#not the most well-put-together post but this is important to me | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

spookwyrdie · 2 days ago

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Yule Be Mine

Changbin x fem Reader

summary: you're bringing Changbin home for the holidays for a big family dinner, but you have a fun little stocking surprise to give him. /// word count: 9.9k /// genre: smut, fluff /// warnings: thigh kink, oral sex (f receiving), teasing in public, spanking, overstimulation, a little breath play (chokehold), piv, unprotected sex, a little dacryphilia /// a/n: I had a crummy Thanksgiving and wanted to write something both sweet and hot about my fave muscle boy. Love a holiday feast, in more ways than one.

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I have only posted this here and on AO3 - user: spookwyrdie

18+ content beyond the cut MDNI!

“Are you nervous?” you ask, hooking your earring in place, the final touch to your holiday outfit.

Changbin appears behind you in the standing mirror, sliding one hand around your middle. His fingers toy with the belt buckle sitting on the waist of your dark green sweater dress.

“Nervous about meeting your whole family? Nah, they’ll love me.” he says, sweeping your hair out of the way to press a kiss on the spot right behind your ear. “Your parents are already head over heels for me. Can’t wait to be the Fun Uncle for all your baby cousins.”

You grin as his eyes trail over the outline of your form, the softness of your body has him wetting his bottom lip. His gaze travels down to your sheer dark stockings, his big brown eyes mesmerized by you. You know how much he loves to see you in different kinds of hosiery, your thick thighs wrapped up like a gift for him to tear into. You grab his hand and spin around into his embrace.

“Good,” you mutter as your lips meet for a sweet, chaste kiss. You’re giddy with the little secret you’re going to surprise him with later. “Let’s get the show on the road.”

He’s the perfect gentleman as you start your journey, opening the door and offering you a hand as you slide into the car. Changbin’s cologne fills the interior, a warm spiced scent with a base of cedar that makes your head spin in the most delicious kind of way. You have half a mind to put off going to this grand holiday dinner, imagining how nice it would be to spend the evening in bed with the man beside you. Heat pools between your thighs, you rub them together to relieve some of the ache that settles there.

But, you made a promise to your family, a nervous excitement churning in your belly at the thought of everyone meeting him. It helps distract from the hunger that simmers inside you. Holidays are big and important for your whole clan, so it means a lot that he’s feeling confident about your relationship to come with you.

It’s about an hour drive to your destination, the cozy little home your parents have outside the city. Changbin can’t seem to keep his eyes on the road.

“Have I told you how lovely you look tonight?” he says, smirking as he tries not to ogle you in the car.

“You could always stand to tell me more often,” you tease.

“Well, then let me tell you now,” he says. “You look beautiful in anything, but I am a big fan of what you have on tonight.”

He takes one hand off the wheel and places it on your thigh, kneading your skin softly. You can feel the strength he’s holding back at this simple touch. The rest of the ride, he keeps his hand there as often as he can.

Gravel crunches under the tires as you drive up the lane to your parents house. The temperature outside has dropped, the air heavy with the threat of snow, so the warm glow of the home looks so inviting. He parks next to the other cars that line the driveway, unclipping his seatbelt and moving to get out of the car.

“Wait,” you say, grabbing his arm. You place his hand back on your thigh. “I have a little surprise for you.”

He raises his eyebrows with a quizzical look. “What surprise, love?”

You slowly begin to slide his hand up your leg, pushing the hem of your dress up. As you let go of his hand, he pauses and looks at you, silently asking permission to continue. You bite your lip and nod. His hand moves, following the path up your thigh, taking his time to really get the soft feeling of your stockings under his finger tips.

He gasps as he feels the edge of your stockings stop almost at the apex between your legs.

“Love…” he murmurs. “Are you wearing thigh highs?”

You giggle as he hooks one finger under the edge of fabric, pulling it away from your skin. There’s a small indentation where the stretchy fabric bites into the plush of your thighs. You squeeze your legs together, seeking any sort of friction as your clit throbs from his touch. Changbin’s breath shudders as he grips onto your soft skin, digging his nails in slightly.

“You are such a fucking tease,” he huffs out, smiling with gritted teeth. “How am I supposed to meet your family when all I’m going to be thinking about is your thighs wrapped around my head in these?”

“I guess you’ll have to figure that out,” you say, cheekily.

He releases your thigh, his hand coming up to grip your chin, pulling you in for a kiss. It’s like a sun burst, so much heat and energy radiating out of him in such a small amount of time as your lips clash. He nips at your bottom lip, pulling a small whimper out of you.

“You won’t get away with this,” he whispers against your lips playfully. “Just you wait.”

The giggle that escapes you does nothing to offset the spark of arousal that is building between the two of you. You would fuck him right here in the car if you didn’t think that anyone would catch you.

He gets out of the car and comes around to your door, helping you out and pulling you into his arms once more. Just then, the front door bursts open and your mother stands in the doorway.

“Y/n! You made it!” She waves you two over. “I was worried about the weather for you two.”

Changbin’s hand never leaves the small of your back as you both walk towards the front porch, sparkling with the string of holiday lights blinking in rhythm. Your mother pulls you into a hug, kissing your temple. “Dinner is supposed to start in about a half hour, but we’ll see how that goes with your father in the kitchen.”

She turns to Changbin, her eyes widening at his attire. His outfit is casual but pressed and neat. He had everything tailored exactly to fit his wide shoulders and thick muscles. His thighs, arms, and chest all strain against the fabric slightly, subtly showing off the strength he has worked so hard for. He made sure to coordinate with you, so there’s a small pocket square in his jacket pocket that matches the exact color of your dress.

“Changbin!” she exclaims. “I’m so glad you made it! I’ve been telling everyone about the handsome young man Y/n is bringing tonight.”

“Well I hope to live up to all their handsome expectations,” he says, grinning at you before your mom pulls him into an affectionate hug.

“Of course,” she replies, patting his shoulders. “Everyone will love you!”

She ushers the two of you into the house. The house smells like apples and spice. There’s a crackling fire dancing in the hearth. The scent of dinner wafts occasionally through the room. Your aunts and uncles and cousins are all there, sitting around the fire, the din of conversation filling the space as their bodies sink comfortably into the couches and chairs. You can hear your younger cousins running through the house, playing as they stampede through the different rooms.

The size of your family can be daunting, but there’s no hint of anxiety on Changbin’s face as you introduce him to everyone in the room. He makes his rounds, shaking hands, hugging, kissing the occasional cheek in greeting - he’s a natural. You feel yourself flush with pride at the sense of ease he has, turning on the charm.

“Does someone have an extra pair of hands to help in the kitchen for a minute?” Your dad hollers into the living room. Changbin is the first to respond, dragging you into the kitchen. After a warm greeting and a firm handshake, your dad piles plates, utensils, and napkins in your arms to set the table. As you move around the huge dinner table, Changbin catches your eye with a smirk. You’re alone for a moment in this room. He swoops down, gathering you up in his arms suddenly and kisses along your cheekbone.

“Ewwww!” One of your baby cousins shouts when he rounds the corner and catches you and Changbin in the middle of a sweet moment. “They’re KISSING in here!”

Laughter booms from the other room. The comfortable atmosphere and domestic care Changbin is showing you tonight is hitting you especially hard tonight. Your heart races a little as your feelings for him swell, woven together with lust.

You love him.

You want him.

“Dinner’s ready!” your dad yells, startling the two of you out of your moment. His cheeks rosy with exertion and his little festive apron smudged with gravy.

Everyone shuffles in slowly as your mom and dad bring in dish after dish, filling every square inch of the table until it’s packed with potatoes, meat, hot dishes, and multiple gravy boats. The feast is gigantic, the table itself nearly groaning under the weight of all the food.

You and Changbin take your seats near the end of the table, scooting as close together as you can so your legs sit flush against one another. The way your skin lights up at the smallest touches from him makes you feel dizzy. Everytime you hand him a new dish to pile onto his plate, he makes sure that his fingers brush over yours, lingering a little longer than normal. You’ve been together for just about a year now and he still knows how to make you blush like you just started dating.

Wine bottles get passed around, poured into vintage stem glasses. You take a small glass of one of the reds to sip on. It’s not like you need any alcohol to loosen you up, you already feel drunk off the warmth radiating from the man sitting next to you.

Once everyone at the table has a plate, Changbin takes a bite. His contented groan fills the room.

“Compliments to the chef!” he says after a few moments, raising his fork up as if to toast your dad across the room. “Y/n, have you tried the turkey yet?”

“Not yet, I’m still working on all my sides first,” you giggle.

“You have to have a bite right now,” he says, cutting off a small piece and holding up the fork to your mouth. As you open your mouth, his gaze drops to your lips as he feeds you the piece of meat and pulls the fork from between your lips slowly. His eyes darken, following your every move, clenching his jaw to keep his face neutral. That spark between you flickers again as you imagine something else he could slide between your lips. Changbin’s pupils flare in the low light of the dining room.

The meal slows until the plates are practically licked clean. Everyone is in a serene stupor, sipping on drinks as conversations overlap at the table. No one is really paying attention to the two of you.

Changbin shifts his body to face you, and decides to give you a little surprise of his own.

His hand finds your thigh again, trailing his fingertips around the inside of your knee. You shift a little, the light brush of his fingers almost ticklish. Following a similar path up your inner thigh, he traces over the fabric of your stockings, pushing the hem of your dress up slowly the higher his hand climbs.

This is so wrong to get so turned on while surrounded by your family, but you don’t want him to stop. He finds the edge of your thigh highs again, dragging his nails lightly over the sensitive skin that peeks out above the elastic of your stockings. You wiggle your hips and clear your throat, trying to play it off like he has no effect on you.

You hear Changbin inhale sharply as his fingers ghost over the sheer lace of your barely-there panties. You shoot him a bratty little grin, knowing how much his teeth must ache to rip them off. You pick up your wine glass and take a sip, pointedly ignoring his gaze as he continues to move his fingers against your most intimate spot. The thrill of doing something so dirty at the dinner table, possibly getting caught, heightens the feeling of every little touch.

He can feel the heat coming off of your skin, a damp spot of arousal already seeping through the lace of your panties. He casually shifts your panties to the side, pressing one finger gently but insistently between your folds, feeling how wet you are. You have to control the need to roll your hips into his hand, your legs quiver with effort. As his fingers massage through your folds, you lift the wine glass to your lips again, trying to hide the small moan that tries to leave your lips.

He finds your clit and gives it a light tap with his finger.

Your body jolts as you splutter into your wine glass as electricity shoots through your core and up your spine. You cough, having inhaled some of your wine, as every head at the table turns towards you suddenly.

Changbin’s hand was out from between your legs in less than a heartbeat, moved with lightning speed to your back where he gently rubs a comforting circle between your shoulder blades. He leans towards you, a look of fake concern painted on his face - as if he wasn’t the one pulling your strings, trying to unravel you at the dinner table.

“Y/n, are you alright?” Your mother calls from the other end of the table.

“Yeah, Y/n,” Changbin’s brow knits together with worry. But you see it. There’s a sneaky little glint in his eye, knowing that he got you back for teasing him in the car earlier. “Is something wrong?”

“Wrong pipe,” your voice creaks out between coughs. Your eyes water as you cough, but you give everyone a thumbs up to let them know you’re okay. You move to stand up from your seat. “I’ll be back in a bit!”

As you head towards the bathroom down the hall, the conversation at the table goes back to the volume it was before you made everyone stare at you. When you get to the small bathroom, you shakily close the door and lock it. The pulse of lust coursing through you is intense judging by the slick feeling between your legs. You lean your hands on the bathroom counter and look in the mirror. Your cheeks are flushed, eyes dilated, and your skin has a feverish glow to it. You haven’t been this turned on in a while.

