, with our matching jackets that don’t exist yet.”

“You know what, fine, we don’t have to match.” Ashton makes a face at Luke. “You can put your pin on whatever you want. It’ll go great with your all-black closet.”

“Shut up,” Luke grumbles. Ashton laughs.

“Hey, don’t knock the all-black,” Alex says. “Black is the new black. It’s fashion forward.”

“Not in eighty-degree June it’s not,” Ashton says.

“It’s seventy-five,” Luke protests. “And Alex is wearing a jacket!”

“Yes, but Alex is not my boyfriend, and we only just met,” Ashton says, grinning. “Also, their jacket is sick as fuck.”

“It is sick as fuck,” Alex agrees. “But I’m still siding with Luke here. You can’t go wrong with all-black.” For the first time, he seems to register Luke’s shirt, and his eyes light up. “Hey, Green Day! I fucking love Green Day!”

“You should be my best friend,” Luke says seriously, and Alex nods equally seriously.

“Hey,” Ashton complains. “I like Green Day.”

“Thank you for the pin,” Luke tells Alex. “Good luck with the, uh, you know, selling more of them.”

“Of course, anytime,” Alex says. “I’m pretty sure there’s a website on these business cards if you ever want to, I don’t know, browse?” They shrug one shoulder. “This is why I’m not a small business owner.”

“Cool,” Luke says, taking the card. He probably won’t use it, but you never know. 

“Nice to meet you, Alex,” Ashton says, as he and Luke start to walk away, fingers interlaced between them. “Good luck! Happy Pride!”

“You too! Enjoy the parade!” Alex says, waving.

Luke doesn't bother to inform him they're not staying that long; he and Ashton turn away and continue walking, Luke with his new pin clutched in his fist.

“They were cool,” Ashton says enthusiastically. “There are so many fucking interesting people here. God, I love Pride.”

Luke grips the pin tighter. The pointy back starts to hurt where it’s pressing into his palm. “Yeah.”

“Thanks for letting me get you something,” Ashton says. “I know it’s not really your thing, but I don’t know. I felt like we should buy something after we stood there for so long.”

“No, yeah, I agree.”

“On the bright side, they’re pretty cool pins.” Ashton holds his out like he’s assessing what he’ll do with it. “Maybe Michael has an extra jean jacket he never wears. I could ask him.”

Luke hums. Ashton glances over at him, eyebrows drawn together. “Are you okay?”

Luke's not supposed to say anything like this. He’s supposed to be positive because he promised he wouldn’t be a “Negative Nancy” and the sky is so blue that Luke would hate to be the reason for rain, but if he doesn’t say it then it’ll just keep ringing around his head until he can’t think about anything else.

“You’re not scared we’re gonna break up when you go to college?” he blurts out.

Ashton stops short and their hands break apart so Luke’s falls to his side. “Where’d that come from?”

“You heard Alex,” Luke says. “Everyone thought he and his boyfriend would break up when they went to college.”

“But they didn’t,” Ashton says.

“But that’s obviously unusual,” Luke counters. He swallows hard. “I’m just saying…aren’t you worried?”

Ashton tilts his head. “Do you want me to be worried?”

And yeah, a little part of Luke does. Only because if Ashton’s worried, it means he values their relationship enough that it would hurt him to lose it. But Luke knows that’s not really fair, and he knows Ashton loves him, even if he doesn’t seem worried at all.

“No, I don’t know. I just— I don’t know.”

“Are you?”

“I don’t know,” Luke says again. “I had pretty successfully managed to avoid thinking about it, but now…I don’t know.”

Ashton gently pries open Luke’s fist and runs his thumb over the red imprint the pin has left. Sheepish, Luke puts the pin in his pocket. As soon as his hand is free again, Ashton takes it, holding both of Luke’s hands in both of his own.

“I’m not worried,” he says quietly. His eyes are so sincere and his hands are so soft and Luke loves him and likes him and knows that to lose him would be a fate worse than death. “You must have missed the other half of Alex’s sentence. Remember? When you know, you know.”

Luke’s breath catches a little. “Yeah, but…”

“But what?” Ashton lifts a shoulder. “I already know, Luke. I’m in it for the long haul. So unless you meet some other guy who’s even awesomer than me and makes better puns, you have nothing to worry about. I’m not letting you get away that easy.”

