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2baddiesfanfics · 4 months ago

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Better Than Any Paycheck

Pairing: Nobara x Maki

Tags: Ice Play, Nipple Play, Nipple Licking, Tie Kink, Light Bondage, Suit Kink, School Uniforms, Dirty Talk, Sex Toys, Vibrators, Scissoring, Stockings, Begging, Kissing

Summary:

Maki is less than enthusiastic about having to get dressed up for her latest mission, but she just can’t turn down the pay. Nobara wants to show her how much she appreciates her hard work. And who can resist a sharp-dressed lady?

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“Oh, stop being such a big baby. You knew this was going to be a part of the mission when you signed up for it,” Nobara chastised her reluctant girlfriend as she slid her tie into a firm Windsor knot for her.

Maki huffed a sigh. “I didn’t know it was going to involve formal wear or I never would have said yes.”

Yes, she had agreed to the one-night-only bodyguard position. She was hesitant at first because the job involved a bratty teenage actress that was a prime target for curses. Frankly, Maki would have rather taken her chances with the spirit than the spoiled girl. But when she saw the contract with the promised pay printed in bold, black ink, there was no way she could have turned it down.

“You’ll be fine. Plus, I wasn’t going to miss the chance to see you looking this dapper,” Nobara said, locking eyes with her. She could feel Maki’s heart thump faster through the breast of her midnight black suit.

Grinning maliciously, Nobara stood on the tips of her toes to mutter in her ear, “We’ll have to make good use of this when you get home tonight,” she said as she yanked on Maki’s tie a little too hard.

Stumbling forward out of sheer shock, Maki shot her a fiery look. “Don’t make promises you don’t intend to keep, baby.”

Nobara’s brain was already churning around the myriad of ways she hoped to welcome Maki back home.

“Give it your all and I promise I’ll make it worth your while. I need a few outfits, a new bag, perhaps some shoes…don’t give me that look, I saw that paycheck!” Nobara shot back.

“You’re a cruel mistress, you know that right? Fine, but you better not be all talk and no game. I could use some fresh designer workout clothes myself. It would be a shame if there was nothing left for the frivolous Nobara fund,” Maki joked.

The two shared a kiss goodbye and Maki strolled out the door to catch her ride, Nobara admiring how good the tailored outfit made her ass look on the way out. ————- Nobara sat on the couch, listening to something on TV but not really paying attention. She looked at the clock. Maki had been gone for about two hours and she was bored out of her mind.

She imagined what she must be up to. Indeed, it wasn’t the kind of mission Maki typically took on. From the amount she was complaining leading up to the gig, it was clear she wouldn’t be in much danger. Maki preferred a challenge - a curse following some teeny-bopper with too much time, money, and fame on her hands would take one look at her and run in the opposite direction.

The one perk to this was getting to see Maki dressed up to the nines. That was a rare occasion indeed - one Nobara savored every chance she could get. Maki worked hard to ensure her needs were met, and it was only fair that she repaid her in kind.

They’d been out of school for years now, but Nobara knew she could put her old uniform to good use. She still looked damn good in it, thank you very much. Already, she could see the look on Maki’s face as she were to walk in, weary from a long night, only to see Nobara ready and waiting for her.

She’d ditch the white dress shirt (too many buttons that Maki would probably snap off anyway) and keep the uniform top open, revealing a much-too-expensive piece of red and black lacy lingerie Maki probably hadn’t yet seen the credit card bill for. She knew tights drove her crazy so she’d throw a pair on just for her.

Heat started to pool in her stomach as she thought about the way Maki’s eyes would burn lustfully as she took the sight of her in. —————- Maki angrily glanced at her watch as she slammed the door of the limousine shut. What a shit show of a night. Not only was the gala a total bore (not a damn curse in sight), little miss “I can take care of myself” was a pain in her ass the entire time. Maki would look away for two seconds to check the perimeter and already she’d be across the room talking to a group of shady-looking old men whose intentions were clearly less than pure. Thankfully she was still able to ensure the bitch made it home in one piece. Mercifully, Maki, too, had arrived back at her own apartment. Exhausted, she couldn’t wait to take off the godforsaken uncomfortable suit she was wearing, shower, and drift off to sleep with her girlfriend tucked under her arm.

She dragged the keys out of her pocket and unlocked the door.

“‘Bara? I’m home.”

No answer.

“Babe? I’m back.”

Still no answer. Had she already fallen asleep? It wasn’t that late, was it? Maki walked through the dimly lit living room and made her way toward the bedroom they shared.

“Nobara?” She half-whispered as she opened the door a crack to see if she had already passed out for the night.

Peering into the dimly lit room, she could see candles lit on the nightstand. Pushing the door open further, her eyes adjusted to the change of light enough to make out a silhouette on the bed.

“Nobar…,” Maki started to say again, but the end of her girlfriend’s name stuck in her throat when she saw her displayed before her.

Nobara had her legs crossed as she sat on the edge of the bed wearing those damn tights (that woman knew what those did to her). Maki’s gaze drifted up, stopping briefly to look at the skirt she was wearing. Leaning back propped up on both elbows, her shirt opened, revealing (what Maki assumed was) a new bra. Looking Maki directly in the eye, she took great satisfaction in the shocked look on her face.

“How was your mission?” Nobara asked coyly.

“I...i...it was alright,” Maki responded breathlessly.

“Well, are you going to just stand there and gawk the whole time, or are you going to come over here?” Nobara teased.

Maki practically leaped to where Nobara was, coming to rest standing in front of her. One of her hands slid up and down her stocking-clad legs. Nobara leaned up, grabbed Maki’s tie in her fist, and pulled her forward. Meeting her halfway with an open-mouthed kiss, Maki let out a surprised moan.

Pulling back, Maki smirked, “Hmmm looks like someone missed me.”

Playing with the supple silk tie between her fingers, Nobara retorted, “Really? Seems like you missed me more with the way you moaned just now.”

“Says the woman who was ready, willing, and waiting for me to get home.”

“Like you didn’t want to fuck me as soon as you saw me like this?”

“Touché.” Maki urgently kicked her dress shoes off and started to undress.

“Wait!” Nobara said as she cocked an eyebrow. “Everything but the tie.”

She saw no issue with this, figuring it must be a new fetish of hers she was yet unaware of. Stripping out of her suit jacket, collared shirt, and slacks, she was suddenly aware of the unfairness of the situation. Guiding her further back in bed, she took off Nobara’s uniform jacket as she kissed and licked her throat.

“As much as I love how you look in this uniform, it’s getting in the way,” Maki murmured. Nobara gripped her tie harder and used it to direct her head upwards to look at her.

“I spent all that time getting dressed up for you and you want me to strip back down? I’m not a cheap whore, Maki,” she chastised. Maki reached behind to unclasp Nobara’s bra, letting it fall to the floor beside the bed. “Oh, I beg to differ. I promise to make you scream like one,” Maki retorted as she bit down where Nobara’s neck met her shoulder.

“AH! Fuck! Maki!” With a violent pull, Maki could feel her tie tightening around her neck. This was hot at the start, but Maki was beginning to get frustrated. Sitting back up, she loosened and yanked it over her head.

“Hands,” she commanded. Nobara did as she was told. Wrapping the tie around her wrists, she made a solid knot. “With what I’m about to do to you, I can’t have you choking me out.”

“Wait, what do mea-,” she was interrupted as Maki grabbed a fistful of her stockings and pulled a hole in them. “Goddamn it, Maki! Those were expensive!”

Maki grinned, leaning over Nobara to grab a small, green, leaf-looking vibrator from the nightstand drawer.

Leaning down to her ear, she whispered, “I’ll buy you a new pair.” Nibbling on her lobe, she could hear Nobara’s relieved sigh.

Gently nudging Nobara’s legs open, Maki made room for her to situate herself in between. Taking the toy in hand, she started it off on the lowest setting. Maki pulled Nobara’s skirt off and dragged her underwear down her legs.

Running the vibrator over Nobara’s clit, she elicited a sharp yelp. Maki shifted to hold the toy in place with her knee as she took Nobara’s tied hands and pinned them above her head.

Unable to think straight, Nobara could do nothing more than groan in pleasure. It was unusual for her to be at a loss for words, but she wasn’t about to complain about being completely at Maki’s mercy.

Continuing to suck and nip at her neck, Maki moved her knee up and down to make the vibe hit all of the spots she knew would drive Nobara mad. As her free hand kneaded and pinched her partner’s breasts, she listened to the tantalizing sounds of the whines and moans she was pulling out of her.

Nobara’s chest rapidly rose and fell as she felt the buildup in her lower stomach - teetering on the edge, but not quite there.

“P...p…please…AH! God please!!” Nobara whined breathlessly.

“Mmm? I’m sorry, I need you to use your words. I’m not sure what you mean by please…please what?” Maki replied.

Nobara lifted her head to meet Maki’s and kissed her deeply. Maki met her heat with her own, sliding her tongue into her mouth. Nobara bit down on Maki’s bottom lip, causing Maki to moan in return. Pulling away, she pressed her knee harder into Nobara, the toy hitting her clit in just the right spot.

“You win! You win! I give! Just let me come!” Nobara cried out.

“That’s my good girl. You try so hard to be naughty, but only good girls get what they want,” Maki teased.

Flipping the vibrator onto a higher setting, she pressed it in deeper.

“Come for me, dear,” Maki whispers.

Nobara ground herself into Maki’s knee, feeling the pulses building her closer to her release.

“Oh…Oh FUCK! Yes...yes…” Nobara screamed as she came.

Maki pulled her in, swallowing her moans with a slow, passionate kiss. When Nobara’s erratic breathing calmed, Maki switched off the toy.

“How was that for an ‘I missed you, too’?” Maki said, nestling her girlfriend to her side.

“It’s clear this was much more fun for you than the mission. Was it that bad?” Nobara replied with a grimace as she snuggled into her.

“It was pretty dreadful. Like babysitting a hormonal teenager,” Maki said, shaking her head. Nobara softly stroked her cheek.

“Well, at least the money was worth it this time. But I do think it’s time I helped you relax a bit. Do me a favor and untie me?”

Maki acquiesced to her request, but wasn’t expecting what was coming next. Nobara pushed her to lean back against the headboard, and wrapped the tie across her girlfriend’s eyes, ensuring the knot was enough for it to stay in place without being too tight. “You work hard. Too hard, sometimes. Let me show you how much I appreciate you,” she purred. Maki got goosebumps from the sensation of Nobara’s hot breath against her ear.

“Who am I to fight back in this situation? I’m at your mercy, love.” Nobara pecked her on the cheek in response.

“Good. Now wait here for a second.” Now Maki was confused. She heard Nobara leave the room and walk to…the kitchen? Judging by the sound of footsteps fading further away and then hitting tile, it had to be.

“Uhhhh…you good out there?”

“Yup! Give me a second.” The muffled thud of a cupboard door, and finally…the clink of ice in a glass. Maki’s stomach flipped. She had a feeling she knew where this was headed.

A few seconds later, she could hear Nobara back in the room with her.

“Now just sit back and trust me, ok?” Nobara said before popping an ice cube in her mouth. The next thing Maki felt was the shock of Nobara’s freezing lips begging entrance to her hot mouth. Between them, the two melted the piece in no time. Maki was already starting to feel refreshed in more ways than one.

Grabbing another piece between her teeth, Nobara slid it across Maki’s neck.

“Ahhh fuck that’s cold but it feels so damn good!” Maki ground out. Melted ice dripped down her chest, droplets trailing in between her cleavage. Nobara eagerly chased them with her tongue as Maki let a sharp hiss escape her lips.

Nobara pulled away too quickly for Maki’s liking, this time taking a chunk of ice between her fingers. There was something so satisfying seeing Maki like this: blindfolded, breathing heavily, skin reddened and slightly swollen where the freezing particles melted on her skin like snowflakes. It was rare that she was completely at her mercy, so Nobara was relishing every second.

“You’re too…quiet…what’s going on?” Maki said breathlessly.

“That’s for me to know and for you to find out, baby,” Nobara said. Giving her no warning, she pressed the piece of ice directly to Maki’s nipple.

“Fuuuuuuuck,” Maki sighed as her head snapped back.

“See? Aren’t you glad I didn’t say anything?” Nobara shifted the ice to her other nipple.

“Ahhhhh…I think a little heads up would have been nice,” Maki grit out.

“Where’s the fun in that? It’s so much more fun making you squirm and lose control like this.”

Nobara’s warm tongue laving across each taught nub provided a temperature contrast that made Maki moan embarrassingly loud in response. Kissing her way down her torso, she let what remained of the fragment rest on Maki’s belly. She could feel a stream of cool liquid slide down to the hem of her panties and it was driving her insane.

“Will you quit being such a little fucking tease and get on with it?” Maki said as she weaved her fingers through Nobara’s hair, pushing her lower ever so slightly.

Nobara nipped at the sensitive skin of Maki’s hip before answering, “I’ll get there when I get there. You’ll come when I say you can.” She could feel Maki shutter. Hooking her finger around the fabric of her panties, Nobara dragged them down Maki’s legs, her nails lightly grazing the outside of her thighs. Maki let out a stutter of a sigh.

“Not everything has to be so intense all the time, you know,” Nobara said against the tender skin of Maki’s thighs. She could feel and taste the faint saltiness of the remnants of her arousal against her lips and it was intoxicating. “Sometimes taking it slow can be just as…fun.”

“Nothing could be more ‘fun’ than feeling your tongue inside of me,” Maki muttered.

“You certainly have a way with words. And you say I’m a spoiled princess? How about this. If you ask nicely, I just might give you what you want.” She was so close to where Maki wanted her that she could feel Nobara’s warm breath against her pussy.

“Bitchhh…you’re getting off on this aren’t you?”