As you weigh the pros and cons of getting yourself off in the bathroom to calm your nerves before returning to the table, there’s a small knock at the door. You practically jump out of your skin.

“Y/n? It’s just me,” Changbin’s voice calls from the other side. “I told everyone I was coming to check on you.”

“I’m okay, Binnie,” you call out, a slight waver in your voice.

“Can I come in?”

You walk over to the locked door and open it. Changbin slides into the space with you, closing the door behind him quietly.

He wrings his hands, a little line of actual worry appearing between his brows. “Hey I just wanted to check that I didn’t overstep, that wasn’t really something we talked about bef-”

His words get caught in his throat as you pull him in by the collar and slant your lips over his. Pressing as much of your body against his, needing his touch more than anything in the world. His arms wind their way around your body, squeezing you tightly with his strong grip. Your tongues tangle as he moans into your mouth, letting you lead the way for a bit.

One of your hands snakes behind his head, threading your fingers into his hair to tug on. As you pull, his mouth detaches from yours.

“Fuck,” he hisses. His eyes flutter shut at the tension you hold his head with, cradling his skull in your hand. You marvel at the beautiful planes of his face for a second, the subtle flush rising to his cheeks, jaw slackened at the feeling, before you attach your lips to his neck.

“No marks tonight,” he whispers hurriedly. “We still have to - nnnnnngh-”

Instead of sucking onto his sensitive skin below his ear, you opt to scrape your teeth on it, feeling his knees buckle slightly at the sensation. His hands grip into your dress more harshly now, walking you back towards the edge of the sink. The back of your thighs meet the cold tile of the counter, knocking you slightly off balance.

Changbin takes this opportunity to lean your body back slightly, looming over you with his wide shoulders as he moves to stand in between your legs. He captures your lips with his again, searing you with his kiss. Your hands grab at whatever parts of him are nearest to touch, needing him closer. You can feel his cock hardening already as he presses his pelvis against yours. Hips rolling into his automatically, you are practically ready to fuck yourself on his clothed cock if necessary.

“Binnie, please, I need-”

“What do you need, hm? Tell Binnie what you need.” His voice is husky with a playful tinge of teasing. He rocks his hips into yours in one harsh move.

All you can do is moan. Changbin claps a hand over your mouth as your eyes roll back.

“Shhhh, love,” he whispers through a smirk. “Everyone will hear us. Those noises are only for me, understand?”

You nod your head against his hand, kiss into his palm as best you can. He releases your mouth and pulls your face towards his again, pressing an achingly sweet kiss on your lips.

“I know what my baby needs,” he murmurs. “Are you sure you can stay quiet?”

“Mm-mhmm,” is all you can say.

He drops down to his knees, running his hands up your legs, marveling at the smooth, sheer fabric of the stockings once more. You lean your weight back onto the tile counter, looking down at Changbin worshiping at your feet. He pulls one leg up, kissing you on the inside of your ankle and rubs his cheek on the smooth stockings.

“These are going to be the death of me,” he murmurs as he trails kisses as he moves up, stopping every few inches to admire your legs. He pushes up your dress a little as he gets to the top of your stockings on your thigh, pressing a kiss right where the fabric meets your skin. His teeth find the edge of the sheer elastic and pull it away from your leg, looking up at you from below.

The image of his dark eyes awash with arousal holding your stockings between his teeth burns itself into your memory. You place one hand on his head, threading your fingers into his hair and lightly scratching his scalp with your nails.

He groans at the sensation, eyes rolling back as he lets the elastic snap back harshly onto your skin. A little yelp leaves your throat, turning into more of a whimper as his mouth attaches to your inner thigh and sucks an angry red mark into the sensitive skin. You can feel more arousal seep out of your lace panties.

“I thought we said no marks,” you pant out as he continues littering the inside of your thighs with blooming red marks. He’s so close to where you need him most. Every time he gets close to your pussy, you can feel yourself clench - only to be passed over, biting at the plush flesh of your thighs.

“No one will be looking for them here, love,” he says, pausing to admire his artwork. “These are for me.”

His eyes fall onto the garment clinging to your skin with how wet they are. He leans down and slowly presses a kiss right on your cloth covered cunt. You shudder in his grasp, held steady by his hands. He picks up the edge of your panties with his tongue, pulling the lace between his teeth. With one deft move with his hand, he roughly twists the thin fabric and rips your panties to shreds. You gasp at the tug of his strong hands, melting into his touch.

The cold air hits your wet skin, and you feel your clit throb. Changbin puts the shredded remnants of your panties in his pocket, knowing how much he loves to keep little trophies like this. He pushes the hem of your dress up to your hips, leaving a small kiss on each side of your hips. He’s obsessed with your legs and hips, loving the size of them, the soft flesh yielding to his control, as if his hands are the chisel that sculpts your body.

The width of his shoulders pushes your legs open as he leans closer, hovering millimeters away from your cunt, his breath ghosting over your skin.

“Bin, pleas-” but your plea turns into a sharp gasp as he finally descends, kissing your clit with his perfect, plump lips. His eyes close as he savors your taste. He feels like he’s at home here, between your thighs is exactly where he needs to be.

You cover your own mouth with your hand to stifle a moan as Changbin’s soft tongue caresses against your clit. It’s too much and not enough at the same time. You feel like you’re teetering on the edge, but he holds you back with the slow pace, savoring the way your hips shiver with each lick.

Changbin pulls his mouth off you for a split second, running his tongue further down to your entrance. His nose brushes through your folds and bumps against your clit. You let out a muffled keen into the palm of your hand, eyes rolling back.

You can’t help yourself, you begin rutting against his face, pushing his nose into you further. You look down, finding his gaze burning into you from below, eyes crinkling in amusement at your desperation. He pulls away from your body for a moment with a grin.

“Someone is so needy tonight,” he says, the entire lower half of his face shining with the combination of his saliva and your essence. You whine at the loss, but Changbin has other plans.

He hoists both of your thighs over his shoulders, bracing your weight against him while his arms wrap around your legs securely. He is strong in ways you could never imagine, holding you up while he moves to lap at your cunt again. Faster and faster, like a starved man having his first meal in weeks, his fingers leaving little indents in your skin as his movements get more feral. The familiar feeling of hot electricity builds in your pelvis, your muscles clenching around nothing as you prepare to fall off the face of the earth.

His tongue barrages your clit, little whimpers trying to escape as you slam your eyes shut. Drool gathers between the fingers that clamp over your mouth, making your palm slippery. The other hand flails wildly, looking for something to grab hold. You find his head, fingers tangling into his fluffy hair harshly.

You feel him groan, the sound reverberating through your center. At that, he pulls your clit into the heat of his mouth, sucking hard as his tongue doesn’t stop moving, bullying the sensitive bundle of nerves.

There’s no sound at first as your orgasm crashes over you, your muscles fluttering and your eyes rolling back. You forget to breathe, floating between layers of consciousness, as your erratic heartbeat matches the rhythm of your clenching muscles. Both of your hands are in his hair now as you writhe against his face. He’s the one thing keeping you from collapsing as you feel your soul leave your body. You swallow down the moan that he pulls from your throat, trying to keep quiet still.

Even as you start to come down off your high, he keeps going, your clit taking on a painful sensitivity. Each flick of his tongue jolts up your spine, your gasps shuddering out of you as you find your lungs again. You try pushing on his head to no avail, he’s got you pinned, overstimulating you as you jerk your hips to try and get away from the friction.

Finally, he pulls off of you with a smile, the lower half of his face drenched. He helps set your legs down onto the ground, wobbling like a newborn deer. Right before he releases you, he plants one more featherlight kiss to your clit, the shock of it buckles your knees as you collapse into his arms.

“I’ve got you,” he whispers, pressing kisses into your hair. “Binnie’s got you.”

You whine, your throat raspy, as you bury your face in the crook of his neck. His arms encircle you, shifting your weight so he can sit and lean back against the wall with you on his lap, wrapped around him. He rubs soothing circles into your back, bringing you back down to earth and into your body.

“That good, huh?” once he feels you begin to stir, planting little exhausted kisses into the side of his neck.

All you can manage is a quiet “Mmm,” in agreement.

“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up,” he murmurs into your hair. “We have a dinner to get back to.”

Your eyes shoot open, jolting up suddenly.

“Oh my god! Everyone is still waiting for us!” you jump up to your feet, your thighs still quivering. Changbin just giggles, following your lead. He helps you get cleaned up, smoothing your wild hair, making sure your dress looks neat. You look presentable, the only evidence giving you away is that your lips are a little swollen and your eyes are brighter than before.

“Ready to get back out there?” you say, turning to Changbin.

“Well…” he starts, rubbing the back of his neck. “Not yet. You head back out there first. I’ll follow you in a few minutes.”

You give him a curious look, he gives you a sheepish smile as he points down. He’s hard, his cock straining against his slacks in an extremely noticeable way. Your eyes bug out.

“I didn’t even think about that! Let me help,” you say, reaching for his belt. He snatches your wrist, bringing your hand to his lips and kisses your palm.

“No, love,” he smiles. “I’m going to splash some water on my face and calm down. Don’t worry about me, you can help me later.”

His eyes darken for a moment as he smirks. Even though he just fucked you with his mouth until you nearly passed out, you feel a small thrill shoot up your spine again. Pulling him in for another small kiss, you nod. You smooth your dress as you exit, looking over your shoulder to see Changbin smiling, his bottom lip between his teeth. It makes you blush. Even after a year, seeing all the love and adoration in his eyes gives you butterflies.

~~~

As you shut the door behind you, Changbin feels his heart swell in his chest. He can’t get enough of you, it squeezes his ribs like a vice. Getting you to cum on his tongue over and over was one of the highlights of his life. He could live between your thighs, wrapping around his head, smothering him until all that surrounds him is you.

Tonight was only slightly different. As he dropped to his knees, he thought about getting on one knee instead. He wants you forever. You’re just lucky he doesn’t keep the ring on him or else he would’ve proposed over a dozen times at this point. You deserve something more planned out and special.

Changbin turns to the mirror, fixing his hair and readjusting himself so his erection is less noticeable. The torn remnants of your lace panties burn a hole in his pocket. He wants to clench them in his fist and bring them to his nose, but he can’t. He knows it’ll just make him harder, the thought alone making him twitch against the fabric of his slacks. He has to ground himself, he’s still in your family home. You’re waiting for him out there. He takes a deep breath, steadying himself.

As he breathes, he still has the hint of your essence on his face. He would wear it like a fragrance if he could. He’s going to marry you one day, he knows it. The way his chest aches with the feeling, it gives him something to distract the way his cock throbs. Even though Changbin wants forever with you to begin now, he can be patient. If anyone is an expert on delaying gratification, it’s Changbin. Good things come to those who wait.

Once he feels like he’s calm enough, he heads back out to the dining room to join you.

~~~

You walk back to the dining room, practically floating your way there.

“Y/n, you’re back! Are you feeling okay?” your dad says as you sit back down at the table. You’re acutely aware of how bare you are under your dress without your panties, feeling very exposed.

“Hmm? Oh… yeah, I’m okay,” you say.

“Where’s Changbin?”

“He’s probably in the bathroom. He… brought me my inhaler. The coughing, y’know, made my asthma flare,” you lie.

“That’s probably why you’re all red still,” your mom comments. You feel your cheeks burn brighter. Just how fucked out do you still look?

“I bet they were kissing in there!” your baby cousin announces. Everyone in the room gives a theatrical gasp before chuckling at her comment. Your eyes widen. Did anyone hear you?