Luke gazes at Ashton until the rest of the world falls away. “Oh,” he breathes.

“Okay?” Ashton quirks a smile.

Luke surges forward and kisses Ashton for as long as he can manage without passing out. It’s clumsy and sweet and Ashton’s hands tighten around Luke’s waist and Luke wraps his arms around Ashton’s shoulders and nothing else in the known universe matters except this.

When they finally break apart, Luke cracks a smile. “Okay.”

Ashton beams. He offers his hand to Luke again, and this time Luke takes it and doesn’t let go.

[deans-mind-palace]

Cloudbursts

Pairing: Jared Padalecki x Reader

Summary: You were determined to do it. You never told anyone about your fear and you wouldn’t let it bring you down to your knees now! Not in front of all these people! Well, the anxiety attacks were an obstacle you didn’t think of...

Word Count: 1,543

Warnings: Anxiety attacks, please don’t read this if it triggers your own attacks! Aquaphobia

Author’s Note: Maybe it’s a bit based upon the song ‘Control‘ by Zoe Wees…  Based on this request by @fortheentries​. Hey! Could you do please one where the reader is an actor with anxiety and she has to do a scene with Jared and Jensen that triggers a panic attack. Jared understands and helps her calm down :) Enjoy reading and leave some feedback.

"Coffee. Coffee! Who wants coffee? I brought coffee!" you announced as you entered Jared's trailer. It was the usual meeting place for the three of you. Jensen lay spread out all over Jared's bed, shoes on, his head buried in the pillow. Your entry made him jump up from the pillow. He still looked sleepy and his blond hair stood wildly away in all directions. "Coffee? Did I hear right? Where's the coffee?" he asked and looked around frantically, which made you laugh. Then he saw you with the three cups in the door. "Oh, you are my lifesaver! Gimme! Gimme!" He reached for them. "Here's your elixir of life, you junkie," you said with a laugh and handed him a cup, which he immediately put to his lips and burned himself. "Fuck." he cursed and you rolled your eyes with a grin. It was the same every morning.

Jared came out of the bathroom and snorted. "Jensen just isn't ready to learn at this time of day," he said, shaking his head and smiling at you broadly with his sweet grin, which you fell a little more for him every day. "Good morning, Y/N." Oh, damn. He always pronounced your name so seductively in his deep voice. Why did your name sound like music coming out of his mouth? Your own thoughts confused you and you decided to pull yourself together. "Morning, Jared." You muttered and hugged him. He returned the hug, and maybe your touch lingered a little too long... "Thanks for the coffee," Jared said, and his lips touched your cheek for a moment and his stubble scratched your soft skin. Then he turned away. "Come on, Jay! Rise and shine, we got to get to the set!" Jensen moaned and hid his head back in the pillow before he reluctantly picked himself up and stood up. He also hugged you briefly and had to yawn heartily. Jared shook his head with a grin. "Come on, now."

A short time later you were brought to the set in a golf buggy. Jensen went through his lines one last time and sipped his coffee. Jared was talking to the driver, who was just telling him something about his family in Portland and you were just watching the movie area passing by. Soon your vehicle slowed down and the driver dropped you off at the trailer for the mask. You were changing when Jensen came around the corner and was still holding his script in his hand, which he was now waving with excitedly. He was already completely in Dean's costume. "Hey, look!" he drew the attention of Jared and you. "Today is the water scene! I forgot all about that." Almost instantly, your fingers tensed around the back of your seat. He wasn't the only one who forgot. You'd been trying to block that out for weeks, and apparently that worked so well, it made you panic.

"Shit, Y/N?" Jared looked at you anxiously from the side while Jensen was already called to the set. "Are you not feeling well? You look pale." You just swallowed and shook your head. "I'm okay." I squeezed his hand, but I could tell by the look in his eyes he didn't believe a word of it. Jared was called to the set a few minutes later, and you were left alone. You wanted to take another sip of your coffee, but your hand was shaking too much and the coffee almost spilled over, so you left the cup on the table.

You too were called to the set a little later. As soon as you arrived on the set, you could already see the cameras and spotlights set up to illuminate the scene. When you saw the green pool, you automatically pulled your robe a little tighter around your shaking body.