“I have to admit, it’s hot seeing you beg for it. So do it. I’ve got all night. I’m not the one who hasn’t come yet.” To add to Maki’s mounting frustration, she quickly swiped a finger across her wetness.

“Hgnnnnn! Fine,” Maki panted. “Nobara, please let me come.”

“That was a bit too weak for me, sorry.” Another swipe.

“Ahhhh! Nobara I’m begging. Please!”

“You’re almost there, but not quite.” This time she added a small piece of ice to her tongue and allowed it to melt before giving a quick lick. The cold sent shivers of pleasure to Maki’s core.

“Fuuuuuuucking...Nobara please! I’m at your mercy here. Let me come on your face please!”

“Much better.” She made quick work of her. Within a few fast strokes of her tongue, Maki came undone.

“NOBARA!” Maki’s grip on her head made it clear she couldn’t take anymore.

She came screaming Nobara’s name. Once Maki was able to breathe again, she took the tie off her eyes, threw it across the room, grabbed Nobara, and flipped them. Nobara could see the sheer hunger in Maki’s eyes.

“And where do you think you’re going? Did you think you could tease me like that and get away with it?” Maki said through gritted teeth.

Taking what was left of the ice into her mouth, she leaned down to suck on Nobara’s nipple.

“Ohhhhh Maki!”

Nobara arched into her mouth as she swirled her tongue. With a quick pinch, Maki released her, and Nobara whined from the sudden loss of stimulation.

Maki lifted one of Nobara’s legs and swiped a finger through her folds.

“Hmmm seems to me like you are still pretty needy. Did messing with me the way you did really turn you on that much?”

Nobara blushed as Maki placed her leg over Nobara’s opposite hip and leaned forward. Their cores touching, clits lined up with one another. Nobara attempted to move her hips to get Maki to move, but she wasn’t budging. God, she both despised and loved that knowing smirk Maki gave when she knew she had the upper hand.

Maki began to rock back and forth slowly at first, then increased the pace as they ground against one another.

“Ahh...Maki…Maki…I’m close.”

“I’m with you….”

With a final shudder, they both came at the same time, the sound of each other’s names on their lips. Utterly spent, Maki let her body fall on top of Nobara’s. Nobara pulled her in for a hug as they clung to each other breathless and sweaty. ———- After they had come down from the high, Maki pulled the covers around them. Curling her arm around Nobara’s waist, she took in her comforting scent. Heaving a contented sigh, she chuckled softly, nearly giving in to the tempting pull of sleep.

“You know, the job may have sucked, but if this is what I get to come home to, I’ll have to take these kinds of missions more often.”

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magicbeansprout · 4 months ago

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I've been busy with schoolwork, so hadn't found the time to post these, but I found my stylus earlier this month! Only took me 6 months to find it 🙂. Here's some Ribbon and Diamond related stuff I drew a bit earlier in the month after finding it.

I ramble a lot here, so details on these characters are under the cut if you wanna hear me infodump about my characters and comic stuff.

First up are the fairies Bow and Tie, who help Ribbon and Diamond respectively. I'm really proud of the names, as goofy as they are. They match one another and each corelate to the respective magical girls they assist, as ribbons can be tied into bows, and neckties are diamond-shaped. Their colors and design specifics aren't set in stone, but they'll be made of fairly simple shapes so they can be drawn easily. Maybe I'll make them fully different colors from Ribbon and Diamond, with Tie being a yellow-green and Bow being lavender or another purple. Not sure though because I really like Bow with that shade of pink hair.

Next up, still on the topic of fairies, is this character whose outfit might seem familiar. (to those that have seen the singular drawing from 2? years ago of a character wearing this, this one's for you) I like how the character's personal colors look, but the colors on the outfit were kinda chosen randomly so I'll definitely be playing around with those some more. I've been wanting to rework the story of the witches, and the King is the one who's needed the most work. This is a possible concept I'm going to play around with. I don't think the proportions of the fullbody drawing will be the King's actual appearance as a fairy, looks kinda splatoon-esque lol, but since this outfit was intended for a human-sized character, I need to draw an awkward middle stage as I work to simplify the outfit for a smaller character, like a reversed Pokémon. I also think i'll be changing King's pronouns from she/her to he/him (or another combo with he/him). King still considers himself a gal gender identity-wise, but that's what he goes by and others call him. I know in Chinese and Japanese there are some masculine, pretentious? (not exactly pretentious but, like "I'm really cool/great"), personal pronouns or ways of referring to oneself. I'd think if you translated his dialogue into one of those languages or any languages that have something similar, he'd be using those in his speech. I only sorta know two languages besides English, but I definitely want to improve on them, since there are a lot of language specific jokes or gags you can play with in writing. (Plus, obviously just using the languages to talk to people lol) As you can see near the bottom, the King can also take on a human form, albeit with some slightly pointed ears. He's a lot stronger than fairies like Bow and Tie, and can maintain a human form for a very long time should he desire. I'm considering making there be different types/kinds of fairies who have different capabilities, i'll be playing around with those concepts some later. There's definitely a lot more to work with for the King. He doesn't have a proper name yet, yes even after 5 years, this is a normal pace for writing characters actually. Feel free to leave me any name suggestions for him. For reference, the other witches are:

Jo (Josephine) - the Joker. Her suit is clover (clubs, whatever) ♣️

- Her name starts with similar sounds to her witch alias, simple as.

Paige - the Jack. Her suit is hearts, which she shares with her sister. 🖤🤍 <- her hearts are drawn as half and half, kinda like a broken heart. She's the youngest of the witches and is still going through her emo phase.

- her name comes from an alternate name for the Jack in (i believe) some tarot decks, the Page.

Valentine - the Queen. Her suit is hearts, which she shares with her sister. ❤️

- Valentine, hearts, you get it.

#oc art #digital art #sketch #magical girl #character design #Ribbon and Diamond

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bloodpen-to-paper · 2 years ago

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Met Gala 2023 Presented By Me

With this year's theme being "in honor of Karl Lagerfeld", a fashion designer whom I'm learning from the fashion community is "ew", lets see what we got:

~The Models~

-Rihanna being fashionably late, wearing an egg?-like top that opens to reveal a simple yet beautiful dress (she's got a baby bump!); the "no shit" was iconic honestly

-Jared Leto fursuit (its cause he was dressing as Lagerfeld's cat)

-Harvey Guillen coming through with a lovely floral suit, I'm not usually one for light pink but his was very pretty

-Who let Lil Nas X have access to the arts and crafts box (but he looked stunning, the mask was gorgeous and he's got more confidence than most to pull off what I'm now calling a Full Bedazzle)

-Kristen Stewart going full butch queer, the eyebrows and hair were rugged inspired and most didn't like it but I think that was the point?

-Pedro Pascal and his knee against the world (as well as spreading the red is superior agenda cause it is)

-^ but with Salma Hayek cause holy shit this is the red agenda

-Bryan Tyree Henry continuing to remind me how much my taste in men has improved over the years because he is so fucking fine ANYWAY-

-Lizzo giving me feminine gender envy despite the odds

-Janelle Monae doing a Janelle Monae as is customary (I'd love to know what the inspo was for her if so let me know!)

-Bella Ramsey you are so gender thank you (and they served too, the Thom Browne suit with the white accents is simple yet very classy)

-Every year I give one (1) free pass for a man to wear a standard suit, this year goes to Ke Huy Quan because I couldn't say anything bad about him if I tried (at least he had some style, the fingerless gloves were cool)

-Obligatory Gwendoline Christie was there and existed comment by me because I am in love and I am not ashamed of it

-Florence Pugh's fit had mixed reactions, the shaved head, headdress and white dress look were really good but I think the way the dress came out had people not fully digging it, I can understand but I'll appreciate it nonetheless

-Anne Hathaway in all her fuzzy glory (the hair's a beehive on a very felted dress but like it worked? marks for originality and being able to pull it off)

-Loved Stephanie Hsu's bedazzled suit, won't be able to stop thinking about it actually

-Tems was stunning, I'm a huge fan of the floating leaves design we need more nature-inspired looks

-Olivier Rousteing and Jeremy pope slaying with their "Karl who?" and cape apparel

-Gotta shout out Yara Shahidi for going with something unique, the pearl's color palette works surprisingly better than I expected with the gold (personally I would have more gold trim in the top half but that's just me)

-Let Lady Gaga's outfit for the Met Gala this year be a lesson in misinformation because the pictures circulating Tumblr are not in fact from the 2023 Met, she didn't attend (it is a stunning outfit though)

-Jenna Ortega looking almost like a dapper pirate in the absolute best way possible the gender envy the style I am going insane

-Doja Cat living up to her name (Cats should take notes honestly the makeup was really good. She also kept answering reporter questions by meowing. Because she's Doja. Anyway.)

-Anok Yai's dress reminds me of those ornate beaded lampshades, I wonder if that's where she/her designer got the idea

-Emily Blunt giving me gay panic once again WHY IS SHE SO GORGEOUS (she's got a giant fucking bow tie that's what clowns wear why is she able to pull it off this is so unfair)

-Conan Gray looked like an actual prince I am obsessed

-I saw someone said Cardi B was giving goth Barbie and that is honestly the best way to describe it

-Yung Miami having a beautiful look cause her outfit was underrated this year

-I thought Emily Blunt and Bryan Tyree Henry were all I had to worry about and then Julia Garner came in with a steel chair

-Ella Fanning's look captivating me specifically

-And cause I can't comment on every person or we'd be here all day, go check out the underrated outfits from Amanda Seyfried, Alton Mason, Glenn Close, Sora Choi, Ava Max, Jessica Chastain, Taika Waititi and many more!

~Final Thoughts~

-The palette this year was very black and white... literally. Lots of outfits in black, white, or both. I'm not really into the fashion community so I wouldn't know but I'm guessing its a signature theme of Lagerfeld's? Let me know! I'm always down to learn more about other communities and their history

-I'm also assuming Lagefeld's got a thing for flowers cause there were a lot of flowers imbedded into the outfits, they looked lovely~

-As well as long flowy dress/coat tops cause there were a lot, and I loved how people mixed it in with the flowers. Lots of the men did it this year and it looked fantastic

-Speaking of, I'm proud of the men for actually dressing up this year omfg its insane how many male celebrities will go to a literal fashion event and pull up with nothing but a plain ass suit and though most of them this year did wear suits, there was much pizazz. Like, actual life put into those outfits. So yeah, you love to see it

-Overall, a very nice Met Gala. The crazy stuff came from the usual people who go all out, and we got plenty of highlights from people who embraced the theme, with the occasional unique look to really stick it out

Thank for reading and see you all next fashion event!

#ive been making more commentary posts lately #i usually dont get into stuff like this #but I've been enjoying looking at the outfits cause who doesn't #and that's led me more to actually learning about the themes and designers #I think I'll keep up this tradition #met gala #met gala 2023 #karl lagerfeld #review

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atinydragon · 2 years ago

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Okay so I will ramble about a concept unprompted

Basically, a bunch of rats (well fae) that all come from different places end up at this big manor and decide to live there. And hey since they all came in at the same time they might as well stick together for now.

Shenanigans and found family ensue.

100% wholesome stuff. uh huh. yep no angst at all don’t worry

I’ve actually doodled some designs for some of the characters. I’ll make official like refs at some point but here’s the doodles for now

sorry about the bad quality lol. I’ll put the rest under a cut because it gets looong

Starting on the left page,

First is the “tinkering rat”

-is the most experienced one in living in giant dwellings as his family had always lived in such places until a fire separated them

-loves to tinker.

-becomes the unofficial leader due to being the only one with his own braincell. the others take turns with a shared one.

-stressed all the time rip

Second is the “garden fairy”

-spent most of his life living in a big and safe fairy colony. and while she’s not completely new to living on his own he’s still very inexperienced

-but when she’s good at something she’s good

-most notably is his gardening and general plant knowledge. But he has a few other random skills that can come in handy

Then on the bottom of the left page is the “anxiety rat”

-anxious and scared alllll the time

-is terrified of being left behind as that is how they lost their first family.

-very good at sewing and such. Despite this most of their outfits consist of squares of fabric they fold/tie in certain ways.

Onto the right page at the top we have the “trash fairy”

-most chaotic of the bunch. And causes the most trouble as she has the habit of needing to get her claws on whatever catches her fancy

-sometimes it makes sense like shiny coins or jewelry but other times it’s rocks and weird sticks or even something like mold

-hates shirts with a passion. The only things she allows on her chest are scarfs.

-her wings are slightly misshaped so she has trouble flying

-is very cagy about her past. Up until she randomly and nonchalantly brings up the most tragic thing you’ve every heard. And then she’s right back to stealing something shiny from your bag

Under her is the “amnesia rat”

-he comes in later in the story, and is rescued by the others. Either because he had been captured or had been injured.

-either way he had a spell put on him that caused him to forget who he is

-completely out of his element. He ends up mostly just following the others around. Helpful when he’s keeping tinkering rat from getting too stressed unhelpful when he goes along with trash fairy’s latest scheme

-wears doll pajamas all the time. He gets anxious when he doesn’t have them on and he doesn’t know why.

And finally on the right is the “outdoor rat”

-spent all of her live outside, mostly by herself. She has a hard time working with a group because of that.

-she still cares for the others very much. but just has a hard time showing it sometimes

-has the most life experience and survival skills. Namely combat, cooking, and basic medical knowledge

-hella strong.

-the only one that regularly wears shoes

Now i haven’t ~super~ fleshed out the giant family. There’s not going to be a ton of focus on them (in fact most of them will never be named because the tinies never find out lol)

But the general gist is that

-There’s four main family members. The father, mother, daughter, and son. They’re humans, and more may show up (like a grandfather, uncle etc.)

-they’re currently living in old family manor that had been somewhat neglected. This is due to the family at large being in a decline.

-They are a family of mages, and the decline is because of a lack of magic in their recent times. Less magic users being born to the family, no new discoveries or spells made, etc.