“Only on the cheek, I promise,” Changbin says, sidling into the room again. He sits down next to you, grabbing your hand to kiss your knuckles. The way he has charmed everyone is so effortless. He looks so normal, blending right back in with the dinner atmosphere. In the mere hours you’ve been surrounded by company, he’s got your family wrapped around his finger.

Dessert gets served, there are so many different kinds of sweets to choose from. Holidays with your family are never short of sugary baked goods. Changbin spends half of his time feeding you little bits of everything, making sure you don’t miss out on any flavors.

Every once in a while, he’ll purposefully make a small mess on your lip so he can wipe it off with his thumb, so he can bring it to his mouth to lick it clean. Changbin has a way of mixing gentle caring with hot temptation that pushes all of your buttons in the best ways. The teasing goes on and on, you feel yourself squeezing your legs together again. The sensation of getting wet with no panties on makes you feel so dirty but so, so ready for him. You are going to absolutely ruin this man when you get back home.

Everyone is full to the brim, sipping on hot drinks while the contented drowsiness of a good meal wafts around the room. Changbin has his arm slung around the back of your chair, pressing as close as he is able to in polite company. When he laughs, you feel his breath move your hair. When he chats with your aunts and uncles about his job, you feel his voice rumble through you. You put your hand on his knee, tenderly rubbing your thumb across the thick muscle. Everything feels absolutely perfect in this moment.

Your mom comes into the room again.

“Bad news, guys. It’s snowing. The forecast for this evening doesn't look good, we’re supposed to be getting a few inches tonight.”

Everyone groans, starting to murmur about what they’re going to do. You and a few others in your family get up and dash over to the window. Sure enough, fluffy white flakes piled together like cotton balls are floating down steadily from the sky. The string lights are barely visible anymore, little glowing spots under a thin layer of snow.

Your mom claps her hands together.

“But! We’ve got enough room and tons of blankets, so everyone is staying put,” she announces. “The local guy with the big snow plow will come out sometime tomorrow morning, so you’ll be able to leave then.”

Damn your luck. How are you supposed to fuck Changbin until both of you can’t walk if you’re stuck in a house with your huge family. The slick feeling between your thighs begs for attention, frustration building up inside you at the news you’ll be spending the night. But there’s nothing you can do about it now, your mom isn’t going to let anyone leave this house tonight.

You sigh as you stand up, Changbin close behind.

“Come on, let’s go help with pillows and blankets,” you say, grabbing his hand to lead him to the linen closet.

There you find all the air mattresses, sheets, pillows, and blankets that your parents keep for such an occasion. Once the guest rooms are full, everyone else will be on the floor, but they will be comfortable. Grabbing a huge stack, you both walk towards the living room to set everyone up.

Your dad pulls you aside.

“Y/n, we still have your old room set up. Normally we wouldn’t allow this, but since we’re pretty full of people, you and Changbin can both stay in there,” he says.

“But no funny business!” your mom says, jokingly ribbing at Changbin. Your jaw drops.

“Mom!” You can’t believe what she’s implying.

“I will be the perfect gentleman,” he says, raising his hand. “Scouts honor. I’ll even sleep on the floor.”

Both of your parents nod, his word is satisfactory - how could it not be? Changbin has been nothing but kind, attentive, and practically perfect all evening. They obviously don’t know about what happened in the bathroom earlier, and they never will.

~~~

Leading Changbin to your childhood room feels so strange. Your parents converted it long ago into another guest bedroom, but there are still remnants of your time here. There are little lines to measure your height at different ages on the door frame, photos of you from when you were younger on the walls, and all the things you left in your parents home stored in plastic bins in the closet. Changbin smiles when he sees the measurements, looking at the ages written on each one.

He sets down the stack of blankets and pillows he had in his hand to build himself a floor bed. It would make the room a bit snug, butting up right next to your childhood twin bed.

“I’ll be right back,” he says, “I have to grab something from the car.”

You shrug as he trots away, unfolding the thick blankets to make him a little spot to sleep. After laying the blankets flat, layering them on top of one another, you get on your hands and knees to smooth out the corners for comfort. In this position, you feel the cold air on the backs of your thighs. Awareness of your lack of panties and arousal are very apparent, bringing a small blush to your face.

“Now that’s a sight I’ll never get tired of,” Changbin’s voice murmurs from behind you suddenly. You gasp, startled by his silent return. He comes up behind you, throwing his gym bag onto your bed, the springs of the mattress squeaking as it bounces slightly.

“What’d you grab from the car?” you ask as he comes up behind you, leaning down to smooth his palm over the swell of your ass.

“I always keep an extra pair of clothes in my gym bag, so we have something to change into,” he murmurs, focusing solely on palming your ass for a moment. He stands up suddenly, going over to the gym back and unzipping it. He tosses you a black shirt. “Something comfy to sleep in.”

In truth, Changbin just loved seeing you wear his clothes. He loved seeing how they fit your body, knowing you’re going to smell like him. It’s a subtle possessiveness, one that always makes you weak in the knees. He pulls out a pair of workout shorts for himself and begins ridding himself of his tidy dinner clothes.

As he unbuttons his shirt, you stop to ogle him. The shape of him never fails to leave you speechless - wide shoulders, thick arms, a layer of comfort on top of pure strength - it makes every part of him something you want to grab onto. Your mouth waters at the sight of his thighs as he takes off his slacks. His thigh muscles are so inviting, framed by the pair of black boxer briefs he has on. You feel that rush of heat settle deep in your pelvis again. Maybe Changbin isn’t the only one with a thing for thighs.

He smirks, a little sideways smile, when he catches you staring at him.

“Now, I don’t remember agreeing to be the only one who’s undressed,” he says, sauntering towards you in just his boxer briefs, abandoning the shorts on the floor. One finger finds your belt buckle, dragging you towards his body. He unclips the buckle, dropping the belt to the floor. His hands find your thighs, pushing the hem of your dress up again. Goosebumps spread on your skin as he grabs the fabric, bunching it up on your waist, looking at you bared for him.

Changbin lets out a shuddering breath. In the muted incandescent light of your old bedroom, your skin glows. He quickly pulls the dress over your head. You nearly lose your balance with how fast he tries to undress you, stumbling into him with a giggle.

“I’ve got you!” he chuckles. You’re just in your bra and stockings now, with Changbin’s arms wrapped around you, pressing a kiss against your temple.

For a moment, you just look at one another, matching grins on your face. You’ve never had someone make you feel so secure in their love and care of you. When Changbin takes control, you know you have someone who has your best interest at heart as you surrender. He lets you direct him, providing you with his strength in whatever way makes you feel the best.

Both your faces gravitate toward one another, meeting for an achingly sweet kiss. There’s no rushing, exploring one another as if it’s the first time every time. His fingers slide up your body, softly gripping the back of your neck. You pull back slightly, watching his eyes flutter as he leans towards you to chase your kiss. Your lips brush against his tenderly before they travel across his cheek towards his ear. His arms drop to your sides as he pulls you in closer with a whine. Your teeth nip at his earlobe, lightly pulling on his small hoop earring. His ears are so sensitive, his knees buckle at the feeling of your tongue tracing the shell of his ear. His fingers dig into the flesh of your hips, knowing your skin will be littered with tiny bruises tomorrow.

Your tongue finds the spot just beneath his ear on his neck, feeling his hips buck into yours at the sensation. Another whine spills from his mouth.

“Now who’s the one that has to be quiet?” you whisper against his neck, pressing a hand against his mouth. “Do you want everyone to know what we’re doing?”

Changbin shakes his head, his arms squeezing you tighter.

“Then be a good boy and be quiet,” you mutter, smiling against his neck. He moans, muffled by your hand. You press two fingers against his lips and he sucks them greedily, showing you exactly what he wants to do to other parts of you. His hands skim over your back, landing on where your bra hooks together.

“Do not rip this one,” you say, your tone laced with warning. “This was expensive.”

He huffs out a laugh with your fingers still in the wet heat of his mouth. His fingers are nimble, carefully unhooking the clasp. Your breasts spill out of the cups as he pulls it off of you, palming them as soon as he tosses the garment across the room. His hands are so warm as they massage into your skin. Every touch is electric, especially when his thumbs graze over your nipples.

You pop your fingers out of Changbin’smouth, dragging them down his chest, leaving a wet trail of his drool on his skin. The tip of your index finger finds his nipple and you feel his body tremble. His hands drop to your hips again, pushing gently as he walks you backwards towards your bed. The backs of your knees find the mattress and you slump down, sitting on the bed. The old springs and bed frame squeak and groan as your body bounces on the bed, echoing into the quiet night. You both cringe at the sound, giggling.

“The bed will give us away,” Changbin says, shaking his head. He smacks the top of the mattress as if reprimanding it. “Snitch.”

“So you’ll spank the mattress but not me?” you say, gasping in mock horror. “Cheat!”

Changbin smirks as his tongue presses against the inside of his cheek, seeing where this is going. He kneels onto the floor between your legs, wrapping his arms around your waist, and pulls you down towards him. You flail about, squirming away from him, pretending to wrestle out of his grip. He’s like a mountain, unmovable, holding you securely while you wiggle around.

“You want to get spanked but won’t stop moving?” he chuckles, flipping you over so you lay across his lap with your ass up. “Brat!”

The first swat is light and sudden, right where your thigh meets your cheek. You yelp from the shock of it, more giggles bubbling up. You wiggle your ass from side to side to taunt him, silently begging for more. His hands roam the sensitive skin of your ass and thighs, grabbing and massaging. Your hips quake under his touch, whimpering at his unhurried movements.

“Bin, please,” you pout, pushing back against his hand.

“No, you started this, my love. I’ll be the one to finish it,” he says, pinching you on the back of the thigh.

“Hey!”

“You said you wanted to help me earlier,” Changbin murmurs, hooking two fingers under the elastic of your stockings. He tugs on the stretchy fabric, pulling it taut. The sleek fabric bites into the skin of your thigh the further he pulls it up. “This helps.”

He lets go, snapping the elastic against your skin. You gasp, arching your back, feeling a gush of arousal between your legs at the sudden sting. He repeats this on the other leg, watching how the snap of elastic moves against your soft skin. You hear him suck in a breath through his teeth.

A hand comes down on your right cheek suddenly, the sound of the smack lingering in the air. You bite down on your lip as you whine, trying to muffle the sound. Changbin’s free hand comes around to grip your mouth, squeezing your cheeks til your lips pop open.

“Quiet!” he hisses in your ear. “I’m not trying to wake anyone up.”

He shoves his middle and ring finger into your mouth, smacking your ass again, alternating each cheek with every spank. He presses down on your tongue, saliva pooling in your mouth, slicking down his fingers. He grunts as you suck on his fingers, pulling them further into the heat of your mouth, swirling your tongue against them.

The spanks have warmed you up, the sensitive skin on your ass and thighs blooming with heat. Changbin takes a break from spanking, massaging his reddening artwork gently. His hand roams down your thighs, kneading the skin. Slipping his hand between your legs, his fingers delicately brush against your folds.

“Fffuck,” he hisses out. “You’re so fucking wet.”

You moan in response, trying to press back into his hand. Your whole cunt throbs with need, clenching around nothing. You need some part of him, anything, inside of you right away. He keeps his touch light, barely skimming over the skin of your sensitive pussy.

“So wet, you greedy thing,” he whispers in your ear. His fingers “Coming once in the bathroom wasn’t enough for you? You need more?”

You nod feverishly, wiggling against him, seeking any sort of friction. Tears prick in the corners of your eyes, glittering in the low light.

Changbin pops his fingers out of your mouth, chuckling as he smears your drool over the lower half of your face.

“You’re already making such a mess,” he murmurs. “I know what you need. Binnie’s got you.”

He leans over, wrapping his arm delicately around your neck so your head rests in the crook of his arm. The chokehold he has you in feels steady, controlled. His hand comes down on your ass, the sound of the slap echoing in the room again. Your hips jolt, whimpering. Changbin slowly flexes his bicep, curling the muscle around your neck leisurely. You can still breathe, but the pressure on the sides of your neck increases, making your head feel fuzzy.

Changbin sinks one finger into you, simultaneously pressing against your clit with his thumb. A moan tries to leave your throat, but it rasps out as he flexes again. He rubs against you gently from the inside and out, your eyes rolling back in your head, a thrill shooting up your spine. He sinks a second finger into you, stretching you out slightly with each thrust of his hand. You feel the dull beginning of your peak approaching slowly, like a predator stalking its prey.

Your hands come up to grip his arm, nails scraping against his muscle. The whole time he’s been playing with you like some fine tuned instrument, he’s been whispering in your ear. The lack of blood flow to your brain makes it difficult to hear, but you can feel his breath on your ear. He pulls his fingers out suddenly and loosens the grip of his chokehold. As the blood rushes back to your head, he lands one last smack, directly in the center of your ass, inches away from your pussy.

Your muscles clench, body lurching from the sting, while the building orgasm fades suddenly. You feel a little dizzy from all the blood rushing back into your head. Frustration bursts through the hazy clouds in your head.

“Bin! Wha-” but you don’t get to finish your sentence. Changbin is once again maneuvering your body around, laying you gently down on the floor on your back.

“You thought it was going to be that easy?” he smirks, placing a pillow underneath your hips as he kneels between your legs. “After teasing me for the last few hours, you thought I’d go easy on you when I got you alone?”

You pout, kicking your feet a little. He grins at your pathetic act, grabbing your ankles. He puts them up on his shoulders, lifting your lower body to rest on his thighs. You feel how hard he is now, his thick cock straining against the material of his underwear. The way he slides his hands up your leg, slowly from ankle to thigh, stopping to admire the way your thighs look in your dark stockings again, has you nearly keening.

“Bin, please, I need you,” you beg, looking up at him with the most desperate little line forming between your brows.

Changbin just giggles, pulling down the waistband of his boxer briefs until his cock springs free.

“I know, you needy little baby, I know,” he replies. “You’re going to let me play with you for a bit before I let you come again.”

His hands slide to your hips, pressing your thighs together. With one hand, he lines up his cock like he’s about to fuck you, it makes you perfectly delirious at the thought of him filling you up.

Instead, he slides himself right between your thighs.

You’re so wet, he glides right through the junction of where your thighs meet your cunt. The drag of his cock over your clit makes you gasp. Changbin pulls his bottom lip between his teeth, his head thrown back as he feels how your soft, wet thighs envelop his cock. He thrusts slowly, feeling every inch of your plush flesh as his cock nudges against your aching clit.

“Fuck, I could just die right here and I’d be happy,” he pants out. His hips shove against yours as he thrusts, making your whole body bounce. Your hands fly to your breasts, holding them as they bounce from his movements. Tears gather in the corners of your eyes, holding back the moans from the frustration and bliss. It’s so much, Changbin is everywhere, holding you up, rutting against you. But it’s not enough. You need him closer.

Suddenly, he pulls away from your body with a strangled groan. As he drops your legs, you look down, watching his flushed cock bobbing helplessly in the air. He takes several deep breaths, willing himself not to come. Not yet.

As his heartbeat slows a little, he pulls your hips towards him again.

“I can’t wait anymore, baby,” he murmurs. “I have to feel you.”

“Finally, fuck-” you say.

Changbin looks at you, raising an eyebrow as one side of his mouth quirks into a cocky little grin. He pulls you towards him harshly, wrapping your legs around his waist again. He lines up his cock, slick from all the teasing he’s done, and positions the tip right at your entrance. If you’re going to act like that, he can wait a bitlonger just to mess with you a little more.

“If you want it so bad,” he says, “Come get it.”

He holds your hips steady, only the tip of his cock barely pressing against your entrance. You grunt from the effort of trying to pull your body towards him, trying to make him sink into you. With every move you make, he matches it in the opposite direction, teasing you with his cock, not giving you what you want.

“Bin, PLEASE,” you whine, trying to keep your voice down, but you’re too keyed up to relax.

Changbin coos at your annoyance.

“Poor thing,” he mocks you with a pitying frown. His hands roam around your pelvis, brushing his fingertips over the most sensitive areas between your hips. “Poor pathetic little baby. You want my cock that bad? Want me to fuck you dumb on my cock?”

You narrow your eyes at his haughty teasing. Determined to back at him, you hook your legs securely around his hips, using the leverage of your position to pull his body towards you.

The strangled moan that comes out of his mouth is almost as good as the way his cock feels as you pull him in, sinking into your warmth slowly. Your eyes flutter, the sting from the stretch of his thick cock makes you forget how to breathe for a moment. Changbin’s fingers dig into your hips, trying to hold himself back from pistoning into you hard and fast. He still wants to drag this out. You’re already on the edge of losing your mind, your muscles clench in anticipation. You feel like you’re about to crash any second.

One of his hands remains fully on your hip while the other splays on your lower belly, thumb brushing lightly over your clit.

“Oh fuck!” you gasp as you tremble. Changbin giggles, fully sheathed inside you, as he applies gentle pressure onto your clit.

Your orgasm rips through you unexpectedly, your whole body quivering as your pelvic muscles flutter round his cock. Clenching your teeth, you swallow down the noises trying to burst forth from your mouth. Your eyes are wide, surprise plastered on your face as you hold Changbin’s gaze. His cocky attitude fades into a look of gentle devotion. He loves when he unravels you like this, bending your body to his will and watching you react as you fight it. The push and pull between the two of you is so finely tuned at this point, it makes both of your hearts sing.

The tears that were welling up in your eyes trickle down the sides of your face as you throw your head back, rocking against Changbin with a cry. He meets every one of your movements with a deep flick of his hips, drawing out every last ounce of your orgasm. Air finds your lungs again in disjointed breaths, like your body has been reset.

Changbin keeps rhythmically driving his hips into yours slowly, each one with deft precision. Even as your clit becomes too sensitive to touch on the outside, he thrusts into you at an unhurried pace, the coil in your lower belly beginning to tighten again. You’re too sensitive, it takes on a painful edge, every movement like a kiss and a slap at the same time. You tremble from the overstimulation, your chest vibrating with small sobs, feeling like you’re floating outside of your body.

The one thing grounding you is Changbin. His strength, his hands, his gaze - all keeping you tethered while the rest of you feels like you’re drifting in water. You feel yourself react to him, the mix of arousal and sweat slipping between your bodies. Changbin’s breathing picks up, his hips faltering as he watches you fall apart once more. Impossibly, your pussy clamps down on him again, pulsing with the intensity of a second orgasm crashing over you.

He looks at you in awe. The two of you have been together for a while now, but every time, it’s like it’s brand new when he watches you come. He could watch forever, suspended in this moment, reliving it over and over again. He loves watching you as you throw yourself into his trust, falling into an abyss knowing that he’s holding you. He’s got you.

It’s that very thought that pushes him over the edge. His eyes squeeze shut, feeling his balls tighten, his hips slamming into you. Your body is malleable, all your energy is gone. Your hands loosely grip onto his arms, looking up at him with a dopey, fucked out smile. He spills inside of you, clenching his teeth as he groans. He loses himself in you in the same way, forgetting anything else matters other than the feeling of being close to you.

He pumps you full of every last drop he has, nearly collapsing against you, catching himself on his arms as he cages his body around yours. Your lips find his in a messy, exhausted kiss, tasting the desperation, the love, and the care on each others’ tongues.

You fall asleep on the floor like this, wrapped around one another.