You should play a scene in a lake where you try to hunt a water demon together. The only problem was that you were terrified of water. Of course, no rain or water glasses or showers. But with bathtubs it was getting critical. Not to mention the ocean or a pool. That fear was deeply embedded in you, almost paralysing you. You stood irresolutely on the edge of the pool. Jensen was in costume and already standing in the pool while you were standing at the edge of the water. 
"Jump in!" he shouted to you laughing and was happy like a toddler about all the water. Without waiting for your answer, he disappeared. You were standing at the edge of the water and your toes got wet. When Jensen resurfaced, his blond hair stuck wet in his forehead and he shook like a wet dog. Your breathing became heavier and suddenly the pool in front of you seemed to go down endlessly. You couldn't make out the bottom anymore. Your chest tightened and no matter how much air you sucked in, you felt like you were suffocating.

Then Jensen splashed you wet and your heartbeat shot up. It almost exploded in your chest. Your chest became tight and you gasped for air. Blackness ran in to the edges of your eyes and took your sight. Your hands tightened around your robe and your vision became blurry. You had the feeling of drowning in air and at the same time not getting enough of it. Your lungs burned and screamed for oxygen. At that moment, Jared, who was standing a little further away, noticed your panic. "Cameras off! Cameras off!" he shouted and hurried over to you. "Jensen, shut the hell up."

Your chest was heaving and you tried to fill your lungs with oxygen. You were so anxious to just breathe. Unpleasant memories rushed through your mind. Fear sweat was on your forehead and your eyes were still fixed on the water in front of you. The noise around you only penetrated you as if from far away. You didn't notice Jared until his arms wrapped tightly around you. "C'mon, sweetie, breathe! In and out. In and out. Let's get you into my trailer. Can you walk for me?" He felt your heart pounding in your chest. Your hands were ice cold and your breath left your lungs shaky.

In the trailer, he pulled you right into his arms. While he cradled you in his strong arms, you hid your face in the crook of his neck and breathed deeply the familiar smell of Jared. Gently, he put his chin on your head. "It's all fine, sweetheart. Just breathe. You can do it. Just breathe in -" He waited some seconds while your chest heaved drawing air in. "And breathe out - that's it. And again. C'mon." His deep voice slowly calmed you down. You had your fingers cramped in his shirt and felt his strong heartbeat under the thin piece of cloth. His chest rose and fell regularly as he did breathing exercises with you. You pushed yourself a little closer to him and he pulled you tighter.

Gently he led you over to his bed, then he lay down. His head was propped up and he meant for you to lay your head on his chest. Shyly you lay down next to him, bedded your head on his chest and listened to his heart pumping. Softly he counted your breaths with you and you finally got your breath back. His body radiated a pleasant warmth and his fingertips glided gently over your arm. "Jared?" Your voice broke. "I'm right here, baby," he said, pressing a kiss on your head.

"I don't wanna loose control." You whispered into the silence of the trailer. "It's okay to lose control." Then you both fell silent. His fingers kept moving up and down your arm. Only the ticking of a distant clock could be heard. A few minutes later you broke the silence again.

"When I was a child, my parents took my brother and me on a trip to a bathing lake. I had just turned fourteen. We visited this lake every summer and my brother and I used to play the game of who dared to swim further out. We competed to swim to the small island in the lake - we had never reached it before, but my brother was seventeen and had had a growth spurt. He passed me with powerful strokes and soon I was far behind him." Jared listened to me, then he interrupted me. "I didn't even know you had a brother." You swallowed, then you went on with your story. "It was our last swim race. He drowned that very evening. The circumstances were never explained. "None of the doctors could say what it was. Maybe a cramp? A heart attack? A stroke? Rare among young people, but not impossible." You were silent for a moment.

"Since then, I can't go in the water anymore. I'm terrified of it." Only now did you realize that hot tears were streaming down your cheeks. Jared wiped them away in a hurry. "I'm sorry about that."   "I don't wanna loose control," you repeated. His fingers grabbed your face and twisted it towards him. His eyes found yours. "I will always be there to catch you. Every single time, I promise you."

Wanna get tagged? Drop an ask/comment or tag yourself over the link in my bio.