-due to this and the fact that their family name sounds like rat (not sure what it is exactly yet) the father is very unhappy at the idea of even a single rat in his house. And is just generally stressed about how others perceive him and his family

-I should clarify that the rats aren’t actual rats. They are a kind of fae that look like rats. I don’t know what their actual name will be. Maybe Meece? seems silly tho lol

-anyway, regardless they are often treated like rats. Mostly because they tend to live like regular rats so people often never find out they weren’t.

There are also a few staff members that live in the house.

-Right now there’s three or four. Two maids, a mage, and maybe a butler.

-the mage is the only one i’ve actually fleshed out lol. I have a doodle of him too, mostly because he’s a “dragon”

(why is the pic soo big jeez)

-okay he’s not a dragon he’s a koblod, but he is tall for one. And technically not a mage but a potion maker. Alchemist? I’m not sure what I what him to be referred to as lol

-used to be a traveler, going around and selling potions he made. He’s very skilled at what he does, but sometimes the potions wouldn’t be the safest. Because he’d scam people lmao

-despite this he was hired by the family to basically make bulk potions for them to sell so the father is free to make magic discoveries

-he also ends up being the one the father sends to deal with the rats most of the time. So he ends up being the main antagonist

-due to koblods being cold blooded, his cloak has magic that keeps his temp regulated. The sun warms and the moon cools, both spread through the stars all over. (oh I just realized I drew suns on both shoulders oops)

-very grumpy. In general but he doesn’t particularly like his current situation but it’s the best he’s had.

And that’s about what I have so far. Hopefully i’ll have the ability to make the official designs/refs for these guys. They are haunting my brain and I want to make them physical lol

#g/t concept #original characters #g/t ocs #Rat Manor #is probably what ill call the story #as a whole #i did not realize how much #ive actually thought of until i #wrote this lol #naming everyone is going to be so hard

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fma03envy · 2 years ago

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Part 2: Goodbye Despair

Hajime: Weird weird weird. NOT his color and that design is a. questionable choice

Nagito: I really don't feel like blue is his color? Like this outfit looks kind of too Put Together Nagito has to be at least a little disheveled. Slight points back for being trans colored here though

Ultimate Imposter: Ok first before the stuff with their outfit their neck is drawn so weirdly. Like you can sort of see it here but even more in other sprites that the artists don't know how to draw fat people. Aside from that this outfit looks. Not great. I don't see why they should have to be mimicking Byakuya here. This is like Mukuro two except that unlike Junko Byakuya has bad taste

Gundham: Okayyyy but they could do more. Seeing this I think "why does he have so much less clothing weighing him down I bet he's understimulated". He needs a big jacket.

Kazuichi: I really like this one! Something about the neon colors + how the fabric folds make it look thin and cheap, which fits with his thing of not having money. Also, it's just neat aesthetically

Teruteru: I hate this guy but this is very good character design and I'm mad about it

Nekomaru: In character. His design always makes me think of Spirit Halloween somehow and this is no exception

Fuyuhiko: I'm annoyed they didn't give him a jacket. Iirc he's never been shirtless before, even in omakes where every1 else is, saying he doesn't want people to see if he has tattoos. But that absolutely helped fuel my transmasc headcanon for him so showing him here shirtless (flatchested and with no tattoos) is a tad annoying. Also this swimsuit makes him look like he's the type of rich person who plays tennis

Akane: She wore this in the actual game but it looked bad then and still does now. Her 🤝 Nagito why do they think light blue is your color it's not. Also I feel like an ultimate gymnast would be more muscular

Chiaki: Pretty and matches with her pastel aesthetic. I like it

Sonia: I really can't imagine her in all pastel pink it doesn't really feel formal or regal enough. Like this gives off little mermaid-y princess vibes as opposed to actual ruler princess vibes

Hiyoko: Baby girl. Baby. This outfit is ok and I like how her suit has a cat design like her hairclips. Main critiques here are that a) she feels underdressed and b) her bows are the same color as her suit in some sprites but not others which really bothers me.

Mahiru: I never quite understood Mahiru's design aesthetically and I'm not sure I do here either but it? Kind of works in a strange way??? Pls be careful with your camera near the water though beloved

Mikan: >:( This is the most underwear-looking swimsuit yet COME ON. We can do better I'm SURE good menhera-y swimsuits exist

Ibuki: Cute! I like it and think it works with her aesthetic <3<3<3

Peko: Eh not big on this. I feel like she'd probably prefer something more covering given how her normal outfit shows so little skin. They could've at least made the ribbons on it white to match in her hair and on her sword case

(love that in the list I'm using to order these he's not put with the other guys but instead with the girls. Top 10 Izuru genderqueer moments)

Izuru: Yeah he'd wear this and it's fine. However, I can't shake the idea of him just. Showing up to the beach in his normal suit and tie out of my head I feel like he'd do that

(why does the wiki separate her sprite galleries)

Usami/Monomi:

Absolutely fitting/in character, except that I don't get why Usami's outfit would be different here than in dr2 since that's already beach-y but like. Whatever I'm getting too nitpicky

Additional note: I wish Ryoko could've been here. Ik she's not as well known but if both Hajime + Izuru can be here both her + Junko should be able to be here. Let it never be said I don't pick favorites

Bored so I'm stating my thoughts on every DRS swimsuit sprite

(Part 1: THH)

Makoto: it's like. Fine lol. Kind of generic but totally fits with his "totally average high school student" thing

Taka: Accurate. Next.

Byakuya: Torn between "this looks stupid" and "it's Byakuya we're talking about here, of course he'd wear something stupid and think it would make him look more refined ". Like this looks bad but it's absolutely in character

Mondo: Eh. Feels almost kinda young for him but I don't really have any better ideas and it does fit his color scheme well

Leon: Vibe feels vaguely off™ somehow but I couldn't tell you how. I'll take it ig

Hifumi: Fitting. No actual complaints here to speak of

Hiro: I guess I get what they were going for but this is too patterned and also not his color scheme at all. Maybe I'm just saying this bc I think orange and green basically never match but yeah

Chihiro: BEAUTIFUL AMAZING SHOWSTOPPING PERFECT. My favorite outfit so far. Dr may have utterly failed in basically every aspect of Chihiro's writing but they did not fail with this outfit she looks amazing

Sayaka: This looks dumb sorry. Idk what they were going for but like. Why. The top and bottom of her suit don't even match? (Admittedly her hair being draped over her shoulders weirdly like that is just for this sprite not all of them but still)

Kyoko. Like. Technically it's better than Sayaka's aesthetically in that at least it matches with itself and her hair ties (in most of the sprites at least. For some reason they're discolored in this only fullbody one.). Still. The thing about me is that I have trouble imagining Kyoko wearing literally any feminine clothing ever so I see this and my mind just goes "OOC" even though she literally also dresses fem in canon

Hina: Worst one yet. She's literally ultimate swimmer why would she wear this it's impractical and dumb. Also the color scheme is soo different from the normal desaturated red+white+blue she normally wears. The bandaid is an ok touch but that's the only good thing about this design

(I'm sorry Toko's expression is like that; this is the only close-to-fullbody DRS sprite on the wiki)

Toko and Syo (kind of the same outfit so I'll judge it together): I really like this one! Toko having a skirt thing so no one can see her tallymarks but Syo taking it off is a good touch. I wouldn't have thought of blue as her color but it actually really works (and reminds me of Komaru's uniform...)

Sakura: Cute! Tbh a bit more frilly/cutesy than I would have expected but she looks nice :)

Celeste: SECOND FAVE AFTER CHIHIRO I <3 IT. Generally Celeste's aesthetic fucks so hard (only tiiiiny criticism I have is that the lace on her suit would look nicer if it was matching in size with that on her headdress)

Junko: Why so plain??? Like it really doesn't seem to fit with the gyaru aesthetic at all (admittedly I don't know much about said fashion subculture though so I def could be wrong it just looks very different to my eye). Like I feel like this is what Hina should have worn it looks like smth actual swimmers would wear in a race

Mukuro: REAL LIXED FEELINGS HERE. On the one hand, this is very fitting for someone pretending to be the ultimate fashionista; you've perfectly captured that vibe. On the other hand, why should she have to pretend to be Junko in this context whyyy. (So like generally this aesthetic is good but the "Mukuro is butch" part of my brain is NOT a fan she shouldn't have to wear that)

Monokuma: Sure lol. this is fine

#adrien says stuff

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powdermelonkeg · 3 years ago

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So, BO2W Breakdown

Buckle up, this is gonna be a long one.

Here we’ve got Ganon’s...energy taking over Link’s arm. Ordinarily, I’d call it Malice, but based on what it turns into, I’m just going to be calling it corruption. We don’t get much information from this scene besides this expression:

Link’s grabbing the corruption with his other hand, and wincing. It looks painful. I personally think it’s for cinematic effect that it was included, but it COULD be a gateway into a Phantom Hourglass sort of mechanic--Link has to function on a time limit, or using the corruption’s power could drain his life.

Next we’ve got a closeup of Ganondorf. F in chat to the rehydration theorists.

And the closeups of his jewelry. The only significant thing I can see is his necklace, which looks like a cross between the Gerudo symbol and a Fleur de Lis:

But what I’M most interested in is this tie on his belt:

For one, it’s WAY bigger than it needs to be, and that’s deliberate. Ganondorf’s got a jewelry aesthetic he’s already hit above; everything else is gold, why not this bit?

Most importantly, you can barely make it out, but the designs either look Sheikah or Zonai--they’ve got that same kind of swirly busy pattern to them. The red tint and tan-ish lines in it makes me think it’s possessed Sheikah tech.

Next, we’re shown Zelda falling. This looks like it happens right after these two caps from the first trailer:

So we reach for her as the ground collapses, and evidently, we fail to pull her back up. So my next question for that scene is going to be what the in-game reason is for us not diving in right after her. Maybe we won’t get one, since the appeal of the original BOTW was that you could fight Ganon whenever you wanted.

Up next, we’ve got a skydiving shot:

The first thing to notice is that Link’s pose while skydiving is just about identical to his pose in Skyward Sword:

Second is that, yes, he’s falling towards a floating island, and that in itself is noteworthy, but he’s FALLING. There’s something either above him that he jumped off of, or a force that carried him high enough TO fall, and I doubt Nintendo’s encouraging magnesis flying.

So, there’s a few options: Loftwings making a return (which is unlikely, but a hope I have), something like Revali’s Gale boosting Link up for a cinematic shot, indicating that the corruption arm has that kind of power, or islands higher than the one shown here.

Now the island itself:

In Skyward Sword, Skyloft looks like this:

And (spoiler alert) we loose this island here over the course of the game:

Now, it’s not a PERFECT 1:1 match, as most things between games aren’t, but a quick rotate and overlay shows it’s got the same kinds of shapes between the two. The same “W” shape along the eastern side, the same tiny island off the northeast point, the same relative edges.

Now, I don’t know what happened to the plaza at South Skyloft, or the Knight’s Academy isle, but it could very easily be drift away from the central island.

The presence of other islands through the clouds seems to support that theory. Now let’s look at Link here:

The outfit is new. We haven’t, to my knowledge, seen one of this design in other games. My gut reaction to this image was “oh, we go back in time and we’re the first hero now!” because it’s vaguely reminiscent of Tapestry Hero.

But upon closer inspection, that theory’s null and void. Under Link’s tunic in the image above, you can see that he’s still wearing the shorts he woke up in in the first game. So either Sheikah boxers haven’t changed in 10,000 years, or it’s taking place in present day. Jokes aside, I’m curious to know if the outfit he’s wearing is modeled after Tapestry Hero.

Next thing to point out is the obvious:

Link’s arm here looks less prosthetic and more...withered, I almost want to say. The corruption here’s made his hand look frailer, and armored them up with Zonai patterns before it fades out at his shoulder. Based on how the tattoos look, I think they’re an artifact of the corruption taking hold.

Also, the belt here:

Aesthetic purposes, or specific function? The presence of the second, smaller one on the side reminds me of Skyward Sword’s adventure pouch, which could be how the new game handles inventory size:

Next we’ve got another flying shot:

It seems like he’s flying towards Ruined Skyloft, and you can see the bottoms of islands above it, possibly meaning that the sky serves as more than just a hub world like it did in Skyward.

Now let’s look at the paraglider he’s using. It’s new.

This is how the paraglider looks in the original BOTW. It looks like we still have the Rito symbol in the center, but other than that, there’s a LOT of changes here.

First off is the color. We’re now blue and gold. The shade of blue makes me think of the Kochi Dye Shop’s navy blue:

So, possibly a dyeable paraglider?

The new pattern surrounding the Rito symbol makes me think that it’s combining the paraglider with Skyward Sword’s sailcloth:

Other than that, there isn’t much else to say about the paraglider besides the handles looking like they’re made of bone. Craftable paragliders? God, I hope not.

Back to Link:

Here we have him in different gear than the last shot. He’s wearing the snow boots, he has a shield with a stylized Eye of Truth looking upwards, and he looks like he’s carrying a traveler’s sword and an unknown bow. The presence of the bow makes me think that the shield here is a lower tier item, rather than this game’s Hylian Shield equivalent.

Now, let’s get a better look at the horizon:

The trees here look a lot like the smaller trees you can find in Akkala, but there’s a distinct lack of red among them.

Then it looks like we’ve got some ruins at the furthest isle.

Whatever the rock formations are over there, they don’t LOOK natural.

Another thing I noticed is the bottoms of the islands.

These look a little too geometric to be natural, too. Now, this one, I’m a little muddy on, because it COULD be a stylistic choice. But it also reminds me of the Shrines if you clip out of bounds:

And a little bit of the dormant Gate of Time from Skyward:

My money’s on the cube-like nature of the islands’ undersides being deliberate, rather than just a far-off render.

And then there’s this thing!