~~~

When you wake up, you’re on the floor alone, cocooned in a soft duvet. A moment of panic is soothed by a small note on the pillow next to you.

Making breakfast, come find me~

You reach for your phone, bleary eyed. It’s almost 8 AM. There’s a general clatter of noise in the distance.

Pulling on the black shirt he tried to hand to you last night, you rummage through his gym bag for anything to wear on your lower half. There’s only one thing you find in there that could work, a mischievous little grin lighting up your face.

~~~

Changbin is helping make the world’s biggest batch of pancakes, helping your mom and dad set up an assembly line for your family. It’s like cooking for an army. With an apron covering his tank top and workout shorts combo, he is the picture of domesticity. He’s about to serve a few pancakes to one of your young cousins when you walk in, rubbing your eyes sleepily. Changbin’s eyes light up at your appearance, finding himself distracted.

Your hair is messy, eyes half lidded with exhaustion and a sleepy grin on your face. But more than that, it’s about what you’re wearing. One of his shirts fits over your curves perfectly, paired with his black boxer briefs, your thighs stretching the edge of them in the most tantalizing way. He leaves the kitchen area, abandoning the pancakes despite the protests from your baby cousin, and gathers you up in his arms. He presses a few gentle pecks on your cheek as you giggle.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” he murmurs as he holds you close. He whispers into your ear, “If I knew you were going to dress like that, I’d definitely give you sleepy head.”

You burst into laughter, color rising to your cheeks. A joke that bad shouldn’t turn you on, but you feel a dull throb between your legs at the thought of morning sex with Changbin.

“What?” your cousin shouts. “What’s so funny?”

You both share a knowing look as giggles bubble up between the two of you.

You hear the snow plow working its way up and down the road while you eat breakfast. As your meal winds down, your family starts to disperse, hugging and saying their goodbyes. This has been one of the easiest holidays you’ve ever had. Warmth spreads through you as you think about how Changbin made it so much better. After you’ve packed up what little you brought, you turn to your parents.

“Text us when you get home!” your mom says.

“Of course,” you reply. “Thanks for having us.”

“Yeah, thanks for the delicious food and letting us stay over!” Changbin adds.

“Anything for you, Changbin!”

“And I bet you’ll be having a happy New Year,” your dad says, winking at Changbin.

Your boyfriend’s eyes widen, giving an awkward laugh. “Yeah, of course! Love the countdown and fireworks.”

Your eyes narrow, looking between your dad and Changbin. They’re both acting suspicious. You open your mouth to ask what that was all about, but your mom pulls you both into a bear hug, cutting off your opportunity.

~~~

That was a close one. Your dad tried to give away the massive surprise Changbin has been cooking up for months now. Before breakfast today, he had pulled your parents aside to ask for their blessing to propose to you. Your mom pulled him into a hug as your dad had clapped him on the shoulder, of course they were going to give their blessing.

There’s a reason he doesn’t bring the ring with him, or else he’d be dropping down to one knee any time you did something that made his heart expand in his chest.

You smile and your nose crinkles? He’s thinking about getting down on one knee. You make him feel loved and needed? He’s biting his lip so he doesn’t pop the question. You tease him in front of your family with your gorgeous thigh high stockings? He’s thinking about booking a plane ticket to Las Vegas for an Elvis impersonator wedding.

Your New Year’s Eve is going to be way different than any others you’ve ever had.

Because Changbin is going to ask you to marry him.

You’ve got him however you want him.

He’s got you.

#changbin x y/n #changbin smut #changbin x reader #seo changbin x reader #seo changbin smut #skz smut #stray kids smut #stray kids fanfic #stray kids x reader

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allwaswell16 · 3 days ago

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🔔 It's December! That means it's One Direction Advent fic season! Advent fics are generally posted daily from December 1 to December 24/25. Don't forget you can subscribe to the author to get a daily email reminder to read their Advent fic! 🔔

🕯️ All The Lights by LetTheMusicMoveYou / @letthemusicmoveyou28 {Fic post}

“As you know, every year Syco Industries throws the Holiday bash of the year. Their annual Christmas Eve charity ball, held in the building’s lobby.”