Jared/Sam tags:  @ashthefirefox​ @rintheemolion​ @fortheentries​ @vexhye​ @traceyaudette​ 

[starlitservos]

Space asks v2, the nearest and farthest pair of each section with respect to your current location (use your best judgement for any ties or ambiguity)

thanks! I’m implementing some rules of my own to facilitate this, as follows:most data comes from basic googling because if I let myself look at anything other than the little boxes there or on wikipedia, not only will I never finish the questions, I will probably die of thirst before I get to the second one. some of my numbers are probably wrong, but I’ve already spent too much time on this and I don’t want to go in and redo everything, but if anyone sees anything off please tell meties or ambiguity are generally resolved by answering both questions cuz I don’t get a lot of asks so I need to make the most of what I dofor cases in which I am basically part of one prompt, like earth, I answer that and also the next closest, for the same reasondistance to constellations will be measured as distance to the brightest star in that constellation (this may overlap with stars)distances that change significantly, like in the solar system where orbits matter, are averagedokay I think that’s it for preprocessing, it could be a lot and I feel bad cluttering up people’s dashes so here’s a read more:

Planets:Earth: Where’s your home?(average distance 0 mi, I live here) hey great question man. Pluto: What time is it right now where you are?(average distance 39.5 au) it’s quarter past 3 in the afternoon, but I’m answering this one near the start, so. Moon: What are you currently studying/hoping to study?(distance 238,900 mi) currently studying fancy light boxes with buttons, and less fancy human talk stuff. would also like to study a whole bunch of invisible stuff too, and made-up ideas a bunch of people agreed on like fifty-ish(? I don’t remember exactly, it’s probably more) years ago because it mostly makes sense. even if you can clone fake spheres with fake knives. …neither of those are full planets…aaanyway

Stars:Sun: Have you ever had alcohol?(distance 1 au, I don’t quite live there but it’s close enough) yeah, but only a little so it doesn’t really count. Deneb: Have you ever been out of your home country?(distance 2,616 ly) yeah, a few times. thinking I might want to get out permanently sometime if the nazis aren’t all taken care of soon. see, these are actually stars, thank you! learn from this, pluto

Constellations:Centaurus: Favorite holiday? (it’s…it’s alpha centauri, I mean c'mon, the closest star we’ve got; distance 4.37 ly) gosh, I’m not sure. purim’s pretty fun but I can’t eat hamentashen anymore…I do like pesach conceptually but not a fan of the whole family dinner, and I always hated doing the questions and being in the spotlight. I’m not youngest anymore though so that part isn’t really a considering I guess. Cygnus: Favorite weather?(hello, deneb again, still far as hell; in pc, 802+/-66) windy and just around the edge of warm and cool, cloudy but not fully without sun. no mud. sadly this is not very common weather around here.

Galaxies:Milky Way: Who’s your oldest friend?(yeah this is the one I’m in, right there on the edge–that arm there, see? distance 0 pc) probably a guy I’ve known since like 4th, 5th grade. but, I dunno, I guess really just me, since who else was there?Andromeda: Do you consider yourself social?(another gimme, everyone knows andromeda’s right next door, distance 2.537 million ly) sort of. I can be charming, but I’ve only got a couple social skills, and I’m absolutely awful at first impressions. I’m fine just sitting around reading or wandering around empty places all day alone, but I’ve got a decent network of people I’m friendly with. even if I am always surprised when people remember me as anything notable. Comet Galaxy: Have you ever had to leave a relationship because someone changed too much?(real far off, if you thought deneb was far–this thing’s a whole 3.2 Billion ly) I’ve never dated anyone.

Other Stuff:not exactly sure how to measure distance for this one, since it’s not specific things, I’ll just…ignore the annoying ones and get the closest instances of the rest

Asteroid: What does your dream life look like?(our solar system’s got a whole belt of them like, right there. distance like 2.2 au) shit I already answered this one, didn’t I? sorry, I meant to skip it when I was selecting because of that, but I forgot, and I don’t feel like redoing anything now, I’ve already spent too long on this. Quasar: If you could spend the rest of your life with only one person, who would it be?(man these things are cool, the closest one is at the core of the galaxy markarian 231, distance like 580 million ly, along with a pair of binary black holes–look, it’s the last one, I can do extra research if I want) I really don’t know. I’m pretty sure that if I had to be like, constantly around one person for that long, either I would murder them, or they’d murder me. honestly the only exception would probably be a duplicate of me or something–that sounds really self-centered, but really, I just have serious trust issues (that I'm working on).

thanks for the questions, and thanks to anyone who read the whole thing. as always I’m still taking them, and there’s no ask-by time (especially for space ones).