What is it? It doesn’t look broken at all; look how nicely the roof(?) is kept. The ribbing on the sides makes me think it might be a Zonai thing, but the shape makes it difficult to figure out. A giant temple? An airship? A sloped coliseum? This thing haunts and vexes me.

Our next shot is presumably from one of the islands, based on the color. Here we can see that there are definitely ruins all over the place. Link is in the same gear as before, so I won’t touch on him.

This, however, has my interest. The design here has more geometric patterns--Zonai ruins?

We’ve got another one off in the distance here. Sky checkpoints, like Sheikah towers?

Now this guy here. There’s a LOT to look at. First off is the eye design, it’s the same sort of upward looking one that Link has on his shield in the previous shots.

The energy that’s pulling this thing towards its base looks like the same green energy that surrounds the arm holding Gan in place in Trailer One:

This stuff. That, plus the fact that the robot has to be pulled into its base rather than just existing, implies that either A: Link activates it himself, like a trial thing, or B: that the green energy here functions in the same way Malice does in the original BOTW.

This pattern at its base is intriguing, too. I don’t recognize the gold symbol in the center, but the green around it reminds me of the portals from Twilight Princess.

Which, yes, everyone’s already said that the Twilight Princess patterns look like Zonai things. But another thing this weird dial thing reminds me of is from Lanayru Desert:

On top of that, the color palette of this guy looks like that of the Lanayru Robots from Skyward:

BO2W robot on the left, Lanayru robot on the right. Given that Skyward is a lot more vibrant than other non-Toon Zelda games, I think this is a fair enough comparison to draw similarities from.

And then we get a closer view of the sky ruins from the last shot. I don’t know if the geometric pattern in the corner is a deliberate carving, or wear from time, but since the pattern looks ALMOST mirrored around the corner, I’m going to go with the former.

A better shot a few frames later. The robot has HANDS, which I do not like in any way shape or form. However, we get a better look at the sky ruins.

We haven’t seen this style of stairs before, to my knowledge. The pedestal out front looks like a light source, and it has the same floral egg thing the robot above has on each shoulder; the eggs could easily be a power source for Zonai tech. And at the top of the stairs, we see a pedestal, backing up the theory that these ruins function as our new Sheikah towers.

This is our next shot. Which...

Unikoblins. Can we talk about that? UNIKOBLINS.

Anyways, Link is here again in his old clothes. This is a very early game shot, because his right arm isn’t corrupted yet; this means we get to explore Hyrule before we embark on the main quest. Which gives rise to a question: Where’s Zelda?

The hopeful side of me wants to say that she’s a tutorial companion, like Navi or Tatl, at least for the beginning here. The pessimistic side of me thinks that she’s waiting for us at a predetermined location, and this is just part of getting to her.

Now the unikoblin structure itself is built on a Talus, meaning that the dev team at least intends to have more inter-monster interactions. But if you kill the Talus, does that mean that the base falls apart, or does it just drop down as a separate entity?

Also, what are these background ruins? The one on the left looks like it’s a distinctly different style than the one on the right. It looks almost like a giant guardian arm.

Our next shot is Link’s arm getting corrupted. Which, first of all, the effects look beautiful.

Now, we can see a corner of Link’s hip here, and we know that this is his right arm. So Link’s lying down here. Unconscious? Knowing how Zelda games like to start with Link waking up, probably. Although it looks like at least part of his shorts got an update.

We can see what looks like circuits here. It looks a bit like the electricity puzzles you can find in the Divine Beasts and Shrines in the original.

Then we’ve got these strange symbols.

Whatever this circular stone he’s lying on is, it looks a lot like the Zonai puzzle from the “A Fragmented Monument” sidequest.

This one that everyone thought was the Mirror of Twilight for years.

Our next shot is Link using the corruption powers against enemies:

The spike ball itself looks solid; the question is, is this a duplication power, or a visualization of how the spike ball is set into motion?

We see it barreling over a poor Unikoblin or two, but I’d like to turn your attention to the Moblin and the background.

The moblins here have helmets, and the bases, while they carry the same design, look like they have more cause and effect in mind. The left base’s rock, for instance; that’s a lot bigger than the rocks we got to play with in the last game, and it looks like we can barrel anything in the screen over with it.

The helmet, though, concerns me a little bit. It looks natural rather than forged; like it’s the moblin’s horn, just very much deformed. Does it mean a harder enemy, or is it just for flavor?

Our next shot is this strange flower thing. Note that Link’s right arm is perfectly fine in this shot, meaning that it’s still early game.

This is what Link’s flamethrower looks like. And this:

Is Zonai art.

So the question is, what IS the flamethrower? My first thought was that it’s either a new item in its own, or it’s a Sheikah Slate upgrade. The latter might sound a little far fetched, but Link in this game is right-handed, and in BOTW, he always held the slate in his LEFT hand when using it.

We have more of the weird faded designs that we saw on the Sky ruins:

And we’ve got some kind of pedestal or stage behind the ground flower thing:

It looks like it’s either an altar or a grave, from what I can tell. The stairs aren’t the same design as the ones in the sky, and there aren’t any patterns on it.

More importantly, though, is that this place is underground. This could be a part of the game you’re required to go through, in order to get to Raisin Gan.

A few seconds later, though, we get our answer to what the flamethrower is!

It’s a shield!

Off to the left side, we can see pillars with more weird scribblings towards the top. These match the Sky ruins’ pillar shape, with a narrow base and a wider top.

Our next scene is...weird.

We see a puddle splash in reverse. It’s hard to tell if it’s actually water or not, but the design on the ground implies that it’s either been there for a long time, or that that’s a dedicated splash spot. And the quality and zoom makes me think that this is part of a cutscene. Return of the timeshift stones?

We then see Link...surfacing out of the island? I don’t know how else to describe it. However, his arm is changed again, and glowing, meaning that this is a corruption power. And the “water” he rises out of here looks a lot like the puddle in the last clip.

We get a good look at the Zonai Lights:

A Sky ruin that looks like it contains a room:

And a glimpse of other isles’ ruins in the far distance.

And then as the camera zooms out...

We can place a location!

We’re right over Thundra Plateau!

We also get a mildly better look at the back wall of the sky ruin, which looks to be some kind of table:

The next scene is Hyrule Castle:

The ground shakes and it starts to rise up. However, notice that the columns surrounding the castle are now missing.

We’ve also got red sparks in the air, like we would have in a blood moon. However, due to the sky color, we can assume that this is a conscious decision by Gan himself, and that he isn’t drawing power from his surroundings.

We then see that power bleeding out of the ground. It’s MUCH more red than Malice is, which has always been a kind of burnt pink-ish color.

However, even though Ganon lifts the castle up, he doesn’t lift it very high.

The castle’s about triple the height it was. But since we’re talking Skyloft levels of floating islands, this is still pretty ground-level. What’s interesting to me, though, is that in this shot, despite the game now being about sky islands that we should be able to see from ground level...there aren’t any here. This, to me, means that there’s going to be a sudden appearance of the isles in the sky, rather than them simply being accessible now.

And that’s the whole trailer! I have many questions.

My blog! If you have any opnions/questions/theories, feel free to drop an ask!

Part 2 is up! We missed a lot!

#botw #botw2 #bo2w #the breath just got wilder #breakdown #analysis #e3 #trailer #theory #zelda #loz #nintendo

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dinitride-art · 2 years ago

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okay but why did mike come off an airplane (an indoor space) into the AIRPORT (an indoor space) with sunglasses on (INDOORS) unless it was to hide his face when seeing his girlfriend (and his Will) for the first time in months

Ooh!!! Thank you for giving me an excuse to talk about the sunglasses. (Also I know we both know what’s happening in the airport scene, anon, but I’m going to go far to in depth, anyways :)

So, Mike’s sunglasses.

We see them first paired with his new outfit that contrasts what we’ve seen him in this season. The hellfire outfit and this one are very different and we’re meant to notice that. Argyle says, “it’s a shitty knockoff” to indicate to us that Mike is being dishonest in his appearance. And in the rest of his character.

He wears them when kissing El, showing us he’s hiding something. Sunglasses are commonly used for “shady” (lol) characters. Like spies and other untrustworthy or mysterious characters that we know are hiding things. In Men In Black, a main part of their design is sunglasses. They’re whole thing is that they’re hiding the fact that aliens exist and they tie the sunglasses into the plot nicely by needing then to shield their eyes from the memory wiping device. Also sunglasses are commonly found in portraying a disguise, also with a hat and clothing that you’ve never seen this character in before. It’s a classic.

Mike’s outfit is a disguise and we know that. It’s explained in the way he acts towards Will and El and how his demeanour here contrasts what we saw in the previous episode. We know somethings up because we’re being told that Mike is hiding something, even if not explicitly stated. (But it’s building it up to be explicitly stated, since Mike is never really explained to us)

But back to the sunglasses. They’re a part of the disguise established in the airport scene. They come back in the piggyback because it’s foreshadowing Mike putting the disguise back on. It is interesting that he hands them to El, and that they’re made out of a pizza box.

El knows that Mike is lying to her. We don’t know if she knows exactly why yet, but we know that she knows something. She and Argyle-

(wise fool; seemingly says nonsense and doesn’t seem to be entirely relevant to the plot, but is actually just a character that the forth wall can be broken through to talk to the audience. In King Lear, the Fool is a character that can be analyzed to death. Because everything he says means something to us- not to the characters in the story- but to us. So we can try and understand what Shakespeare is trying to say better. There’s more to that but it’s a whole essay I don’t have time for)

- have an understanding. That means that what Argyle knows- because he knows quite a lot about everything- El is starting to know too.

This is important because the symbolism of the pizza is connected to Argyle. It’s used when Argyle and El try and convince Mike to, “try before you deny” (and is connected to Will and Jonathan’s scene- but I already analyzed this so I’m not going to make this post any longer than I already have- this is why I have to do shot by shot analyses in chronological order, because I need to be contained.)

Mike is using the sunglasses as a disguise again. But we know that El knows it’s a disguise this time because of the pizza box.

The sunglasses-

*slides sunglasses over my own eyes to show I’m a cool mysterious character*

Are a metaphor.

#byler #mike wheeler #oh he’s hiding that he’s in love with his best friend #sorry #forgot to mention that part #it’s a given at this point honestly #ask

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goldduststevie · 3 years ago

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Rhiannon series (part 3/?): Stevie goes black

In the fall of 1975 Stevie meets fashion designer Margi Kent, together they come up with a look. This look would become decisive for Stevie's image, to this day.

In one of those first shows when Lindsey and I went on the road, I saw this woman walk by, and she was wearing a mauve chiffon layered midiskirt and high platinum cream-colored suede boots. I thought, 'I want to be her.' So when I joined Fleetwood Mac and I had some money, I went to a lady and I said, I want you to make me a raggy chiffon skirt that looks sort of like an urchin on the wharves of London. Stevie Nicks, 1998.

I developed [my clothing style] before the Rumours album with my designer, Margi Kent, that I met in the first year of Fleetwood Mac. I told her, 'I need to have uniform. We have to think of something that looks good. We can make three skirts, three tops, and have your shoes and your little, you know....a couple of wraps and jackets and you’re ready to go.' Stevie Nicks, 2001.

They decide that black is the way to go, and for the next couple of years, she would wear almost exclusively black on stage. The chiffon sleeves became even longer, the so-called batwing-sleeves. She could grab them and swing them around during a performance or throw them over her shoulder, sometimes she would tie the sleeves on her back. She didn't have one specific Rhiannon outfit yet, just a variety of flowy black tops and skirts that she alternated. The black outfit really shined during performances of the song Rhiannon, which took on a life of its own in those days. Here are two examples of what a Rhiannon performance looked like in those days: - Midnight Special, 1976. - Rosebud, 1976.

#Stevie Nicks #Fleetwood Mac #Rhiannon dress series

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muffinrecord · 3 years ago

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Characters that deserve costumes (not necessarily variants):

Nanaka Tokiwa. How the fuck does this fan favorite mastermind not have a single costume yet.

Mifuyu Azusa deserves a cute winter outfit. How does she not have a cute winter outfit yet??? Make it fluffy. Give it a moon and star theme to feed the yachimifus. make her regret being a fluff.

Kanoko Yayoi. Why does she not have a single costume yet??? SHe is literally the fashion designer??? game????

Kirika Kure. PLEASE GIVE HER A SCHOOL UNIFORM. IN FACT GIVE HER FUCKING ANYTHING SO SHE’LL SAY DIFFERENT LINES ON THE HOMESCREEN

Ui Tamaki. Why doesn’t she have winter clothes ??? this little baby needs to be warm??? and cozy??? you let Ui be cold??? u let Ui be cold in the snow???

Meiyui Chun: why the fuck does Meiyu not have a costume yet. Make her wear some cool business clothes. Like a suit or something. But give her a funky tie, so we know that she’s serious with a funny streak

Mayu Kozue: GIVE THIS SWEET CHILD SOMETHING TO WEAR OUTSIDE OF HER SCHOOL UNIFORM PLS

Juri Ooba: flamin’ hot cheeto bags. i don’t know who gifted them to her but she’s touched and she wears them everywhere. it’s like a little bell on a collar for cats, you hear “crunch crunch crunch” and you see her walkin’ down the street in her plastic cheeto outfit. literally recycling to save the environment.

Sakuya Suzuka: Make her wear a hoodie that Ryoko gave her that is simultaneously embarrassing but also very thoughtful.