Louis arches a brow. “Robbing a Christmas charity? That’s your brilliant idea? That’s a little low don’t you think?”

Niall snorts. “The only charity that money is going to is in Simon Cowell’s pocket and we both know it.”

He’s not exactly wrong.

“Alright sure, but I’m pretty sure Santa still frowns upon stealing.”

Niall just grins.

“Being on the nice-list is vastly overrated anyway.”

(Or a holiday heist featuring a rag-tag team of lovable criminals, a pair of exes who hate each other except for when they don’t, and a lot of festive chaos along the way).

🎁 You Should Be Here With Me by @lululawrence {Fic post}

The festive period is a traditionally hectic one in the world of Premier League football, and this year is no different. A lot is riding on how Manchester United is able to come through the fixtures in the coming weeks.

Louis and his teammates know all too well the pressure that is on their shoulders. They need to prove, not just to fans of the club but the entire league, that they still have what it takes to be a team worthy of fighting for the top of the table.

Throw in the fact that Louis is all too aware that he's not getting any younger in a profession that demands your peak physical fitness year round and the incredibly fit Harry Styles, who is part of the club's social media team, and this year's festive period might just be the most important one yet.

🎅 Your Reign is Free (to give along to Santa) by LadyLondonderry / @londonfoginacup {Fic post}

It’s Christmas Eve. It’s a totally normal Christmas Eve. Harry and Louis have some friends coming by, and some totally normal birthday and Christmas plans. It’s a totally typical totally normal Christmas Eve.

A fic that takes place over 24 (+1) hours where surely everything will go totally to plan.

🦌 You'll Never More Roam by @tommokat {Fic post}

Harry likes his job as a traveling nurse. It pays well, it allows him to travel across the country, and he doesn't have to worry about an annoying coworker past an average of 13 weeks. The pros of never staying put have always beat the cons. Until one of those cons has bright blue eyes, a fluffy companion, and a heart of gold.

Tax exemptions don't hold a candle to Louis Tomlinson. And as Harry's about to find out, neither does his heart.

🌟 Find a light, hold tight by louisismycat / @liminalkittyfics {Fic post}

a fic about finding light and holding tight - hanukkah for everyone!

Told from the gentile perspective of Louis, recently widowed and trying to cultivate his son’s connection to his paternal Jewishness, Find a light is intended for everyone — Jews and gentiles alike — who might find comfort in the light, wisdom, and warmth of Hanukkah.

🔔 Larry Xmas Countdown by 28goldensfics / @28goldens {Fic post}

Harry and Louis will stop at nothing to make each other happy, even if that means robbing Buckingham Palace for a set of priceless bells they use to ring on Christmas morning.

✨ Twinkling Lights, Fated Nights by Darling28 / @darling-28 {Fic post}

Louis is an Omega who doesn't like being told what to do and is happy with his single life in the snowy town of Frostbrook after a terrible previous relationship. But then Harry turns up - an Alpha who is anything but the typical macho. Instead of giving commands, he makes an effort to understand Louis, which annoys him more than anything. But Harry doesn't give up.

And maybe that's exactly why they fit together so well: Two people who don't fit the cliché at all, but who suddenly feel more for each other than they would have expected. In the midst of lights, snow and mulled wine, something begins to grow that neither of them had planned - even if Louis would rather not admit it.

A story about healing, love and finding home in each other.

❄️ Fluffcember 2024 by Candy_Kittens / @candyfloss-kittens

A collection of one-shots for Fluffcember 2024. All of these one-shots will be for One Direction rpf.

🌲 Through the Riots – Will You Guide Me When I'm Lost? by childofthelarents

His hands had a death grip on Harry's arms, making him unable to push back. "Fuck you," Harry growled, looking like he was seconds away from punching Louis straight in the face. The softness of his features had been replaced by pure fury, the green of his eyes burning into Louis' soul. As the seconds passed, Harry seemed to realize the lack of space between them, his eyes growing less piercing and more irritated as he scanned Louis' face.

~ Louis had his heart set on rooming with his best friend Zayn, but fate—or a cruel housing assignment—stuck him with Harry, who seems to hate him instantly (and boy, is that feeling mutual). Determined to find a way out, Louis quickly realizes that their fiery clashes only make things worse, fueling the hostility between them. Yet, as tempers flare and boundaries blur, their battles take an unforeseen turn, shifting into something neither of them expected.

☃️ Fading Shadows by Arezou_Styles

A cosy tale of life in 2024, almost canon, centers on Harrys and Louis marriage, their family life and quite some self-discovery that this year brings for both of them. Loads of info on ADHD included.

🎄 Christmas Play by @itstilliswhatitis

December is Harry's favourite time of year. The neighbourhood he bought a house in three years ago has a yearly Christmas decoration competition, and this year, he's set on winning. At least until his new neighbour, Louis turns out to be a grumpy Christmas Grinch. To make matters worse, his new neighbour happens to be his co-star in the new play Harry just bagged, playing the love interest to his role as first lover. The play is like a really bad fanfic, and everything is a disaster. This might be the worst December ever!

❤️ Hearts All Whole by @justanothershadeofblue {Fic post}

Father Louis Tomlinson hasn’t seen or talked to his high school boyfriend in over a decade, not since they went to different colleges and slowly grew apart. This means it’s a bit of a surprise when he looks out from the pulpit on the first Sunday in Advent and sees Harry Styles’ unmistakeable head poking up from a pew halfway back and on the left. How’s a priest supposed to make it through the madness of the holiday season with his very friendly, very attractive ex distracting him at every turn?

🛷 You are my home, my home for all seasons by starryhaze / @starryhaze28 {Fic post]

“I love you,” Louis says quietly, his voice tender. Harry’s not sure if Louis is talking to him or the camera, but either way, the words settle warmly in his chest.

Louis moves closer, holding the camcorder up, and Harry blushes as the lens focuses on him. “Look at your mummy,” Louis coos, directing his words at their unborn baby. “Isn’t he just the prettiest, carrying you?”

Harry giggles, shaking his head. “Your daddy is ridiculous,” he responds, looking pointedly into the camera, his voice light and teasing.

Or the one where Harry is seven months pregnant and he and Louis navigate the chaos of Christmas as they try to juggle festive traditions, their families, and friends while preparing for the greatest gift of all, the arrival of their baby.

🎁 Wrapped it up and Sent it by downcamethelightning / @downcamethelightnings {Fic post]

Harry was the only real crush he’d ever had. There had been people he’d shared classes with, or seen in the school hallways who he’d thought were cute, but he never had any interest in anyone beyond that point. Louis had always felt like he simply didn’t care enough about anyone to actually dedicate any time or energy to liking them, or going out with them.

But Harry was the exception.

With some (heavy) convincing from his friends, Louis decides to risk it all and tell Harry how he feels about him, and Christmas seems like the perfect time to make a move. Everyone's happy during the holidays anyway. Maybe it'll weaken the possibility that Harry will hate him forever if he doesn't feel the same.

An incredibly fluffy, teenage Christmas advent fic.

🧣2024 Advent Calendar by larryftnoctrl / @the-larry-way {Fic post}

Harry is on a shitty date. the NJ Devil is his savior.

#Advent #adventfics2024 #honestly if i'd known how long this would take me i probably wouldn't have put this together lol #onedirectionfanfiction #Larry fanfiction #also writers if you have one and it's not on here let me know!#or if I couldn't find your fic post let me know where it is!#I know of one more still posting so i'll add that when it does post

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epickiya722 · 2 days ago

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Honestly i think even Endeavor had trouble in the beginning of his agency. It probably took a few years for it to take off fr bc the right ppl had to be recruited first and the agency had to get some prestige. I think that'll be the same with Kacchan, he's still got a long way to go.

Also the agency together thing: There was some cute little strips where the class A was having a trip, and in one of them, Baku and Deku where discussing All Might's agencies, and Todoroki assumed they were talking like that bc they were going to open one together. And well, there is also the Bakugo agency thing at the beginning, which i think would've been a sweet callback none the less.

It's actually funny, the thing about Endeavor, because he did have fans that did like him (popularity polls are also affected by the public opinion) but meanwhile you have his top sidekick, Burnin, who while she respects his work also does not care for him as a person. "Smelly old guy..."

And yeah, Endeavor was like... in his 50s? When he was placed at #1 (after All Might retired), so Katsuki would have a long way to go, I can see it.

Which, now thinking about it, it's not that big of a deal Katsuki is at #15 in the rankings currently. He is only at the start of his career and still young.

A part of me also feels like Katsuki came to just not care for the rankings over time because one, they're more for "which hero is the most popular" rather than "who works the hardest". If he did care, Katsuki would try to make himself more "likeable" to be popular. He isn't someone to care to be popular. He wants to be recognized for what he can do and how much hard work he puts in. Two, I also think Izuku not being there for a time also plays a part because what's the point of competing in something without your rival/most important person?

Okay, see that was going to keep me up! I remember the Bakugou agency thing! I said in another post, but it makes sense that Katsuki had an agency!

Now, these strips you speak of. 👀 I haven't seen those, I don't think!

#kiya answers #bnha #mha #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #bnha manga spoilers #bnha spoilers #bakugou katsuki

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mean-scarlet-deceiver · 1 day ago

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I really enjoy your thoughtful replies and summaries, Te! To the extent that I am inspired to make a few new posts expounding on some of these points. Especially about Gordon's communication. And the various phases of the RWS. And their impact on the engines' affairs.

For now, I just want to take a moment to clarify a point about who is venting to whom – IMHO, of course:

I think that something that gets me about this too is that Gordon vents about his problems to James and Henry, who, even if they think he can be a blowhard, are willing to listen. Edward doesn't (and doesn't seem like the type to) vent to other engines though... but it seems like he does to The Author, at least.

1) I think we see plenty of times in canon (until 1968 at least) that Gordon vents his problems and his opinions on what he deserves quite freely. Not even to just James and Henry (albeit they are often the only ones willing to listen). To any audience he can find, really.

2) I think Edward does seem like the type to confide in other engines - not all, but quite a few. I used to think he was only open and frank with humans and reticent with other engines, but increasingly I'm not even convinced of that. He consistently reads as an expressive sort of guy. All his friends seem to know exactly what's up with him.

3) Which kind of leads to my most important point. I wouldn't want my post to leave the impression that I'm arguing that Edward is venting to the Author, or being inappropriate in his interviews (no more than anyone else is, at the very least. This whole commodification of their private lives definitely has all their boundaries a bit screwed up. Topham Hatt, #InfluencerParent!)

But yeah, I posit that Edward "won the narrative war" but he did most all that campaigning back in the 1920s-WWII era. The RWS is the human written interpretation of the engines' culture – it favors Edward largely because of groundwork laid well before the Author ever "came over" to take up a temp position on the railway. I don't think Edward's continuing to play that game post-1945, with the Author's help. I think at that point it's all baked in, the humans are steering this ship that the engines built and the engines are kind of along for the ride. For better or worse.

Like, in the prewar era, Edward adopted this storytelling role so that he had a way to avoid zero-sum conflicts with Gordon and the other big engines. His stories were a way where both parties can save some face, so they can all live and thrive.

When the Author comes in and interprets their mess as some Christian morality tale, obviously it must really suck for Gordon, who is cast in the role of Locomotive Goofus to Edward's Locomotive Gallant, his better points downplayed, his foibles highlighted, all while Edward's flaws are airbrushed. But I actually think it's not much more gratifying for Edward. He did all that work to build a culture to avoid these winner-take-all conflicts and now their whole world is being recast so that one of them forever has to be the good guy and one of them has to be the bad guy. And the engines no longer have years to process conflicts together, among themselves, and draw their lessons from them on their own. Now their experiences are grist for the PR mill every damn year. tl;dr if anything by MLE I think Edward is distancing himself from the Author as much as he can (given that he'd also consider it part of his duties to cooperate with the railway's promotional campaign).