[zoegmiller]

Persona 5 Fanfic: I QUIT!!

What you've heard is true, I don't just do Fire Emblem?? I've actually played at least one other video game! 😮😮😮😮

This is smaller (and less smutty) than what I usually write, but it was an inkling of an idea I had and I'm trying to get writing done more consistently these days sooooo...

ANYWAY! Short & sweet (or at least I hope so!) I played most of the game feeling the pits for poor, long-suffering Kawakami ;_; So I'm writing this story about good, tired girls finally getting the break they deserve for all the good, tired girls who haven't gotten theirs yet.

💕💫 Please take a look over at AO3 or keep reading below! Thank you!! 💕💫

Sadayo had the kind of life where anything worth doing needed to be worth doing simultaneously with everything else. So, sitting in the teacher's lounge, she devoured her plain boxed lunch, nimbly using her chopsticks to pluck up slices of chicken and clumps of rice with one hand, while she alternated between scrawling red marks all over her students papers-really? they got that one wrong? it was on there as a total gimme!-and picking up her phone to text clients and coordinate tonight's appointments-she couldn't even get up the ardor to complain about Mr. Wednesday Night, the jerk; if it weren't for jerks, she'd have no clients at all.

Spurred on by the sonorous rhythm of the heavy rain beating the windows, she'd truly hit her flow (if you could call it that). At this pace she'd only have to leave work two hours late--three, tops! Accounting for her appointments tonight, she'd be home barely after midnight and coast right into a comfortable (nearly) four hours of sleep. Score!

In fact, she was so in the zone, it was a good five minutes before she even noticed she'd deposited a great dollop of katsu sauce on her sweater. When she eventually did, she leaned back in her chair and unleashed a righteous groan-as she didn't do enough laundry to do already!

The ebullient voice of the TV announcer chattered away, a few strident decibels louder than the pelting of the rain, as Sadayo took a wet nap from her purse. What's she got to be so happy about, anyway?? However, dabbing lightly at the brown stain on her sweater, she unconsciously attuned to the gibbering on the TV, and catching the final digits in a string of numbers. "35, 39, 18..."

Her wet nap fell to the floor.

Again, those numbers were: 1, 3, 8...

She scrambled for her purse, opening it...

"14..."

throwing aside packs of complimentary tissues...

"35..."

greasy-feeling business cards...

"39..."

and the cutesy hair barrette from last night's appointment, she chucked that right across the room, nearly nailing Ms. Usami in the process.

"And the final number... 18!"

The chair shrieked its resistance as Sadayo stood from behind her desk on shaky legs. She couldn't read it. It was dark in here, gloomy. holding the holy paper artifact before her in front of the window. At that moment, though it may've just been the fevered imagination of her overworked mind, Sadayo was sure the sun burst from behind those gloomy gray clouds, illuminating her like a spotlight.

Mr. Ushimaru grimaced at her from behind the folded flap of his newspaper. "Kawakami, are you quite all right?"

The ticket in her shuddering hands glowed like a beacon, blazing with energy, announcing to all and sundry the inscribed numbers of her victory. 1-3-8-14-35-39-18!

And then, she collapsed.

***

Sadayo woke up a few minutes later, to the sound of buzzing halogen lights and Mr. Ushimaru's grousing about his bad back. Usami had corralled him (and a passing studio) to carry her all the way to the nurse's office. The weak cot groaned as she tried to sit up. Still woozy, she could only manage herself up on her elbows. Her knuckles ached like crazy."Will you be all right to get home?" Ms. Usami asked, as Mr. Ushimaru tottered out of the room like a grumpy mountain. Solicitous, but cautious of wounding Sadayo's meager pride, the older woman continued, "If you need money for a cab..."

Fist gripped like a vice around the lotto ticket, Sadayo suddenly grinned from ear to ear. "Oh no, I think I'll be just fine."