#Magia Record #Nanaka Tokiwa #Mifuyu Azusa #Kanoko Yayoi #Kirira Kure #Ui Tamaki #Meiyui Chun #Mayu Kozue #Juri Ooba #Sakuya Suzuka #hmm took out the character hate #was unnecessary

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showtoonzfan · 3 years ago

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Discussing the clothing of the Hazbin characters Part One: Vaggie and Angel

So yeah I saw a post about how awful Viv is at doing research when it comes to character designs for people who were in different time periods, and I needed to touch up on that because oh my GOD it’s so true. Every time I look at each of these characters in Hazbin, I’m not able to tell which time period they’re from at ALL, I mean....can you? A problem we all know that Viv has is that she likes to give most of her characters bow ties and suits. And yeah, I like bow ties and suits as well but......she uses them wayyy to much, I’ll say why I mention this in a minute, for now, let’s start by looking at each characters outfits. Keep in mind I’m not critiquing the design, just the CLOTHES and accessories.

VAGGIE

According to the official HH Twitter, she died in 2014. Vaggie is your stereotypical goth girl character, the fingerless gloves, the choker, the striped stockings, it all screams early 2000’s emo girl, and I didn’t even get to Cherri bomb yet, not to mention Crymini. Without being petty, I feel like vaggie’s design would be fine.....IF Viv hadn’t of done this whole shtick before. Viv is obviously known for having most of her female characters look like this, even with ripped clothing, so now, Vaggie is just another eye roller for me. I guess you could argue the early 2000’s is ALSO modern but......we all know she only looks like this because Viv has an obsession with edgy teenage character designs, and Vaggie isn’t even a teen. For me, the dress is fine, but for the love of god get rid of the striped stockings and the fingerless gloves. In fact......this looks like something a TEENAGER would wear in modern times, and Vaggie’s an adult.......so yeah, I understand Viv was going for the whole “goth girl” vibe but I’ve seen redesigns of Vaggie wearing more accurate clothing, like these:

I DO NOT TAKE ANY CREDIT FOR THESE.

Anyway yeah, at least HERE the clothes look more modern. You could argue that giving Vaggie modern regular clothes would just make her look boring but...one, her original design already looks boring, and two, that’s what the SHAPE AND LOOK of a character is for. So yeah, in my conclusion, just change Vaggie’s clothes to look more modern instead of an edgy 16 year old’s.

ANGEL DUST

Alright, on to this unlikeable asshole. Angel is from the 40’s era, dying in 1947. He’s a mobster, er....former mobster I should say, so let’s look at his outfit. He of course wears a choker AND a bow tie, which is weird because both seem unnecessary. He also wears a striped suit, which Viv also has an obsession with, pink gloves, and boots. The first thing I will say is that I personally liked the OLD Angel, mobster Angel. At least when you looked at him, you could at least guess he was from the old gangster days, even with the same striped suit. First. I would have him wear the hat he used to, I liked the old hat Viv game him, because men back then wore hats like that, with the feathers and all.

Second is the suit itself. Striped suits back then were obviously common, so I wouldn’t take that away, but the stripes being sideways always bothered me. I will once again pull up some redesigns of Angel, ones I really liked.

I DO NOT TAKE ANY CREDIT

Now the thing about Angel’s clothes depend on if you want to have him wear something more feminine or not, for example, the fur coats I love, as you can see by doing some research of 40’s fashion. Most men back in that time wore these: Pretty simple right? In my opinion, Angel should have been wearing outfits like this, in fact, if I’m being honest, I prefer a tie over a bow tie, I just think it’s more accurate, and then we wouldn’t have a shitload of characters all wearing bow ties. Anyway, again, I feel like angels outfit would have been okay if Viv hadn’t of done this so many times before, she’s known to have a HUGE obsession with stripes as well and....ugh. I also prefer Angel smoking cigars more than cigarettes. I know it’s cliche but it fits for his mobster tone. But yeah, that’s pretty much it for Angel and Vaggie’s clothing. Again, you want to kinda TELL these two are from the time periods they’re from, so yeah, these redesigns and actual clothing suggestions are good examples of what I feel the characters clothes should look like, or feel like. I Thank you for reading, I know I don’t really explain things well, hopefully you were able to understand what I was trying to say, and stay tuned for part 2!

#hazbin hotel #anti vivziepop #hazbin hotel critical #vivziepop critical #hazbin hotel angel dust #hazbin hotel vaggie #spindlehorse critical #vivzmind #vivziepop #vivienne medrano #Hazbin hotel critique

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owls-den · 2 years ago

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Some Best Wishes HC of mine (mostly in relation with my coordinator!trip fanfic)

Hope you all are doing well!

So, over the years I've gotten quite the list of headcanons for Best Wishes (mostly for Trip because... I'm kind of a Trip simp and always have been). I'll try to write as many as I can think of in this post but first, thought I'd share some other art I made of Trip in another one of his possible coordinator outfits because I like to design those way too much.

Every day, I wake up, and I think about him. You just KNOW he was dragged all the way to the tailor by Georgia and Burgundy, complained the whole way through, and then looked absolutely stunning on stage. Now he's matching with his Serperior :)) (not exactly the proudest with this design, could be better, but hey I have all the time in the world to redraw if need be cause the brain rot ain't going away >:)))

Anyways! So here are some very quick hc of mine (mostly related to my fic and I'll add content as I go):

Bianca and Trip are childhood friends. Since Trip is quite inspired by Cheren (and Cheren in Best Wishes has seemingly no relationship with Bianca), I'm going to say that the two of them grew up together. However, Cheren and Bianca remained friends despite their very different personalities because of the presence of the MC so without them, I think Trip grew up to find Bianca obnoxious and distanced himself from her. She tries to rekindle friendship whenever she can but it's often returned with hostility. Her making it farther than him in the league and also her getting a job under Prof.Juniper right away makes him INCREDIBLY bitter.

Trip comes from a quite wealthy family (not exactly rich but high middle class) and his parents are not home often. He doesn't hear much at all from his mom but his dad does try to stay in contact. The two don't see eye to eye most of the time unfortunately. I think Trip tries often to call for their attention and contacted his father before the league to let him know to at least watch tv when he'll pass but he got eliminated before his dad could see him on air. F.

Georgia and Burgundy are 100% besties. Their relationship might have started as a bit rocky but after the Junior Cup, they both shared their numbers and started hanging out a lot. They don't exactly share the same interests and still like to make snide remarks at times, but they try out each other's hobbies (Burgundy drags Georgia to different expensive restaurants, Georgia goes to watch an action movie with Burgundy...) and in the end, they really grew to be extremely close. I like to think what really drew them together in the first place was their love of gossiping about their respective rivals.

I hc that Georgia became one of Brycen's students after the Junior Cup. What I mean by that is that she sought more understanding of ice types to become a greater Dragonbuster and asked Brycen to train her. He agreed and he mostly taught her martial arts in tough weather conditions. For this reason, whenever she joins Burgundy into Pokemon Contests, she wears her training outfit which is extremely similar to Brycen's outfit.

I haven't yet decided something: Trip wearing both a hoodie and a jacket. Either: -> The hoodie is sleeveless and thus it makes sense to wear a jacket on top -> Trip is always intensely cold and needs all those layers. -> It's a fashion statement. In any case it leads me to the following

Trip has a terrible sense of fashion. I'm sorry but what is that color scheme son. Like I love you Trip, but I cannot let that go. Burgundy will go through his wardrobe and faint. But not just that, he doesn't know how to arrange his clothes to make it look good. During his first contest, he wears a black very plain suit (that is totally not his size) and leaves the jacket open and the tie out. He literally has NO FORM, this makes him look like a s t i c k.

Burgundy always wanted to be a Pokemon Coordinator and only became a Pokemon Connoisseur out of spite. After the league passes and everything, while hanging out with Georgia, she might realize that she feels way happier now that she's not thinking about Cilan or continuing her studies as a Pokemon Connoisseur. She has no interest in going to school for more time so she was wondering what she wanted to do with her life. And then, lo and behold, she found some posters talking about Pokemon Contests being brought to Unova and this enighted something inside her that she believed to be long gone.

Alder was more of a father figure to Trip than his actual father ever was. Trip, very young, started watching Alder's fights on TV, never missing any matches, and meeting him was the highlight of his life. That's why he really hung onto the words Alder told him after all those years and also why he was so distraught to hear him misremember his name or just, outright, not remember what he told him. He hero worshipped him for years, putting him on a pedestal he obviously could never live up to.

Trip went to a school to learn as much as possible about Pokemons before starting his journey. I just feel like his "returning back to the basics" line is rooted somewhere and knowing how studious Cheren was (and how he went to literally build a gym/school for trainers) well it makes me come to this conclusion.

Burgundy saw what she saw in her flashback. Yes, I'm with Burgundy on that one and I think that no one would start an entire career on nothing. She genuinely was treated poorly by Cilan and his brothers and this hurt her quite poorly. Her resentment towards them is what fueled her to become snotty and arrogant in their presence and... well now that she's been away from them for a long time, she realized that she has become a way better person. Cilan really brings the worst out of her unfortunately. (I want to note I have nothing against these three, I just really like the theory that they're part of Team Plasma. They're cool :))

Trip is naturally short. Like I personally have hc ages for everyone to age them all up to be between 15 and 25 and Trip, even at 16, is around less than 165cm. Because we stan a short king.

Trip has no muscles whatsoever. This man does walk a bunch of course for his travels but unlike Ash, he never trains alongside his pokemons and I absolutely imagine him taking the train to go faster during his travels because he is w e a k. He has absolutely no stamina whatsoever and if he starts running, he'll start huffing and puffing in about ten seconds.

Alright! Those are all the ones I can think of off of the top of my head. I also wrote some time ago what I envisioned to be a "better" character arc for Trip to go through during the actual series but I'll put that in another post, this is already pretty long.

Don't hesitate to ask if you have any question about a hc of mine or anything really :)) Always a pleasure to read y'all!

#pokemon coordinator #pokeani #pokemon #pokemon anime #youtube #pokemon best wishes #trip #pokemon trip #rival trip #pokemon georgia #pokemon burgundy #pokemon cabernet #pokemon hc #hc #pokemon bw #pokemon art #pokemon fanart #owl does art #owl rants

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juniorgman187 · 4 years ago

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Serendipity (Reid Fic) Part 1

A/N: If you’re wondering if this is at all based on Rosie and Marco’s storyline in “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” then you should know - it totally is.

Summary: An FBI gathering brings Reader and Spencer together after years of distance. This one night changes not only their future, but their perspective on the past. Category: Angst, Smut, *NSFW content Pairing: Fem!Reader x Spencer Reid Content Warning: Mentions of traumatic childhood, child neglect, penetrative sex, unprotected sex, menstruation, pregnancy Word Count: 10.2k

I originally thought I would be able to fit everything into 1 part, but after further reconsideration, this will be a two part series.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　

Serendipity: (n). Finding something good without looking for it.

A word I would only come to truly understand many months from now on a warm Thursday morning in May at St. Mary’s Hospital.

But whenever my thoughts drifted back towards the past, I would always remember that this was how it all began - on a chilly Saturday night in the heart of D.C.

Not more than four hours ago, Emilia and I drove down here for an F.B.I function that hired us. Under normal circumstances, we wouldn’t have agreed to be the caterers for an event so far away, but we eventually signed on after learning that there were at least 600 people attending. That meant a considerable amount of customers and an exorbitant amount of money. Saying yes was clearly a no brainer.

Just to put it into perspective of how big this event would be, Emilia and I got lucky if we could park somewhere with 80 customers. 80. So this event would be colossal for us.

But who would have guessed that in a crowd of 600, I would run into the one and only - Spencer Reid.

To preface, this wasn’t just any old birthday party, parade, or festival. It was a celebration and a grand one at that. Considering it was a private event at the Washington Monument, we were given special instructions to abide by the black-tie formal dress code that guests had to follow, too. I guess the caterers can’t look like slobs in the United States’ Capitol, now can they?

I definitely spent more time than I should have deciding on what outfit to wear, but my conscientiousness, or rather indecisiveness, did pay off in the end. For I would run into someone worth the trouble of impressing.

My hair, unlike Emilia’s, was down and curled in big waves, and on one side, some of my hair was tucked behind my ear and designed to stay that way thanks to copious amounts of hairspray and an ungodly total of bobby pins. Emilia lent me a black, floor-length dress that had a plunging v-neck that didn’t fit her anymore, but luckily, fit perfectly on me. Although I would have to remember not to lean over too far tonight, otherwise, the customers might get a show they didn’t pay for. I, however, didn’t look half so good as my business partner.

Emilia was clad in a navy blue silk dress with puffy sleeves and a high collar; the dress clung to her every curve, including her newly protruding belly bump. She looked regal and pregnant all at the same time, qualities I hadn’t seen coexist in anyone but the Queens and Duchesses in England.

“Well, don’t you look hot?” Emilia purred, running her fingers through my curls, then letting them fall and sway back into place.

“Are you kidding? You are quite literally a sexy mama.” I gushed to her, receiving a light chuckle in return.

“Yeah, well, when you’re five months pregnant, tell me how sexy you feel in a tight dress.” She remarked, turning her back to me while she arranged all the supplies in the kitchenette behind me. But even as she faced away from me, she still managed to recognize the effect her words had. Maybe it was something in my silence, or our sister-telepathy, but Emilia immediately felt the room depress. In an effort to take back the remark that turned the room cold, she sweetly added while hugging me from behind, “You’re gonna be a mom one day, too. I promise.”

I leaned into her embrace, feeling guilty for ruining the moment while also feeling burdened by the reminder of the terrible reality I had to face every day.

Ever since I could remember, I thought I was destined to be a mother, but that destiny had yet to be fulfilled.

Emilia was born only three years after me, and though that age gap isn’t big enough for me to be mistaken for her mother, I, she, and our younger brother Saul would all agree that in many ways I was their mom. I was the parent our parents never were. I was there for everything - soccer games, dance recitals, winter musicals - never getting the chance to participate in my own, but always attending their’s.

I had to admit sometimes it was a burden, having to grow up so fast and help raise my siblings while still trying to navigate through my own struggles of adolescence, but I saw it as something I was meant to do.