However, he hasn't given up speaking freely to some of the others… and so inevitably, unless he does just cut off his hard-won support networker, all this is going to get back to the Author… who keeps shoving everything into the same box 😟…

So yeah, I don't think Edward would feel pleased at how their conflict is written in MLE. I suspect, even if he couldn't express why, that if he heard that "respectfully silent" framing he'd feel kind of sick. I mean, he put himself out there to finally tell Gordon exactly what he thought, it was necessary and long overdue but also insanely unpleasant and it's a new phase for the two of them that they're probably still feeling out… and now here they are again in print, publicized to the same old tired tune.

I think he might actually dislike the relevant parts of MLE more than Gordon, I think at this point Gordon's resigned to this shit.

However it's not Gordon who after MLE then avoids being a source for an Awdry for the next twenty-two years. 💀

Edward spent a good many years holding Gordon at something of a distance. But after he finally DOES figure how out to use his words and just tell Gordon that he ought to quit running his damn mouth about branch lines… he then proceeds to cut communication with The Author even more drastically? Yes, it seems that's exactly what he does!

Amazing. Bit facepalm-y.

But, valid.

Gordon and Edward, Part 3

As Lady is my witness, I will never take more than 500 words to ever answer a simple ask again 🫡 Enjoy this last hurrah of hyperlexia!

Part 1: Gordon, what's your damage? 😭 / The Doylist Reason / Rent. Free.

Post 2: Edward's Defences / Gordon's Growth

Post 3 (this post): Collision / Uh… Cleanup Crew?

Collision

Folks take Main Line Engines Edward and Gordon as a glimpse into just normal day-in-the-life stuff for them. It's not. It's the culmination of 40+ years of their shit. (From a Doylist perspective, it's also the last time Awdry would ever visit this dynamic – it's the last time any Awdry would, in a proper RWS book – and he seems to have known it.)

So, cue scene: "Wrong Road." Here we are, late evening, chilling on a couple of sidings somewhere outside Tidmouth station. The text puts this setting in a sort of void. I’d assume our heroes are taking on coal or water or something, as after this they report to the station for their trains. But that’s not for a bit yet. Right now we’re chilling. Eddie and Gordo. Great old friends.

All right, that might have been sarcastic if we were setting this scene in the ‘20s, but this is now 1964 or -65 (depending on just how rapidly you think The Author and his publishers beam these stories out there). Don’t be so cynical, dear reader. Time has passed.

This is Gordon matured. In his prime. He’s an Evolved Being these days (still capitalizes random things in his head, though). He has come to recognize that, grand and mighty though he is, relationships are important. He's been reminded of this just recently, in fact, what with his old driver retiring. (How's he doing with the transition, you ask? Wonderfully. No one copes with change better than Gordon the Big Engine. No one!) And so he’s going to make an effort here to find something to chat about with Edward. Even if Edward is kind of a queer old fellow, one of his tougher relationships. They don’t often see eye-to-eye on things, you see. But Evolved Being Gordon values his relationships, so, goddammit, he puts himself out there. Truly, he has a certain respect for Edward for never being drawn into Gordon’s lead on things. Like, it’s irritating – very – but Gordon can acknowledge that this is because, in his own way, Edward is something sort of like a leader, and indeed on occasion Gordon has had cause to admit to himself, after the fact, that Edward may have been right. Once. Or even twice. Anyway, their differences make things tricky and a bit distant, but Gordon still values the relationship. Enough to make an effort.

And! Tonight, he has a commonality for them to bond over. Something that’s been bugging the hell out of him and that surely must be worrying Edward, too.

"It's not fair," grumbled Gordon. "What isn't fair?" asked Edward. "Letting Branch Line diesels pull Main Line trains."

Coz diesels, amirite?

I cannot emphasize enough that Gordon makes this conversational gambit in good faith. He knows that Edward has had insecurities about being replaced before. Edward’s been dealing with The Fat Controller letting this diesel lurk around on his Branch Line for some while. And now Gordon and the others are facing the same threat! Gordon can genuinely carp to Edward about this and fully expect sympathy! Then after that Gordon can offer sympathy, too! They have a common interest, huzzah!

Gordon is sure that tonight he is getting a good grade in Friendship.

Then -

"Never mind, Gordon. I'm sure BoCo will let you pull his trucks sometimes. That would make it quite fair."

Needle scratch.

From Gordon’s perspective: WTF just happened here? Edward’s… Edward’s teasing him, isn’t he?

Now, look. Part of Gordon’s maturation is that he has accepted that he is part of the great karmic circle of life. Some days you’re the champ, and some days you take the L and just have to graciously accept that everyone else is gonna enjoy their victory laps. He’s used to this. He can handle it with good grace, indeed.

However:

1) Is that… is that what’s going on? IS Edward zinging him? Gordon’s pretty sure. He’s familiar with the experience ("never trust domeless engines! teehee"). But Edward does like to take his shots with an angelically serious face, which Gordon always finds confusing and a bit annoying. No one else bothers to disguise it when they’re laughing at him, and Gordon has learned to take it well (well, take it without melting down). But he does wish Edward would be more direct about it. Because… is that what’s going on here??

2) And, if it is… WHY? What the hell just happened? You tease someone after they fucked up and you’ve won this round. Did something just happen in the time it took Gordon to blink? What was the round? How did Gordon fuck up? They were having a perfectly amiable conversation like one bloody second ago! Garrrrgh.

(This is the whole problem with Edward, Gordon harrumps to himself. What is ‘this’, you ask? Well, if Gordon could explain it, it wouldn’t be such a problem now would it!)

Well, where he went wrong is utterly baffling to Gordon. But it’s clear as day to Edward, and pretty obvious to everyone he tells (and he seems to manage to relate this story to at least some parties within an extraordinarily short window of time…) The others may only tease when they’re in a position of strength. Edward’s playful teasing is not necessarily a sign that he’s comfortable; it’s a defense mechanism. When Edward is comfortable and relaxed with other engines, he tends to be practical-minded (job swap time!) and/or very much 100% in earnest (“I was pleased to hear your happy whistle yesterday”). Teasing is something he resorts to in order to find or restore equilibrium. So he’s not trying to signal that he’s “won” anything, but he is trying to win the exchange and turn the tables on Gordon in a moment when Gordon’s superior, dismissive attitude towards an engine rubs Edward the wrong way. Gordon thinks Edward will relate to him; they’re both steam engines who go way back, after all. Instead Edward instinctively relates to whatever engine Gordon is talking down. He probably would even if he hadn’t already made friends with BoCo - and he has. (This is another thing Gordon can’t fathom. Edward’s intuition lets him find and form friendships way faster than Gordon can comprehend warming up to anyone. To Gordon this feels like disloyalty.)

So Edward’s already lowkey annoyed - ‘Oh, Gordon’s being Gordon again’ - even as Gordon unconsciously stomps on the old, old wound that Edward still carries from the far past when Gordon would talk down him. Gordon doesn’t do that to him these days, but he’s still out here doing it to other engines and Edward dislikes it. A lot.

But, because it is Gordon and Edward just isn’t comfortable enough to communicate with him in any sort of straightforward way, Edward once again pretends not to be bothered - even as he deliberately turns the tables on Gordon, playfully suggesting something he knows Gordon will hate as a fair solution to the problem.

Winding Gordon up is so much easier and safer than, like, actually communicating with him.

And so Edward does. He knows that when he pulls this sort of passive-aggressive move that it leaves Gordon pleasingly unsettled.

What Edward may not understand is that Gordon really is genuinely out of his depth. It’s not clear to Gordon whether Edward is joking or not - and, unfortunately, wherever this notion appeared from, The Fat Controller does tend to call things Edward’s way so the fact that Edward has a bright idea really could imply that it’s going to become reality in a bafflingly brief amount of time.

At any rate, Gordon deals with what seems to him this sucker punch out of nowhere by resorting to his old well-worn defense mechanism - his superiority complex. To soothe his confusion and his own hurt feelings (why is Edward laughing at him? how did Gordon just lose a game that he didn’t even know he was playing? what in Gresley’s name is Edward all the sudden trying to PUNISH him for?) Gordon grabs and flaunts his superior importance and breeding as a trump card:

Gordon spluttered furiously. "I won't pull BoCo's dirty trucks. I won't run on Branch Lines."

(Gordon needs the comfort of this sort of boast, maybe needs to say it to convince himself.)

"Why not? It would be a nice change." "The Fat Controller would never approve," said Gordon loftily. "Branch Lines are vulgar." He puffed away in a dignified manner. Edward chuckled and followed him to the station…

Of course, the fact that Gordon instantly needs to resort to boasting and putting Edward down (ho-hum; anyone here have a branch line?) only confirms to Edward that he’s always been right not to put much trust in this new amiability between them. To Edward’s eye, he barely had to tap on it before it shattered. From Gordon’s point of view, Edward just did a lot more than tap on it - stomped on it rather. Still, it’s incredibly fair to my eye for Edward to conclude that he was right not to think Gordon’s latter-day changes run very deep, and to keep up his ‘laugh and pretend not to care’ tactic even as the scene closes.

It’s completely fair. Still, Gordon, I’m sure, never gave this baffling exchange a second thought after he left the platform that evening with his train (for the first time). As far as Gordon is concerned, Edward scored one off on him SOMEHOW, Gordon harrumphed and did a little tit for tat which is his goddamn right, and perhaps they both could have been a little more mature about it but at any rate that’s over.

It was dark by the time the trains reached the Junction, and you can guess what happened – Edward went through on the Main, while Gordon was switched to the Branch… It took The Fat Controller several hours to sort out the tangle and pacify the passengers. In the end Gordon was left, with his fire drawn, cold and cross on one of Edward's sidings[...] "No, Bill, this lot's useless for scrap. We'll take it to the harbour and dump it in the sea." Gordon was alarmed. "I am Gordon. Stop! Stop!" The twins paid no attention. Gordon shut his eyes and prepared for the worst[...]

After an absolutely terrible night and, somehow, a more terrible morning with what Gordon (not autistic at all btw!) sincerely regards as a genuine attempt on his life…

Edward scolded the twins severely, but told Gordon it served him right. Gordon was furious.

… Gordon encounters Edward again the next day only to be told that his whole harrowing experience, complete with the disrespect and the death threats from Edward’s own weird little industrial twin terrorists, ‘served him right.’

Gordon:

WHAT??????

Gordon thinks that, at most, he got a little shirty the night before but that Edward literally started it.

Edward, however, is taking a cool account of every sin Gordon has ever committed, up to and including Gordon being a drama queen about this whole ‘dump him in the sea’ business (I’m sure Edward could fathom taking the china clay twins seriously if he tried - if this were Duck coming to him with this complaint I’m sure Edward could make that leap of imagination - but this is Gordon. Edward doesn’t regard the twins as all that challenging and he’s not about to make an effort right now to understand the troubles of Gordon, who just last night had turned back the clock some thirty years in order to directly insult his branch line out of nowhere.)

Basically: All the sudden, their old truce is in tatters. Both think that it’s the other’s fault – Edward reckons Gordon’s just proved it never meant much, while Gordon thinks Edward just spat on all his efforts for no reason at all that he can see.

I am sympathetic to Gordon’s bafflement up to this point - I understand why Edward is blowing hot and cold like this, and I think he has a right to, but this hostile confusion and mutual pain was always going to be the inevitable result, sooner or later.