***

It was somewhere around seventy minutes into the Grand & Eternal Bliss Package, around the time of the two-hundred-and-sixteenth clack of the bamboo fountain and the four-hundred-and-third individual foot rub (yes, she'd counted) that Sadayo's phone rang--shaking her out of her lavender-and-sandalwood-scented inner tranquility. "Crap!" she hissed, flinching on instinct for her bag. They'd kill her! Aside from Mr. Wednesday Night, she'd managed to score two other appointments tonight and, and "I never called out!"It was somewhere around seven seconds into her manager's screeching tirade that the perennially-cowed Sadayo let out an abrupt, involuntary cackle as the reality of her situation came crashing down on her like a wave. Her manager, caught completely off-guard, stammered into bemused silence, offering Sadayo the picture-perfect, exact opportunity she'd fantasied about for months--years! Her chest swelled, her body went rigid, and, taking a belt out a climactic "You know what, you chauvinistic, chain-smoking scumbag? I QUIT!!" the triumphant snap of her cheap mobile phone the punctuation to not only that statement, but several years of occupational mistreatment. Pride made her dizzy, her body went light as a feather, and she gave herself over a chorus of cackling so ribald it'd shake the heaven's firmament itself, and she didn't stop until she realized the woman massaging her feet had stopped her massage in order to... fix her with a wide-eyed, questioning glance.

"Sorry about that, hon," Sadayo said, dipping her head and trying to will away the blush that scrawled across her cheeks. "Bit of... unfinished business..." The woman nodded, affecting a polite smile, as she returned to her work. A consummate professional, the masseuse made no mention of how her hands were assaulted by the wriggling and squirming of a rather mortified set of toes; Sadayo futilely trying to sublimate the embarrassment writhing through her. "You have twenty minutes left," she said, politely.

"Twenty minutes? Feels like I just got here." Sadayo groaned and lolled her head back, staring at the ceiling. No way! This was the beginning of a new life, she wanted to celebrate--heck, she should at least be drunk!

And so, producing a trio of crisp, new 10000-yen bills from her purse, she put on her most confident face as she said... "How about another hour..." She spread the bills, fanning herself with a grin. "Just between you and me?"

Sadayo thrilled in the avaricious look that lit up her masseuse's eyes--a 30000 yen tip was too good to pass up, Sadayo was all too painfully aware of that. However, in the wake of the pecuniary thrill that coursed through her, she noticed just how tired her masseuse's eyes were, behind the glossy excitement her tip inspired. A less-discerning client might not have caught, how the pretty, petite young woman's shoulders hunched with the strain of a long day, or the here-and-there flyaway hairs she'd probably had no time to fix between appointments.

"It's rough, isn't it?" Sadayo asked.

"It pays the bills," the masseuse replied, with surprising straightforwardness.

"Wears you out, though."

The girl shrugged, applying a firm pressure to Sadayo's insoles.

Sadayo resisted the urge to gleefully squirm. Instead, bright as if a light bulb had popped into being above her head, she asked, "Hey, what's your name?"

"Chika," the girl replied.

"Chika, huh? Cute."

The masseuse shook her head, her cheeks glowing a bit.

"Y'know," Sadayo said, puffing up her chest, and playing like this wasn't the only satisfying physical contact she'd had in years. "With firm hands like yours, I don't know if I could take another hour, so how about we call it even?" Sadayo reached down to gently tuck the folded bills into the pocket of Chika's uniform. Then, she summoned her masseuse's gaze with a finger beneath her chin. "I'm kind of a masseuse myself.... o-of a sort..."

"Except you... kind of just quit, didn't you?" Chika asked, unblinking. Her cheeks were bright as cherry blossoms.

"Well..." Sadayo tilted her gaze away for a second, lips spreading in a sheepish grin. She patted her hand hand amiably along the massage table beside them. "How'd you like to be my final job?"

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this work, I'm available for commissions and I’ve got a ton of other work on my site, bespokesmut.com. Or, if you'd like some smutty flash fiction of your own, feel free to drop a request into my ask box and I'll do my best to accommodate you!

[gciti-blog]

Worth it.

Third Person’s POV

As soon as Dinah saw Lauren she jumped on the stage and hugged her tight. Lauren smiled at the affection and stepped down from the stage. Dinah was pulling Lauren behind her to make her meet Ally but when they passed Camila, Lauren’s eyes locked with Camila’s and her jaw dropped.