See, I wouldn’t have minded all the responsibilities of being a parent so much when it’d be my own kids that I’d be fulfilling them for - when it would be by my choice to fulfill those responsibilities and not by unfortunate birth order.

However, as the years have gone by, my calling to be a mother has gotten quieter and quieter and quieter until eventually, I don’t think I’ll be able to hear it anymore.

It’s not that I can’t have kids, but the fear of rushing into having one is what’s stopped me from pursuing that dream.

As someone who grew up with divorced parents and practically became my siblings only reliable caregiver, I knew what having a baby too soon could do to a family. So rather than repeating history, I chose to wait to have kids. I didn’t want to make the same mistakes my parents did, and so I lived my life. I traveled all across the globe, I met new people, tried new things, I even started this taco truck business with Emilia.

But still that gaping hole in my chest remained. A hole that nothing could ever fill the way that a child would.

No amount of living could make up for the emptiness of a life with no family.

I could pretend all I wanted that I was happy living out my twenties, but the truth was I didn’t want to spend the rest of my years working in a food truck, amounting to nothing more than a mediocre cook and middling entrepreneur. That was never my dream - as exciting as it was.

My real dream was to have a good life. The kind my parents never had thanks to the unplanned arrival of me. The kind my baby sister was already living out.

“You know what? It’s a really nice night out. I think I might go for a walk. Do you wanna come?” Was this my blatant avoidance of breaching the subject of pregnancy? Yes, but it was also my escape from this food truck that felt like it was getting smaller and smaller and smaller by the second.

“No, I’m okay. I’ll just get everything ready.” Emilia resigned.

She knew why I was really leaving - sister-telepathy, I’m telling you - but she didn’t feel the need to acknowledge it. For that, I was thankful. Maybe we were better at communicating with no words at all.

I carefully stepped off the back of the truck, making sure to hike up my dress high enough so I wouldn’t trip over the mess of fabric when my feet hit the floor. The nippy December air felt like a cool balm on my hot skin. I was burning up in that truck, and maybe it was nerves or something else, but I just had this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. There was no explanation for it, but I realize now that the pit in my stomach was caused by something my intuition could sense but something my mind couldn’t understand.

Someone important from my past was here tonight.

As I sauntered around the monument, I took in the breathtaking view of the structure’s silhouette against the blazing orange sky that melted into an ocean blue. I regretted not bringing my phone to take a picture of it so I could show Emilia when I got back, but that one regret quickly turned into another when the night sky’s breeze brought a rude awakening. My body shivered at the frigid gust of wind that blew through and I suddenly started to regret not bringing a jacket.

“Are you cold?” A gentle voice asked me from behind.

I slightly recoiled out of shock of someone being there. When I turned around though, I couldn’t quite make out any distinguishable features. All I knew for sure was that this was certainly a man, and a tall one, too.

“Um, just a little.” I bashfully admitted, crossing my arms to hug myself and maintain some warmth. I hadn’t even thought about my dress’s plunging v-neck or the fact that I was practically squeezing my breasts together, accentuating them even further, but by the time, I realized, it was too late. He was already looking. But not at my chest. Somewhere far more invasive.

My eyes.

“Here, take my jacket.”

My small protests did nothing to stop him as he inevitably slipped the coat around my shoulders anyway. He’d come so close that I could finally see him and smell him. And let me tell you, if the sight of him wasn’t enough to break an overflowing dam of memories, then his smell certainly sent a flood that would.

“Oh my god,” I quietly gasped, my hand flying to my mouth to cover its un-ladylike gaping.

“Spencer Reid?”

I squinted my eyes and cocked my head even further to find evidence to support my assumption, and sure enough, I found exactly what I was looking for.

I was frozen in place as I deeply examined his face. My God! I mean, in many ways, he hadn’t changed a bit since the last time I saw him. Same dazzling hazel eyes. Same uniquely adorable nose. Same over-stimulated pink lips. I wonder if he still bit them as much as he did back then?

But at the same time, he was so different. Of course, I could still discern the same features I used to study endlessly back then, but his face had transformed into a man’s. He lost the glasses for one thing, but he also had a softer jawline, longer hair, and for lack of a better term, a beefier build.

He was all grown up now, and yet, I could still identify the same boyishly handsome charm that made me fall in love with him more than a decade ago.

“I knew it was you, (y/n).” He chuckled, sounding half proud of himself. My heart fluttered at the sound of my name on his tongue and the action that followed. With his eyes locked on mine, he tucked strands of my hair back behind my ears; it’s as if he were saying, “Let me get a good look at you.”

“How? It’s almost completely dark outside. You could barely even see me.” Certainly, you can understand why I was skeptical. Sounded too good to be true, if you ask me.

He shook his head lightly with a smile, seemingly questioning how I couldn’t possibly know the answer to that question. “No one else looks like you. Not even in the dark.”

His words spoke to a part of my soul specifically reserved for him. They were so genuine that I almost didn’t want to believe them because how could someone speak such lovely things and truly mean them? The world wasn’t that good a place. Certainly not good enough for Spencer Reid.

In that moment, I flew out of my own body and watched this entire scene unfold from up above. I could see the version of a girl I hadn’t seen in years, not since that last interaction with Spencer. She had these big lovesick eyes as she swooned over a man with just the same lovesick look.

The excessive upward tilt of my head and the way his neck craning down must’ve made it seem like we were about to kiss, but I knew better than to expect such a thing from Spencer Reid. And if anything, what we were doing right now was much more intimate than kissing.

“Wow, you ... you really grew up. You look great.” My own voice sounded unfamiliar to me after the words slipped from my mouth without even registering in my brain first.

“Are you kidding? Look at you! I mean, you are just ...” He paused for a moment to look me up and down, and I nearly shivered at the thought that he was practically undressing me with his eyes. “You’re absolutely beautiful. But you always were.”

I was almost completely in a daze when I heard a hideous squawk of a bird flying overhead. This wouldn’t make sense, but it nearly felt like a sign. Like the bird knew I wasn’t supposed to be there, reminding me of where I belonged - reality - not in this fantasy with Spencer.

“Um,” My head spun as I drew back from him. “I should probably get back. I’ll see you later.” I touched his upper arm gently as I passed by him, and it stunned me how warmth just radiated off of his body.

To my all too quick goodbye, he simply waved and watched me walk past him with a pursed-lip smile. And just before I got too far, I thought I heard him say, “I hope so.”

Though my feet were carrying me away from Spencer, my thoughts were only drifting closer to the memory of him, and we did have so many memories.

11 Years Ago ...

I was at the ripe age of 16 when I got my driver’s license. And to anyone else, this would seem like a given milestone, but to me - it was so much more. With the obtainment of my license, I also gained access to a whole new world. Opportunities poured at the seams. I could drive anyone and anywhere I wanted to and though it wasn’t true, it felt like I could do anything, too. But like all things good in my life, it fell apart in the face of responsibilities.

My newly obtained license was just another way for my parents to exploit me. Now, they didn’t have to drive Emilia and Saul since I could. Looking back, I have to wonder if the only reason they funded my driver’s ed classes were for the exact reason that if I took them, I’d sooner be able to take on yet another helping of duties they were too lazy to fulfill.

There’s one particular moment I can remember from this age and that same moment could also be regarded as the catalyst that would set off a series of events for the next 11 years to come.

It was the end of the school year and summer vacation was right around the corner. I was a sophomore at the time, and the prospect of being a junior the next year excited me.

To kick off the start of summer, Melody Hanes was throwing a pool party at her house. Everyone knew she was filthy rich because of a dead grandpa or some other, not to mention, she was also in student government so she had just as big of a role in school as her grandpa’s death did in making the Hanes family wealthy.

Though I never knew her personally, I did have third period chemistry with her for the entire year, and I sat right in front of her for pretty much the entirety of second semester. She must’ve only addressed me a handful of times, but she still invited me to her party anyway. Proximity, I had to admit, did play a part in that though because if I sat just a seat farther away, then I wouldn’t have been.

I came home that day, thrilled to tell my mother about my invitation. It would’ve been my first party that wasn’t a distant relative’s birthday celebration or a childish sleepover in elementary. It was my first real high school party, and for once, I thought - maybe I’d finally get the quintessential ‘high school experience.’

But of course, I never did.

As soon as I got home, I parked my car in the driveway, got the mail, and came inside the house to see my mother sitting on the couch watching TV, as per usual. While I was telling her about my invitation, she didn’t bother to lower the volume or even look away from the screen to give me her undivided attention, and when she did look away, it was only to take the mail from my hands.

“Your sister’s science fair is on that day, and you have to take her because I’ll be working from 1 to 7.” My mother never once looked up from the mail she was sorting through to address me. And her words, while incredibly monotone, were also spoken with such finality, like what she said was the last she ever wanted to speak on the topic. No room for discussion.

I’m not still losing sleep over it, but at the time, it felt like for once, I could actually just be a teenager and be young and reckless like everyone else, but that it was just taken from me. I never got the chance to be a kid again.

With the exception of Emilia’s science fair.

I knew my father wouldn’t be there, and obviously my mother wouldn’t, so I stayed to watch her presentation and to walk around the rest of the time. She deserved someone in her corner, and that someone was me. Even if no one was in mine.

As I serpentined through the cafeteria, a bittersweet feeling came upon me. From paper mâché volcanoes to potato batteries, I observed a childlike sense of wonder that I hadn’t felt for years.

Here, I was surrounded by children who got to be just children. They got to occupy themselves with trivial matters, like how gardens grow or if video games actually do rot your brain.

Their problems had solutions and their questions had answers, and it almost made me wish that I could revert back to a time where life was that easy, but I couldn’t because it never was … not for me.

So to sum it up, it was precious and heartbreaking all at the same time.

While browsing the fair, I stumbled upon a man that didn’t quite seem to fit in, and maybe it was my own unfitting appearance that made me recognize his. He could’ve very well been the brother of one of these children, but something about the way he was dressed and the way he carried himself made me highly doubt that.

He couldn’t have been a parent either, for he was not too far off from my own age, and if he was a parent of one of these eighth graders, that would have to mean that he had a kid when he was in kindergarten. So for all intents and purposes, he wasn’t someone’s brother or someone’s father. Who he actually was - I didn’t know, but I was determined to find out.

After that first observance, I spotted him a couple more times, but it wasn’t until we were looking at the same project that we actually spoke.

“Fascinating, isn’t it?”

The sudden sound of his voice alarmed me, but only because it seemingly came out of nowhere. Generally, before someone speaks to you, you notice signals that they’re about to, which helps you prepare for conversation. Whether it’s nervous twitches, a look in your direction, maybe even a small acknowledging smile, you’ll recognize they want to or plan to talk to you, but none of those signs were given to me. Even when I turned my head to give him my attention, he was still fixated on the project in front of us.

“Yeah, it really is,” I politely agreed. I awkwardly looked around the room as if I’d find an answer as to what to say next because I did want to keep talking to him, but the longer I stayed silent, the more I fear he’d begin to think I didn’t want to. With nothing else to ask but the question that had been bothering me since I first laid eyes on him, I simply went for it.

“So, who are you here for?”

For the first time, he turned his head to the side to look right at me. With a quizzical expression, he responded. “Oh, no one. I’m just a judge here.”

It was my turn to possess a quizzical expression. His statement wouldn’t have been weird, except for the part where any judge I’d seen or talked to were all well into their forties or fifties.

“Aren’t you kinda young to be a judge? You’re, like, what? Seventeen, eighteen?

“Nineteen actually. But I regularly come to judge the Summer Science Fairs here since I went to this middle school eleven years ago.”

Again, I would’ve taken his word for it, but the math didn’t make sense. “You were in middle school at eight years old?”

“Mhm. I ended up graduating high school at twelve.” He said it so nonchalantly, but for how big of a feat it was, I thought it would’ve deserved a more prideful tone, yet he still maintained such a cavalier one. Did he not think himself to be impressive?

“Jeez, you must be really smart.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets, which made me notice that he wasn’t carrying a clipboard like the other judges, which was probably another reason why I didn’t take him for one. How would he be able to remember the projects that he was considering for awards? He’d have to have some magical memory for that.

Before answering, he began to walk away, but nonetheless he continued addressing me, so I followed him where he went.

“Mmm not necessarily. My IQ isn’t high enough to suggest I’m a provable genius yet, but I do have an eidetic memory and I can currently read 16,000 words per minute, which definitely helps. I hope to be able to read 20,000 words per minute in the future.”

Despite answering my question, he only left me with many more.

“What is your IQ right now?”

“131.”

My eyes widened. Even I, with my limited knowledge on intelligence quotients knew that was high, especially for someone as young as he was.

“So what IQ score do you have to have in order to be considered a genius?”

I couldn’t help but notice how he barely took anytime to think before answering me. It’s like his brain just knew everything, right then and there.

“A score of over 140 is considered a genius or near genius.”

“Wow, so you’re almost a genius then?”

“Almost, but not quite. If I receive diverse stimulation at a consistent rate for the next few years, I predict that I’ll have an IQ of 180 or higher by the time I’m in my early twenties.”

You would think he would leave me speechless, but I still went on to ask him about what an eidetic memory was, and he explained to me that he could remember things exceedingly well, but that it was not the same thing as a photographic memory. He made that distinction very clear to me.

Our conversation droned on for the rest of the fair as we continued to circle the cafeteria. I can’t count how many times we lapped around the same projects, but we never seemed to run out of things to talk about. Once those first few seconds after meeting him, when I didn’t know what to say, passed, I never again felt a sense of not knowing. We could talk for hours and hours, and it wouldn’t matter. I would never get bored.

How could I? When I was with him, it felt like the rest of the world just faded away. Our discourse flowed so easily, no pressure, no awkward silence. It was just me and him, and if you ask me, that’s quite the opposite of boring.

That was the first and final time I ever truly felt like a kid. Just like the ones in the science fair. Not a care in the world except for my morbid curiosity of the marvel that was him.