But Gordon loses my sympathy real fast when he reacts to this development by… partying like it’s Vicarstown 1922:

(Note of course that while Henry and James gave Gordon an opening, their remarks were far more neutral – Gordon takes the opportunity to tank the entire vibe:)

"Did you see him straining?" asked Henry. "Positively painful," remarked James. "Just pathetic," grunted Gordon. "He should give up and be Preserved before it's too late." "Shut up!" burst out Duck.

Okay, yep. I am vividly reminded why kind little Edward, once-upon-a-time a very straightforward and transparent character, had to go and develop this entire fucky points-scoring communication style to begin with.

But my proposal here is that this blow-up represents an aberration from their postwar relationship. They seemed to have moved on. They had at least 15 years of relative peace. The above scene represents something of a surprise twist (appropriate for a finale): Nah, they never did patch things up! They’re as fucked up as ever!

Now, the previous paragraph was a place where I think that I am actually reading in concert with what Awdry’s writing. I do think he intended that as a bit of a twist. I think “Edward’s Exploit” is in a way meant to be a callback to those days, a deliberate “Edward’s Day Out/Edward and Gordon Part 2: Electric Boogaloo.”

This whole book is, I think, meant to be a new as well as a final word on Edward’s character development. Hence, he shows us an Edward who throughout the book displays a new level of assuredness. We see his dynamic with Bill and Ben, introduced here for the first time. We’re shown that, far from fading away, he’s fast becoming besties with one of those newfangled diesels. And - well, you couldn’t really crown Edward’s character development without revisiting the Gordon dynamic, now could you? “Wrong Road” shows us the playful, teasing, never-fear-these-days-I-can-handle-Gordon-with-a-smile Edward we already met for the first time in “Cows,” but then for this go-’round Awdry takes it one step further: Edward no longer has to couch his disapproval of Gordon’s attitude indirectly, but can assert himself in a direct conflict. Edward’s never canonically scolded anyone before, but now we see he’s able to manage both titchy little saddletanks and Gordon Himself. The next time someone says Edward is a static character, I swear to Lady I am going to chuck this book at their head. That was a very deliberate character arc. And I love it! Lookit my sweet boy crack some skulls! Awesome!

… it is, however, very depressing to me that we had to explode the apparent Edward+Gordon truce in order to achieve this.

Mind you, Awdry thinks he resolved that conflict by the end of “Exploit.” I cannot emphasize this enough. Yes, Gordon reverted to his old tricks when Edward leveled up and told him off – but by the end of the story Edward’s wildly popular exploit has shut him up, so yay! It’s all good! 👍 👍

…

Oh, wait? You don’t think it’s so good? You feel like maybe you could use a bit more, before you felt like these two were on new and solider-than-ever ground? Like maybe this relationship needs a bit more than Gordon merely shutting up? Like you’d wish it to be deeper than Gordon apparently resigning himself to the fact that Edward is Always Fuckin’ Right, and Edward Always Fuckin’ Wins? Like maybe we haven’t really addressed the underlying problem here at all, maybe jealousy and pique and hierarchy was always their obstacle from Day 1? And so they can never compete their way out of this mess?

Yeah, weird. I feel like that too, somehow.

However, this is what canon gives us. We can add some more to it, sure. But I do think it’s worth just… sitting with this for a while. Processing things. These are two characters who are flawed but who have such great qualities, as well, and there are these obvious points of connection and potential understanding, and you just feel like this could be a much richer relationship, instead of merely a decades-long tug-of-war. I mean, we go on to see it with Gordon and BoCo. (All right, obviously I’ll never admit BoCo is ‘just a diesel Edward.’ But for purposes of this particular essay, I’ll just say that… he’s not not a diesel Edward, y’know? They’re certainly goddamn similar enough that it’s incredible how close Gordon becomes with one of them and how, despite so much time and opportunity, he will forever be held at arms’-length with the other.) That relationship seems like one of genuine mutual support. Indeed the other remarkable thing that goes down in "Wrong Road" is that for once Gordon not only connects to someone without relying on the "benevolent patron" role, but indeed that he is the one who needs help – but he actually responds to it well and, instead of condescending to BoCo, he shows respect. And it seems so obvious that Gordon and Edward’s could have been like that too, but instead they’ve spent so long bothering each other despite a fair amount of good intention on each side.

That’s how it goes sometimes, I guess.

But hey, you know what. Maybe their relationship improved later, off-screen. Like maybe it had some space to breathe once The Author stopped poking around and fuckin’ writing about it.

I’ve heard of wilder things.

Uh, Cleanup Crew?

"All three engines are now great friends."

I think this famous conclusion is true – at least, it was true in 1945, at the height of their optimism and unity. However the tension in the Gordon-Edward leg of this triangle, seen from the beginning of canon, only ever gets worse.

Honestly, the notorious TTRE stuff doesn’t strike me as all that bad. I read TTRE and I’m actually like, yeah sure, I can see how these two would move on to become friends. Honestly I can see it at the end of TTRE a lot more easily for Gordon and Edward than for Gordon and Henry - I feel like Gordon’s actually been a lot worse to Henry. Most of the red flags in this relationship – the aggressive ostracizing of Troublesome Engines and Edward’s backbiting and Taking Control of the Narrative – come later! And look, Gordon and Henry have their rough patches too. Henry the Green Engine is a terrible low point, Gordon was a flaming dumpster fire in his whistle story. But it’s also clear that Gordon and Henry do a lot of relationship repair, off-screen. We see continually how joined at the hip they are, we see them genuinely enjoying each other’s company, and it makes sense because we know they have interests and personality traits in common.

In contrast, even though Gordon and Edward’s relationship seems more recoverable in theory, in practice nearly every interaction between them ranges from uncomfortable to actively hostile. There is never any repair, there’s only ever Edward managing to keep Gordon in check, and when you are constantly playing defense you might be able to make some sort of old working relationship creak and clatter on but you are never really getting close to each other either. If Henry needed an apology from Gordon, and I expect he did, then Henry spoke up and he got one. Edward is tougher than Henry, more independent. Which is good for him but one result from never moaning or complaining to Gordon about Gordon’s past offenses is that Gordon, oblivious and proud, is never going to take responsibility or make amends for them. Usually in real life I’d just be like 'good riddance!’ but this is fiction, lol, and despite this one major flaw Gordon truly is so valuable as a friend. But there’s no evidence to me that he ever really became one for Edward. Edward doesn’t hate him, I think sheer necessity and his capacity to understand others makes him genuinely fond of Gordon. But he doesn’t trust him, and because he doesn’t trust him he provokes Gordon to forever give him fresh reason to not trust him, and because of this no matter how well they can work together or chit chat this never becomes a mutually supportive relationship and, like… that’s sad. That’s real sad. By the end of TTRE I’m like ‘aww, this friendship could be cute.’ By the end of MLE I’m like ‘Family counseling, stat. Or just communicate solely through intermediaries for the rest of your life, that could work too.’

But Jobey. I don’t accept this. I imagine them as genuine friends and/or I straight-up ship them and LA LA LAAA I can’t heeeear youuuu.

You’re perfectly welcome to do so, lol. I'd like to take a sad song and make it better, too.

The one fortunate thing is that, after Main Line Engines, there is plenty of blank space where anyone can continue or add to the 2+4 story. I think one can plausibly fill in a happy ending. Gordon still has some character development after MLE. Edward doesn't, but I think he ought, and I can see a couple areas where he could. To make a happy ending for this dynamic convincing three things still do have to click into place. In no particular order:

The narrative actually has to validate the good parts of Gordon's ethos (not the selfish parts - but the subversive/rebellious/engine autonomy parts) as a necessary complement to Edward's ethos.

Edward has to be willing to let himself be vulnerable in front of Gordon.

Gordon needs to need Edward's help and then actually express gratitude afterwards.

Shouldn't be too tough, honestly! The first has to be done by we the transformative-work fans; canon never did and never could. The third is especially easy because we do finally see Gordon doing this in Main Line Engines and again in his second book, High Speed Engine – it's just that both times it's with BoCo, lmao. Gordon's there. Gordon's ready. He just needs a plot point opportunity. To be honest the second is going to be the toughest nut to crack. Again, Edward is not shown to develop after MLE. For this dynamic, he's gonna have to. Just a smidge more. Unlike TVS, I don't think "Gordon is humbled" is going to be enough of a wandwave to make this right. I'm not interested in blame, I'm interested in them finding a groove that works for them. A relationship that doesn't need to make either of them smaller for it to work.

And it should be possible, to somehow get those boxes checked. Some factors are already very much in their favor:

The Author is no longer sticking a mic in their smokeboxes and publishing the shit they say about each other every few years.

We saw them have normal, comfortable interactions in 1952. We already know a level of mutual trust is possible.

Presumably more and more engines are coming to Sodor, making this older bond rarer and more important to them.

They're good friends with each other's friends.

Gordon's growth clearly takes some cues from Edward's example. Their outlooks are converging, not diverging.

(If we need to wait this long for something to facilitate this) Gordon getting knocked off the express in 2011 radically changed his lifestyle.

So, I don't feel too despairing about this relationship. Hell, I kind of like to imagine that by the time the century turns they're able to laugh together and even mutually pitch caricatures of their old relationship missteps to the new writers lol.

And their proposed smoothing-out and reconnection would have big thematic resonance. The early conflicts in canon often had to do with the Edward ethos and the Gordon ethos. Part of the reason those conflicts taper off is because both the characters mature, of course. But part of the reason is just that the external circumstances change. The world whole environment of the NWR changes, and when it does these two ethos are incorporated into a whole. They begin to merge and complement each other. Indeed, arguably a lot of the success of the railway's culture is because everyone figures out a way embrace both. Innit? I think so. And if you buy that interpretation (Awdry didn't, lol, but what does he know?) then this long and winding 2+4 road actually ends up as a very nice story. Best story never written, perhaps.

But, for all the promising signs for the post-MLE era, I would still love to see more fan content within the original RWS canon timeline that represents the high degree of textual tension between them (and uniquely between them) from the 1920s to the 1960s. It's messy as hell, I hate the discomfort and would-you-two-dumbasses-just-COMMUNICATE of it sooo much, at the same time it's extremely compelling. Very good food. Even if things have improved, I hope they're still sometimes Problematic and Passive-Aggressive. I hope newbies are occasionally stuck with them in the sheds when they trip over a sensitive old topic and these two oldies don't even look at each other but the temperature still drops like a falling snowcap and the most oblivious of the newbies is like "Uhh, guys? ? ? Real weird vibe in here!"

And Henry and BoCo just look fuckin' exhausted, lmaoo.

#chatter #long post #ttte analysis #2+4 #ttte edward #ttte gordon #The Literary Device

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everythingsinred · 1 year ago

Text

Natsume is a Leftie

I am BACK with another important research post.

At the end of the day, I am a scholar and an academic and I must go out of my way to closely research and study in my field (Natsume). Today it is time, after gathering my evidence, to establish my thesis on Natsume being a leftie.

(I gathered evidence in the background of gathering evidence for ANOTHER post about Natsume being a cat, so this isn't exhaustive, just strongly suggestive. Except that I'm right. So.)

Alright we'll start with a caveat! Higuchi Tachibana is a human being and makes many mistakes while drawing (draws buttons on wrong side sometimes, drew Natsume wearing the elementary uniform when he was supposed to be wearing the middle school uniform, drew Ruka in the girl uniform, etc.) so there ARE times when Natsume is using his right hand to do things he should be using his left hand for OR that other characters who are usually right-handed are seen using their left hand.

Take this image, simultaneously an example of Natsume being a leftie but also depicting Ruka, who (as far as I can tell from other evidence) is right-handed, as left-handed too. There are inconsistencies! But I am basing this off of the overwhelming amount of evidence the manga provides.