Now there could be many reasons for that. Maybe Lauren wasn’t expecting Camila there. Maybe Lauren was surprised. Maybe Lauren was shocked. Or maybe Camila looked sexy as hell in that LBD. The reaction was mutual. Camila herself didn’t expected Lauren to be there. She didn’t expect her to meet her like this and that too dressed like that! The make up was making her eyes pop out and it was enough for Camila to want to swim in them.

Camila walked away and came to the bar for a glass of water. After retrieving her glass she went back to the table she kept her belongings on. “Typical Camz.” Lauren said and motioned at the seat next to Camila asking if she could sit there. Camila nodded. Lauren took the seat and grinned at Camila. “Hi.” Lauren said in a childlike manner instantly remembering their talk at Ègarè 8 years back. Camila’s smile widened, “Hello Lauren.” Camila’s reply was more confident and poised than Lauren remembered. She didn’t stutter or sounded unsure. Lauren stole Camila’s glass of water and took a sip. She immediately shuddered at the sensation. “Its cold!” She said. “Its water.” Came Camila’s instant reply. Lauren nodded at the bluntness. She liked this side of Camila. The confident and sexy side. The bow was gone her hair was short and had beach waves giving her a perfect look. She looked perfect. Camila was perfect.

“Did you get married?” The question caught Camila off guard she furrowed her eyebrows and turned to look at Lauren. Lauren was serious. She chuckled and replied, “What!? No!!” Lauren nodded and then asked, “Kids?” Lauren had a playful smirk of her face. She never forgot any of their conversations. “YES! THREE!” Camila replied catching the playful drift in Lauren’s tone. “Such a slut!” Lauren said and both started laughing they knew she didn’t mean it. “Why do you ask?” Camila questioned. It was odd for Lauren to ask marraige related questions. “Just.. thinking should I listen to you or start flirting.” Lauren shrugged. “Is flirting that necessary?” Camila asked, looking ahead and at the dance floor. “Of course! It’s good for health.. you know like-” , “yoga.. I remember.” Camila completed Lauren, her gaze not wavering. Lauren turned to Camila and could see her side profile. By whatever she could see in the dim light all that came to her mind was beautiful.

Before she could think of what she was saying she said “Were you this beautiful from the start or has time committed the best mistake?” Familiar butterflies erupted in Camila’s stomach and she blushed at Lauren’s comment. She had to reply something. “Eww.. this is so John Green type of you..” Camila said and patted her back for a nice reply. Her voice also didn’t give away her nervousness and she was happy for that. “You are finding these lines cheesy now.. did you forget you used to swoon on them few years back.” Lauren tried to save the last bit of her self esteem in this conversation. “Please!! Me? I used to swoon on you??” Camila replied and scoffed. Did lauren guessed that she had a crush on her back then? Or worse, could Lauren guess that she was still in love with her?

Hearing that Lauren couldn’t help but look down and stare at her fingers. She didn’t care if people judged her for sleeping around. But she did care about Camila’s approval. Even before going to Chicago Camila was the one who talked her out of doing something stupid. Seeing Lauren this silent and serious Camila felt something. And before she could filter them she spoke, “You haven’t changed at all Lauren.” This made Lauren look up and at Camila. “Except one thing. Old Lauren along with flirting shamelessly used to smile too.” Camila said and wanted to slap herself for being inconsiderate. But Lauren smiled at that and bit her lip. Camila offered the glass of water and motioned Lauren to drink it. “How is it?” This time the water was not cold. It was considerably warm. “Better.” Lauren smiled. “Exactly. Give things time. They get better… come on let’s dance.”

~Give it to me, I’m worth it Baby, I’m worth it Uh huh I’m worth it Gimme gimme I’m worth it~

While walking lauren recognized the song and started lip syncing grooving to the music.

~OK, I tell her bring it back like she left some Bring it bring it back like she left some- In the club with the lights off Whatchu acting shy for?~

Lauren directed the last line to Camila who was moving with a lot of sophistication.

~I may talk a lot of stuff Guaranteed, I can back it up I think I'mma call you bluff Hurry up, I’m waitin’ out front~

Dinah found them dancing and joined them. She had been drinking a lot and her moves were sloppy.

~Uh huh show me what you got ‘Cause I don’t wanna waste my time Uh huh see me in the spotlight “Ooh I love your style” Uh huh show me what you got now Come and make it worth my while~

“GIVE IT TO ME I AM WORTH IT!” All three screamed and started grooving. Camila too opened up and started dancing.