Alas, all good things must come to an end, and I inevitably found myself being ripped out of my trance when I felt an aggressive tug on my sweater.

“We can go now.” Emilia interrupted.

I hadn’t even noticed that a majority of the poster boards were taken down and that an even larger majority of the people were long gone, too. I got so lost in the conversation that I didn’t realize we were one of the last people still there.

Emilia’s eagerness to leave was apparent as she pulled me away from my interesting conversationalist.

“I had a nice time talking to you!” I called out to him, walking backwards to lengthen the period of time I could keep looking at him.

“Likewise.”

I turned around fully just before I finally realized something. “Hey!” I yelled across the distance. “I never got your name!”

He bashfully smiled and looked down at his feet briefly. “It’s Spencer! Spencer Reid!”

I stood there for a moment, silently processing his name.

“What’s yours?” He yelled back.

I chuckled mischievously. “I guess you’ll have to find out next time.” My ambiguity puzzled him and intrigued him all at the same time.

“Next time?”

With the intentions of leaving him without a true answer, I simply turned on my heels and started walking away.

“Bye, Spencer!”

Even if he didn’t have an eidetic memory, I knew after that first day, he could never forget me.

- Present Time -

By the time I made it back to the truck, people were already lining up to order.

“Get over here!” Emilia squealed excitedly from the window, her hand rapidly waving me over as if it’d suddenly increase my speed. I ran back as fast as I could in a dress and heels and climbed into the truck, mirroring my sister’s zeal.

When I stepped in, Emilia took one glance at me and furrowed her brows. “Where’d you get the jacket?”

Had she not mentioned it, I would not have remembered the foreign fabric that wrapped around my shoulders.

“Oh, shoot!” I palmed my forehead after the realization dawned on me. I should’ve noticed sooner that I still had it on, but honestly, it didn’t feel unusual or out of place. It was comfortable and familiar, like it was meant to be there that entire time.

“I’m so sorry to do this to you, but do you think you can handle this alone for just a second? I have to return this to a friend.” I asked while slipping off the coat to ready myself to leave, even in the event that Emilia said she wouldn’t let me go. Luckily though, she understood it was urgent.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be fine. Just hurry back.”

I extended my head to look out just past the side of the truck to look for Spencer while still being concealed within the vehicle. Now that there were more people here, I wasn’t exactly sure I should be caught mingling with the attendees, so instead, I decided to search for him from the truck, rather than wandering around the party, giving the impression to the people that hired us that I wasn’t doing my job and was just here to socialize.

Luckily, there was something about my attachment to Spencer that was supernatural. I had this metaphysical ability to spot him even in a crowded place. I could find him anywhere. But whether that was a blessing or a curse was to be determined because right as my paranormal power kicked in, I found him. And there he was - standing next to another girl, a proximity much too close and a smile much too big to be anything less than flirtatious.

I paused to recall the image I had of myself earlier, when I floated up and out of my own body. I looked just like her - an oversized grin combined with lovesick eyes.

But that’s not the worst part.

The worst part was he was returning just the same look of attraction to her.

“Um, actually,” I re-entered the truck completely, tossing the jacket aside haphazardly. “I’ll just return it later.”

“You sure? You can go. I’ve got things covered right now.” She said between multitasking at a rate that even I, a very-much-not-pregnant-woman, could manage.

All I could mutter back without giving away the sharp ache in my heart was, “Yeah, I’m sure.”

_ _ _

After hours and hours of non-stop working, the night, at last, was coming to a close. The large crowd had sized down considerably, until I could no longer hear the sound of a thousand voices meshing. All the decorations were already coming down by the time Emilia and I finished packing up the truck. Without the hectic energy to cause adrenaline to course through my veins, it should’ve been peaceful, yet my heart was not at peace.

I couldn’t shake the gut-wrenching feeling of seeing Spencer with that girl, but that wasn’t really why I was upset. It was more about the fact that I’d actually believed for a second that I had any chance with him. I should’ve known he wasn’t single, and the fact that I let myself swoon over him again angered me all the more. If I ever had a chance with Spencer, the time to act on it was long gone.

Now, I had to live with that.

“You sure you wanna stay here alone? I’ll come with you if you want me to.”

Emilia’s question was referring to my proposal to stay in D.C for the night while she drove home. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, but I realized I couldn’t handle being in another suffocating car ride with Emilia. It had nothing to do with her - just that I needed alone time to process everything by myself. If I knew my sister as well as I thought I did, I knew she would’ve sensed something was wrong and tried to coax me into talking about it, which I was not in the mood to do. Plus, traveling for so long made me nauseous just thinking about it. Although, I didn’t have a plan, I knew that I just wanted to hail a cab and find a hotel somewhere here for the night.

“Yeah, I’ll be okay. Don’t worry about me. Call me when you get home.” I tapped on the back of the truck twice to let her know she was good to drive away, and I felt the car lurch forward per my request. When the truck finally did move, out from behind it appeared the tall figure of none other than Spencer.

I was surprised, but only for a second, when that surprise turned into pain once more. Playing it cool so my afflictions wouldn’t be suspected, I nonchalantly stated, “Here’s your jacket, by the way. Sorry, I forgot to give it back to you earlier.”

I extended my arm far enough so that we’d still have a great distance between us when he went to grab it, but sure enough, my actions were all for naught when he not only refused to remove his hands from his pockets to take it but also walked two steps closer to me than he needed to be. I looked like an idiot just standing there with my arm so outstretched, only for him to not grab it and to let it simply press against his stomach as a complete avoidance of getting it back.

“You were supposed to keep it. That’s why I didn’t ask for it back.” He curtly replied, finishing his statements with a cheeky grin. However, I wasn’t in the mood to return it. I simply stood there and shook the jacket in my hand to emphasize its presence.

“Take it. Please.” My voice was full of contradictions. I tried to be assertive with my command, and yet my plead only softened the order and showed a defeat I wasn’t even aware of until I heard how sad it sounded. “I don’t want it, Spencer.”

He no doubt saw the shift in my demeanor but still wouldn’t pacify me by taking the jacket. “What’s wrong? What did I do?” His voice got quieter, as if speaking any louder would shatter me in this fragile state of being.

“Nothing, I’m just tired and I want to go home.” This wasn’t a complete lie. I was exhausted from working for hours and hours on my feet with no breaks in between, but it wasn’t exactly the full truth either. He could tell.

“Just tell me what’s wrong.” He persisted. “Please.”

The only way I could describe what I happened next was like the vision of a boiling pot. Gradually, I was heating up until I finally got so overheated that I just boiled over and exploded.

“What don’t you get, Spencer? I don’t want your jacket!” Fury consumed my tone. “And I don’t think your girlfriend would want that either.”

“Girlfriend? What girlfriend? What are you talking about? I don’t have a girlfriend!” His words were flying out of his mouth at 100 mph as he desperately trying to mend what couldn’t be fixed.

“Don’t play dumb. I saw you with that blonde girl. How close you two were standing, the way you were looking at each other.” Just having to recount the interaction made the horrid memory come back vividly into the forefront of my thoughts, and it broke my heart all over again. I shut my eyes painfully as though it would turn off the image of them together, but this only allowed for Spencer to wrap his warm hands around my upper arms and pull me closer to him without my knowing. I flinched unconsciously at the sudden feeling of his touch, to which he instantly let go.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” His hands shook with remorse for letting them touch my body in a way that elicited that reaction. They hovered in the space between us, not knowing where to go that would suddenly make things okay. “But she’s no one, okay? She’s just a coworker.”

I wanted to believe him. I quite possibly did believe him, but there was still a sharp pain in my chest. Call it intuition.

“No, she’s not,” I shook my head. “She’s not ‘no one’... you love her.”

Spencer came closer but still didn’t let himself touch me again out of fear that I might draw back even further.

“Listen to me - whatever feelings I used to have for her are long gone. She’s married, (y/n). She has a kid. And none of that even matters because the way that I used to love her is nothing compared to the way that I-”

“Don’t.” I held my hand up in protest. “Don’t say you love me.”

His eyebrows knit together with dismay. “Why? Why not? It’s true. I love you. I always have.”

With one big sigh, I finally resigned to my emotions. “Then why didn’t you ever do something about it?”

Judging by the deflation of his shoulders and the far off look he got in his eyes, he knew exactly the moment I was talking about.

Two days after Emilia’s science fair, I drove to the library to pick up books I needed for my summer homework. I was already on my way out when I just happened to glance to my side, noticing a lone figure sitting at the bus stop. I didn’t think anything of it, but when I looked back, I partially recognized him. I shaded my eyes from the sun and squinted harder to confirm my suspicions.

“Spencer?” I wondered out loud.

The figure’s head turned around, narrowed their eyes, and waved. He stood up from his seat and made his way over to me with a precious little jog-walk. Although we had only met once before, we still embraced each other like lifelong friends.

“Do I finally get to know your name now?” He jokingly inquired after pulling away.

It completely slipped my mind that I’d denied him the knowledge of my name, but for my own satisfaction, I wouldn’t let him get off that easily.

“Do you have any guesses of it could be?”

He pouted childishly. “Are you kidding? In a population of 350 million people, there would be about 4.4 million names. But if every country on Earth had the same nominative diversity we in the US have, that would suggest about 750 million unique names exist.”

I must admit it was fun watching him melt into a flustered mess of facts, but I was growing just as impatient as him. “Come on, just guess. You might be right.”

He rolled his eyes but indulged me willingly anyway. “Okay ... um ... Catherine.”

“Nope.”

“Nicole.”

“Nope.”

“Gertrude.”

“Seriously?” I raised my eyebrows. He shrugged. “Nope.”

“Olive.”

“Pretty,” I smiled, making his face light up, too. “But no.” His smile fell.

“This is nearly impossible.” He sighed.

“Nothing’s impossible.” My delivery wasn’t as cheesy as the line itself, so it touched us both in a way that made that silly phrase feel like it’d never been said before. With a visible passion reignited in him, he continued.

“Francis.”

“Okay, maybe this is impossible.”

My blunt joke brought us closer together, our heads almost knocking into one another’s as we clutched our stomachs and leaned forward to support our all-consuming laughter. When we finally calmed down, I finally confessed.

“Okay, okay - it’s (y/n).”

He stood there completely silent. There was no expression of his face that indicated he planned on speaking, so I elaborated. “It’s not as good as the name Spencer, I know I know -”

“I’ve never known anyone with that name before.” His hushed voice cut into mine so innocently.

My cheeks heated from the slight compliment. “Well, now you do. And don’t you forget it.” I teased. With nothing further to say, I brushed past him to start walking away, when unconsciously, I spun my keys around my index finger and heard the familiar jingle of the metal, reminding me of something.

“Hey, Spencer?” I turned on my heels. “Can I give you a ride home?”

And so began our routine for the entire summer. I would bring my summer homework to the library, and Spencer would help me understand it, or even complete it, and then I’d give him a ride home. We’d go to the park and read, or we’d go to the movies, or we’d hang out at a diner. And each time, I’d drop him off.

The more time we spent together, the more I learned about him and his life. He told me about his mom, his dad - everything. I did just the same. I told him about my mom, my dad, my siblings - everything.

Perhaps we enjoyed spending so much time together because it was a sweet escape from our houses that weren’t homes. But every time we did hang out, we just got closer and closer, and by the end of the summer, I knew my feelings perfectly clear.

I love Spencer.

If missing that pool party at Melody Hanes was what it took to find the absolute love of my life, then what a small price to pay it was. I wouldn’t have traded a million pool parties for that one chance encounter with Spencer at the science fair.

One day, we were pulling into his driveway after having a picnic at the country club, and I’d just let him out of the car, when unconsciously, I said, “Bye, Spence! Love you!”

He caught the words faster than I did. He looked like a deer in headlights, and it took me at least two seconds more to figure out why. That entire day I’d been thinking about saying it, but by the end, I decided it’d be better not to, and yet, it just came out anyway.

“You love me?”

There were two ways I could’ve answered. The first was to deny it and say that I only meant that I loved him like a friend. The second was to be brave and validate my unintentional confession.

In the heat of the moment, I chose the latter.

“Yes.” I nodded, smiling from my own courage. You only live once right?

In a cruel twist of fate, Spencer never tried to speak, and instead, ran to his front door.

“Spencer!” I yelled. “What are you-”

He gave me one last look over his shoulder before he opened the door and closed it right behind him. That was the last I ever saw him.

I learned, that day, that you do only live once.

But you can die over and over again.

From that point on, he’s lived in my mind as the one that never was.

Regret and shame manifested on Spencer’s face. “I never wanted to hurt you.” He dejectedly began. “But I was young and-and dumb and just ... so scared. God, I was so scared.” He finally looked up, if for no other reason than to gauge my reaction. “I liked you so much, but I, I just couldn’t open myself up to the possibility of being hurt by another person I loved.”

Much like my own life, Spencer’s was riddled with traumatic experiences. Except rather than being expected to take care of younger siblings, he had to take care of his mom. And having to be a parent to your own parent? That’s something I would never wish upon anyone else.

“I ... I get it.” It was a sweet surrender, my words. After years of pent-up aggression borne from humiliation, rejection, and deep sadness, I could finally understand. “But as selfish as it sounds, I wish your past hurt hadn’t gotten in the way of our potential happiness.”

He took each of my hands in his, encasing them with palms of warmth. “Then don’t let the same thing happen right now. Don’t let the stupid, broken teenager I was cloud your judgement of the man I am now. Let me prove to you that I’ve changed.”

I stood there silently, an eerie parallel to how Spencer reacted to my confession eleven years ago.

“When I saw you, it felt like a second chance. A second chance to do what I was too afraid to do back then. And I couldn’t let myself make the same mistake twice.” His eyes were piercing through my soul. Every word plucked at my heartstrings, until I could no longer keep up with the symphony they were playing.