~

Third Person’s POV

After the party came to an end Dinah dragged Lauren so that she could meet one last person. Dinah sneaked up behind Normani and covered her eyes. “Look what I brought for you.” She said removing her hands and Normani saw Lauren standing there. “Hey Mani” Lauren said smiling. Surprisingly Normani didn’t jump. She didn’t hug her. She didn’t say anything. Dinah left Normani’s side and went to Lauren, “I told you. She would die out of shock.” Dinah said and giggled. “What did you guys thought? That I would miss her suicide mission?” Lauren asked putting her arms around Dinah’s shoulder keeping her from falling face first. “We didn’t think. We knew. We knew you won’t come.” Normani said and Lauren’s face fell.

Realising what she had said Normani stood up and hugged Lauren. “What a surprise dude. What a surprise. Drink?” Normani asked but didn’t wait for Lauren’s reply. She went to the alcohol table beside the pool and poured them a glass.

“Why weren’t you present at the cocktail party??” Lauren asked Normani. “Dinah’s lady love ruined my one and only white dress.” Normani replied and came down to sit beside her friends with the glasses. “By the way who is this little miss sunshine?” Even Lauren found Ally to be overly bubbly. “Oh she is damn rich. Personality is a little weak but she owns a bentley.” Normani said and Dinah smacked her. “Shut up Mani. Ally is a very sweet and intelligent person and loves me a lot.” Dinah directed her attention back to Lauren while saying the last part.

“So how is you club coming out?” Lauren asked Normani. She knew Normani went ahead with the plan of owning a club and wanted to know how her friend was doing. “Perfect.” Lauren nodded at Normani’s reply. “So how long are you staying this time?” Dinah asked Lauren. They all had established that Lauren didn’t like Europe and would never want to come there for anymore days than she had to. “I’ll leave on the night of your wedding. Will go straight to Tokyo.” Lauren answered looking lovingly at her friend. Dinah didn’t change at all. She was just like she was before and little more matured and feminine like but her heart still remained pure. “Oohhh Tokyo.. what’s happening there?” Dinah further queried. “I got this amazing offer.” Lauren replied and danced her eyebrows. “Your life has always been amazing.. no?” Normani too added in her two cents. “Dont you live in Chicago anymore?” She too queried. “Chicago was at the very beginning. After that I went to New York, then Hawaii then-” , “You roam around so much.. I got confused.” Normani interrupted Lauren and was clearly intoxicated now.

An awkward silence fell between them and Lauren couldn’t figure out if Normani was being like this because of the alcohol or was voicing what she actually felt. “Last time we talked… you were in Boston?” Dinah tried to fill the silence. “No. LA.” Lauren corrected her. “Yeah… how could I forget? When your dad… I am really sorry Lo.. It was so sudden. I felt really bad after I heard.” Dinah sighed. Lauren just nodded mustering up enough strength to give a small smile. “I.. I’ll take a shower now. I’ll see you guys later…” Lauren said and stood up. She couldn’t stay there for any moment longer than necessary. The guilt was too much.

“You won’t go home?” Normani asked bluntly. “Nope. It wont be possible this time.” Lauren whispered softly. “COME ON GUYS! Let’s do something tonight. Like old times. We three are together!!” Dinah tried to save the last bit of their friendship. Even a blind person could see how strained their relationship was now. “What do you mean by old times!?? Except our faces nothing is the same anymore!” Normani scoffed. “Nothing ever changes between friends.” Lauren argued. “Correct. But you and me are not friends anymore.” Normani stood up and before walking away she stopped and licked her lips, “Cheers man.” And with that she left Dinah and Lauren. Both the girls turned to each other and Lauren’s eyes were filled with tears. She gave Dinah a small smile and turned to walk away.

~

A/N

I told you I would update more frequently…

So….. Normani seems angry.. 😂😂😅

Anyway.. one clarification.. the wedding is taking place at a big resort.. which has diff villas and lawns and banquet halls.. so yeah people are living in villas. Lawns and swimming pools are there for people to use and then banquet halls for parties and all.. okay?

Something happy for ya’ll after today’s sad announcement.

Vote comment and share. I am a nice person…