There was the slightest hesitation behind it, but I did inch forward. And in no time at all, Spencer saw the movement and made his own.

His hands released mine and shot straight for my cheeks to cup them gently, while kissing me firmly. He wasn’t the same shy boy he was, and this kiss was only proof of that. The way his lips were moving so fervently made me weak at the knees. He was so desperate and needy, like even with our lips touching, he still wasn’t close enough to me. Unleashed upon me was years of yearning wrapped in prominent lust.

“I love you.” He blurted clumsily on my lips. I didn’t return the sentiment, but that wasn’t why he said it. He wanted to say it so I’d know, not so that I’d say it back.

“You should know,” I muttered between kisses. “I’m not leaving D.C. until tomorrow morning.”

The biggest smirk creeped onto his face. Bastard.

Once we’d exhausted all the things we could possibly do in public, we ran to the nearest cab we could find and exhausted all the things we could do in that, too.

It was already past midnight when we arrived at Spencer’s apartment, and though we should’ve been quiet so as not to disturb the neighbors, we were still breaking out into a fit of giggles like a bunch of teenagers sneaking around as we ran up the stairs. We hadn’t even made it past the doormat, before he seized my hips in his hands and spun me back towards him. Forcefully, he pressed me against the door while simultaneously unlocking it. That shut me up real good, lemme tell you.

As soon as we crossed the threshold, he gave me a reprieve when he held me closer so as to stop pinning me against the door. In an effort to do the impossible, we stumbled through his apartment in a frenzy trying to undress each other while maintaining our bodily contact. With one giant tug of the zipper on my back, my dress fell to the ground. To his atonement, he left me in just a thong. Whereas he was much too overdressed in my opinion.

No sooner did I gracelessly unbutton his shirt than we ran into a plant against the wall. Our smiles practically ruined the kiss at the sound of the crash, but it remained nonetheless. I knew I was in for something, when Spencer paused to wait for me to unbuckle his belt. That was the first time we ever really stopped in place, but just as I anticipated, I was in for it.

When I finally freed his waist of the garment, he just as quickly placed his hand on the back of my thigh, and in one swift motion, hoisted me into the air high enough to allow my legs to wrap around his waist. My arms were loose around his neck and the feeling of his warm hands touching my bare skin sent a chill down my spine.

Due to Spencer’s essential hand placement on my body, I had to be the one to fumble with his bedroom’s doorknob until it finally gave way. Once more, we staggered through his room before he let our lips break apart to lightly toss me onto the bed. I giggled at the squeak of the bed, driving him visibly crazy.

He hastily unzipped his own dress pants, while I propped myself up on my elbows. When he met me on the bed, he hovered over me to the point of having to lay back down again just to see him clearly. He felt too far away so I drew him nearer by lacing my hand through his soft curls. I twirled one around my finger, which must’ve been too merciful for him to handle.

He placed his hand on the back of mine and slid it down to his cheek. He held my hand there for a moment, leaning into the skin of my palm prior to placing a chaste kiss on it.

He didn’t need to say it again for me to know what he was thinking.

I love you.

The anticipation was killing me and in the most impatient manner, I pulled him down to my level, mimicking his similar habit of face-grabbing during a kiss. I knew his hands would’ve flown to my face the way they did just minutes ago, but one was too preoccupied keeping himself up and the other was busy toying with the band of my thong. I shivered at the sensation of him slipping one finger under the material and letting it glide over my tender skin right above my heat.

“Spencer,” I mumbled in a kiss to bring his attention back to me. Although I was certainly interested to know the hidden talents of Spencer Reid and his fingers, I was restless. I’d been waiting years for this moment, and unlike most people, I didn’t want to wait another second. “I need you now.”

He pulled his head back so he could get a full view of my face to examine my sincerity. He wanted to know if I was sure, and my eyes told him such. He nodded in acknowledgement with such speed that I was sure he was craving this as much as I was.

Rather than looking at where our bodies were about to meet, I had to close my eyes so I could fully feel everything without any other sense taking that away from me. In a painfully slow manner, he lined himself up at my entrance. At first, he only lightly pushed in, and it was this slacken movement that made me cry out and grip his shoulders for stability.

He pushed further in until he was fully sheathed inside of me. There was a slight moment of regret for not letting him engage in foreplay before, but that quickly went away when the pain turned to pleasure. He gained more confidence in himself with each stroke, and I could feel it. The more powerfully he thrust, the more I felt myself tightening around him. The over simulation was a stark contrast from the stimulation I denied and so the sensation I was feeling was only heightened by the absence of it before. For that very reason, I knew I was already close. And maybe he knew it, too and just as sweet revenge, he decided to send me over the edge by pulling my leg over his shoulder to thrust into me a new angle. As I’m sure he predicted, I threw my head back as tears began to prick the corners of my eyes. He rode the ever exquisite border between pain and pleasure, and my tears were a manifestation of that. Not even a minute passed, before I tried to moan but pathetically failed, not even being able finish the pitiful wail without the both of us finishing together.

Our heavy panting synchronized and reverberated back to us while he slowed down his pace and pulled out.

Perhaps in the heat of the moment, we lost all logic and reason, considering that even up till now, neither of us had realized that he didn’t use a condom.

But what would eventually happen in the future as a result of this action, or inaction, would surely make us remember.

Spencer lowered himself down to kiss me breathlessly; strands of his hair clung to his forehead as sweat glimmered on both of us. Not until we were ready did we make our way to the bathroom so he could help clean me up. Once we returned, I gathered my clothes, but he made sure to grab my panties before I could even notice.

“Have you seen -“ I cut myself off when I saw what was dangling in his hands.

“Looking for this?” He teased.

All my energy had been spent on him that I couldn’t be bothered to fight for them back.

“Keep ‘em.” I smirked, my hand reaching down to pick up his jacket off the floor and hold it up. “Consider it a fair trade.”

No arguments from him.

Needless to say, I did end up finding a place to stay the night. Where and with whom you might ask?

Well, you can probably figure that one out for yourself.

_ _ _

I wish I could tell you I got a good night’s rest, and I could - it just wouldn’t be the truth.

Spencer and I spent the rest of the night just talking. We filled each other in on nearly ever second of the past 11 years, and once again, I found myself reverting back to the teenager I was at the science fair. The entire world revolved around us as we spoke to each other effortlessly, like no time had passed. Even in the periods of silence, I felt comfortable.

Spencer and I were lying on our sides facing one another when I felt compelled to profess that “I can’t talk this way with anyone. It’s just you.”

He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear with a small smile on his lips. He didn’t need to say that he felt the same way because I already knew. His hand never left my face but instead made its descent down my jawline and stopped at my chin. He raised his thumb to reach my lower lip, letting the pad of his finger graze over the soft skin of my lip.

It felt like he was tracing every detail of my body, running his eyes over every inch at least twice so as to fully commit everything to his memory.

At last, the tension broke when he positioned his hand comfortably at the back of my neck, bowing his head forward to kiss me. This one was quite different than our first, for it was gentler and warmer. We weren’t forcing ourselves to make up for lost time. In fact, this kiss was saying, “We’ve got plenty of time.”

Plenty of time indeed. Which we were happy to spend making love again.

And I will be the first to admit that if our first round of unprotected sex didn’t solidify our future predicament, this time certainly did.

Six Weeks Later ...

“Hello?” Clearly frustrated, Emilia waved her hand in front of my face to harness me back to earth. I hadn’t realized I zoned out until she scoffed at me. “Did you hear anything I just said?”

“No, sorry. Could you repeat it one more time?”

She set down the papers in front of her and sighed unhappily. “What’s going on with you? You’ve been so distant lately.”

It hurt to hear, even though it was the truth. I wasn’t intentionally being despondent, but it’s hard to be present when there’s so much occupying your mind, and there was one thing in particular that was keeping me up late at night recently.

My period has always been irregular. For as long as I’ve had it, I’ve always missed a few weeks, then it would become consistent, then it would be sporadic again. In fact, there was one year where I only had four periods total. So it didn’t strike me as odd when I realized three days ago that my last period was about seven weeks ago.

What did strike me as odd was the other symptoms I was experiencing. Menstruation cycles are known to closely mimic the symptoms of pregnancy, but with the knowledge that my period wasn’t coming, it was disconcerting to me that I was suffering the discomforts without the actual period itself.

To me, there was only one clear explanation for this anomaly.

I was pregnant.

Earlier in the day, I bought a pregnancy test and was late to work because of it. If Emilia hadn’t been suspicious of my behavior before, showing up late only made her suspicion greater.

I didn’t know when I’d take it, probably at home after work, but the anticipation was eating away at me. I would pace around the truck until Emilia finally told me to stop because the vehicle wouldn’t stop swaying with my every movement. I was biting my nails and chewing on each little piece that grew back just to bite it back down to the nub. My hands couldn’t stop shaking, my breathing wouldn’t slow down. I was a hysterical mess.

I didn’t tell Spencer any of my concerns, of course, but being as perceptive as he is, he noticed my strange mannerisms despite my best efforts to hide them.

“Your breathing just got faster. Are you feeling okay?” He paused the movie we were watching to check in on me one time. It should be known that the scene that caused my heavier breathing was a scene of a woman finding out she was pregnant and being absolutely devastated. I quickly brushed it off as just being too warm, to which he turned on his air conditioning. Luckily for me, he didn’t make the connection.

And it’s not that I didn’t want to tell Spencer - I really did - but why should I make a fuss about something if there ended up being nothing to worry about? That would just be extra stress, and the last thing a new, blossoming relationship needs is additional strain.

So without Spencer, I had to opt for the next best thing - my sister.

I’d reached my wits end, and I couldn’t keep up the act any longer. I was walking on eggshells with practically everyone I knew, and I’d sooner go crazy if I didn’t tell someone what I was really feeling. So in response to her question, I finally told the truth.

“I think I might be pregnant.”

You can imagine the shock on my sister’s face. Emilia’s jaw became one with the floor as her eyes widened so big I thought they would pop out of her head.

“You’re pregnant?” Already her eyes were welling up with tears of joy.

“I don’t know yet.” I put my arms around her to keep her calm and stable while the emotions began overpowering her. I wanted it to serve as a reminder to not get her hopes up, otherwise she’d get mine up, too.

“Well, have you taken a test?”

I reached for my purse behind her and rummaged through it until I finally retrieved the box. Holding it up, I reluctantly suggested, “I thought maybe you could be there for me when I did?”

She squealed with joyful elation, practically shattering the window pane with the high pitch of her voice. On top of that, she was jumping up and down with elegant grace that I had to wonder how her pregnant body could even manage to do such a thing.

“Of course, I will! Come, come, let’s go.”

We hopped off the truck and to the nearest restroom, which admittedly wasn’t the nicest of places, nor was the place I ever imagined as a child that I’d be finding out I was pregnant in, but it had to do for now.

When I first came out of the stall, I set the test face down on the sink, so that we wouldn’t see it until it was ready. Emilia set a timer for 10 minutes, but in the meantime, all we could do was wait. Neither of us could stay still; Emilia bounced up and down, rubbing her belly while facilitating some sort of breathing exercise. Meanwhile, I kept tapping my foot impatiently.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Emilia’s alarm scared the shit out of me, and we both were startled by the blaring sound. It was so jarring, but even that wouldn’t compare to the fear I felt when I realized it was finally time.

“Do you wanna look or should I?” She asked.

“You look.” I said at first. But when she lunged forward to take it, I did, too. “No wait, I should.” Then another moment of hesitation. “No, you do it. I can’t.”

I held my hands over my mouth while I watched her carefully lift the test off the sink, maneuvering it in such a way that only she would see the results. I watched her expression closely for any sign of a reaction, but she was stoic as can be. I couldn’t tell if she was disappointed, happy - nothing. Complete and total poker face.

“Come on, Emilia! What does it say?” I blurted anxiously.

“Well, first, what do you want it to say?”

That was a question I hadn’t considered. I was so busy worrying about what I didn’t know, to pause and think about what I wanted to find out. On the one hand, I’d be ecstatic if the test confirmed that I was pregnant. I’d jump for joy because that was what I always wanted, right? But on the other hand, if it said I wasn’t pregnant, then I’d be sort of sad because I got so close to that lifelong dream. But after that, I’d probably just be relieved to have dodged a bullet.

“I don’t know,” I confessed. “I don’t know-”

“Don’t think. Just tell me. What do you want it to say?”

Without missing a beat, I replied, “Positive.” My sister and I alike were stunned by my answer. “Yeah,” I nodded slowly. “Positive. I want it to say positive.” I repeated, to cement my earnest desire.

Emilia’s facade melted away as she began to shake her head. “I’m sorry, (y/n). There’s only one line.”

We both knew what that meant, even if she didn’t explicitly say it. I sighed dejectedly, which was a surprise to even myself. I didn’t expect to be this disappointed, and yet I was. The knot it my stomach worked itself free, and where that pit used to be was just emptiness. My heart sunk and steadied itself, and my breathing resumed its normal pace.

“Well,” I bit my lip. “I guess that’s that.”

Emilia instantly drew nearer to pull me in for a hug, one I was not ready to accept but welcomed anyway. “I’m sorry, (y/n). But I mean, sometimes tests just come out with false negatives.” With her face still buried in the crook of my neck in our hug, she mumbled, “Not this one, though. This one’s positive.”

Immediately, I retreated from our hug and pulled her in front of my view. The sneaky girl had a huge grin that took up 99% of her face.

“You’re pregnant!” She screamed at the top of her lungs, shaking my body violently. We embraced each other in another hug while simultaneously jumping up and down. “I just wanted to trick you so you would know how you really feel. Now you know!”

And I did know. I did know that I wanted this baby and that I was glad it even existed.

Not long after our mini-celebration did I start to come down from the high of my euphoria. A certain realization dawned on me like a cloud of gray hanging above my head to rain on my parade.

What about Spencer?

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　

PART 2 HERE!

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