And! While I did focus on Natsume's handedness for this post, I did periodically check other characters' eating and writing and alice use (if applicable, since not everyone's alice works like Natsume) and the above image of Ruka feels like an exception rather than a rule. Most people are righthanded and most of the characters seem righthanded.

Mikan is a rightie and Chapter 27 is full of her writing with her right hand. You can see her eating with her right hand in other chapters and primarily using her right hand in other scenes throughout the manga.

We see most characters here eating with their right hands with the exception of Natsume and Mikan, who have their hands down and aren't eating. Hotaru handles weaponry primarily with her right hand and eats with her right hand. She also uses wrenches and other tools with her right hand. Koko and Iinchou and Permy all seem like righties from what I can tell.

Dainty Ruka-pyon uses his right hand to eat! It's kinda hard to track with him, honestly. There's not a lot of instances of him writing or eating, so who's to say. He might very well be right-handed as evidenced by this evidence with his fork (and there's another one on the same page) or maybe he's left-handed as evidenced by the above writing picture with Natsume. He's usually holding an animal (typically Usagi), so it's hard to tell sometimes if he's using a certain hand because it's his dominant or because it's the hand that's not busy holding an animal. Maybe he's ambidextrous! Who knows!

Anyway! About Natsume...

Let's begin with what exactly handedness is. Wikipedia says it's "an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous" with the other hand usually being less so. Thus, for complex actions that require precision and control will be carried out with the dominant hand. You'll defer to your dominant side most times and it tends to be subconscious. So for both absent movements and precision-requiring movements, you will probably default to your dominant hand. Our muscle memory and precision is usually significantly more developed in our dominant hand. Handedness is usually determined by observing the hand people use to write or eat with. This post will also feature heavily that Natsume predominantly uses his left hand to use his alice.

10% of the population is left-handed and most of society was built to cater to right-handed individuals. In Japan in particular, children are sometimes still forced to write with their right hand because of the way writing kanji works. Previously, throughout history, people have assumed that left-handedness was a sign of the devil. People have also historically correlated left-handedness with mental illness and have encouraged forcing leftie children to use their right hand (though this practice often resulted in children having self-esteem issues and speech impediments, which probably means the lefties have higher rates of mental illness because of how they've been treated rather than some innate issue).

Thus pages like this, where he's using his right hand to use the water fountain, are because they are designed for right-handed people, thus are not evidence that he's not left-handed, if that makes sense.

Alright here's the evidence for him being a leftie!

This is my most consistent evidence. Most people with alices don't have a manifested thing to keep in their hands like Natsume does to showcase this, really, so he's kinda unique in this way, but most of the time that I've been able to notice, he's primarily using his left hand to summon his fire. This is pretty consistent until we get to later chapters when his battles are much grander and he summons much larger flames that surround him rather than manifesting in one hand or the other.

I mean. This is pretty solid evidence that he's a leftie. Medusa here points out that he's specifically targeted Natsume's left hand because he caught on to the fact that Natsume has been using that hand to use his alice for most of the battle. He can use his right hand, as we see in other moments, and even on the next page of this scene, but I think his left hand is his dominant hand and thus the one he feels most comfortable using.

He even uses his left hand to make an alice stone! If you were crafting something with love and care, you'd probably use your dominant hand, right? (Or, rather... left.... hehe :P)

Honestly if this was a couple one-off times regarding his alice use, I wouldn't make anything of it, but it's so consistent, it must mean something.

But! I have more evidence than just alice use, although I think that's pretty significant.

We'll start with my weaker and more desperate evidence...

He tends to reach out with the left hand. I've noticed a slight tendency for him to turn on his left side (like in the above example with the water fountain as well as this scene with Ruka), or to lean on the left side, which is not necessarily proof but just padding for my study.

The center image in particular seems so telling to me. After the ground closes up, Natsume instantly collects himself and even seems embarrassed by how much emotion he showed, which signals that this moment was knee-jerk fear to help Mikan. He reaches out with his left hand because it's the familiar hand and it's an instinctive move.

This is the same reasoning as above. Natsume grabs this kid and gets him out of the way of danger and thus his left hand is stuck to the kid for an hour, so we consistently see him with his left hand out of commission. I think, because this was a knee-jerk and instinctive move, he reached out with the left hand again to save the kid from being crushed.

These are stretches, but humor me! The shape of the fingers suggests that's his left hand, and I either hold a book with two hands or with my dominant. It feels a little weird to hold it with my non-dominant. The next one is him feeding the animals with his left hand despite the animals being on his right. Subconsciously, people move to favor their dominant side to make things easier.

Alright, on to stronger stuff. According to the internet, what hand you use to write is pretty indicative of your handedness. We have the image with Ruka above, where we can see him writing with his left hand.

This scene is very important to me! Technically, Natsume does end up writing the answer on the chalkboard with fire using his right pointer finger, but that's because he'd already picked up the chalk with his left to write with and only drops it when he's moving past the area. He's a lazy boy too, so...

Using violence, LMAO. He hits with his left hand and... I don't know if y'all have ever thrown a punch or slapped someone, but... I mean, in my experience you prefer your dominant hand.

For such precision-oriented actions as these examples above, you'd likely use your left-hand. He does use his right hand in Chapter 9 playing dodgeball (but it's the one time he's shown actively throwing it, so IDK. Could be a fluke or a mistake.), but I'm inclined to ignore that. I don't really toss things with my non-dominant hand the way Natsume does with the cockroach, so that's probably the hand he's more comfortable with. The second image is him after he threw a ball at Tono's head, and, for max aim ability, one would use their dominant hand for that. The last one.... First, he's so cool. I've never been able to do that, dominant hand or no (I'm bad at sports), but it was always a bit easier on my right hand (dominant) than otherwise, so I think that's proof too.

Moving on...

People use their dominant hand to use eating utensils, as we saw above with other characters. These are multiple examples from across the manga where Natsume uses his left hand to use a fork or chopsticks. I will concede that in the last image where Natsume is eating a New Year's meal with chopsticks, many other characters are using their left hands despite me knowing they're right-handed, namely Hotaru. That being said, the other evidence here makes me think Natsume's left-handedness is intentional.

And here it is, my biggest proof:

(Ruka is a rightie here, and no animal in sight, so maybe this is his natural way of being... Then again, he could always be ambidextrous, like I said, though that is exceptionally rare. Then again, Ruka is exceptional, so <3)

Here, Higuchi Tachibana would have had to go out of her way to draw Natsume eating with a different hand than Aoi or Ruka. This evidence to me is SO LOUD. Not only does this further cement that Natsume is a leftie and not all other characters are, but also that it's not an accident or even a headcanon. This is proof that it was intentional on Higuchi Tachibana's part to draw him left-handed! I've always been obsessed with this page, so I was bound to catch this eventually. Yet another reason to love this panel lol.

I have stuff I couldn't fit in here because even with a 30 image limit I am tempted to go overboard, but this should be sufficient. Natsume is a leftie!

Did y'all know lefties tend to excel more in sports? They also tend to be better fighters (as we can see in the violence examples above) because they move from an unexpected side. The fact that the world is designed to favor right-handedness means lefties have an unforeseen advantage in sports and fighting because they move from a side righties don't anticipate as naturally.

But many tools, computer equipment, and even instruments are designed for easier right-handed use, which can be inconvenient or even dangerous for lefties. Thus, I didn't know how a sax would work regarding handedness (and also Natsume sucks at playing it anyway) which is why I didn't even really check out those chapters.

Anyway, handedness doesn't really affect many things in a meaningful way despite some propaganda or vague correlations saying otherwise and lefties face an often-overlooked series of disadvantages, which is why I think Natsume being a leftie is interesting, because his life is hard enough already. Oh well.

Anyway, I hope y'all enjoyed reading this rambling! Natsume being left-handed is something I will not let go of. I will DIE on this hill, especially because it's pretty clearly intentional.

#gakuen alice #ga #hyuuga natsume #my meta #ga meta #of course i cant really talk abt him being a leftie without discussing why most other characters ARENT.#anyway. i hope this was a fun read. it was fun to put together #ive wanted to make this post for a while but i'd never actually gathered evidence for it before this #i figured i might as well compile my evidence #bc i always write natsume as a leftie in my fics so. its pretty important to me #this post also made me realize ruka is a bit more ambiguous w handedness so! i like the idea that he could be ambidextrous #thats so cool of him lol

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todayisafridaynight · 2 years ago

Note

Sorry to keep throwing Miscellaneous Asks your way, but I finally had a moment to get my thoughts in order on one of the points on your Venn diagram I wanted to talk about! I always kind of debate whether or not to send other, semi-unrelated long asks like this when we've already got a chain going, but oh well. I'll try and address anything brought up in response here in the main one and hopefully it doesn't get confusing lol.

So I was thinking about the extent of Jo and Arakawa's relationship. It is completely true there's not much you can say that's concrete, especially since most of what we see is from Jo's perspective. Although his perspective is crucial to forming an understanding of their relationship, it's not sufficient. This is particularly the case because, coming back to giri-ninjo for a moment, Jo is largely bound by giri; it's clear his loyalty runs deep, but it's not a choice for him.

Arakawa, on the other hand, can choose who he places his trust in, especially early on. And I think it's incredibly important that, despite having men who've already been with him from day 1, men who've already been helping him with his son, Arakawa chooses to "place every confidence" in Jo (per an old Famitsu profile, one of the first official ones) and chooses to make Jo his captain.

Similarly, he kind of chooses Jo "over" Ichi in sending Ichi to prison "instead of" Jo. Perhaps the family really would collapse without Jo's talents, but… does it have to collapse entirely? Didn't Arakawa make it pretty far on his own? I guess it's neither here nor there, but I've always wondered if things would've really played out as feared if Jo went to prison instead. Not to understate Jo's role in the family, of course.

Anyway, I think that trust shows not only in overt gestures such as entrusting Masato and the family's finances to Jo, but also in more subtle behind-the-scenes ways, such as what we were talking about before with regard to New Year's 2001. There's also the fact that leaking information to Aoki was Jo's idea; for that to be the case, Arakawa would have to discuss Aoki's threats at length with Jo. (Unrelated, but come to think of it, "complying with him [to] make him see value in keeping us around" is very often the strategy of victims of abuse and neglect…)

And this one's an underrated detail many people miss, but after Arakawa shot Ichi, while he was able to come up to Ichi to tell him he's counting on him and sneak in the fake bill, if the goal was to not arouse suspicion, I don't think he would exactly have been able to excuse himself from the dinner to drive Ichi to Yokohama. Time was of the essence in terms of Ichi's survival, so that leaves Jo, who was conveniently already at the scene and who was certainly in on the "secret rule" that constitutes part of the Arakawa Family's agreement with the homeless camp. Overall, there is a pattern of Arakawa approaching Jo before anyone else, isn't there?

Sort of branching off of that, I would personally feel comfortable saying that Jo knows Arakawa better than anyone else. He seems to know details about Akane and New Year's 1976 no one else does, details Arakawa would have had to volunteer himself, and that plus his own experiences are what allow him alone to have the most complete picture of that night.

I also get the impression Jo understands Arakawa better as a person than anyone else--certainly better than Aoki, but perhaps even better than Ichi in some cases. There are multiple instances where he defends Arakawa and challenges their perceptions of him--that he's "betrayed" the Tojo Clan, that he's betrayed Aoki, that he's the type to scheme and make power-plays behind Aoki's back. He hasn't. And, despite how little Jo's "allowed" to say, he turns out to be right every time. Also worth noting Arakawa does something similar in asking Ichi to try and understand Jo's frustrations, though he's more or less enabling Jo's abuse in doing so.

Lastly, The Smallest Detail that drives me kind of insane. Them arriving at the office in the back seat of the same car in one of Ichi's flashbacks. I wouldn't think too much of it if it were any other time of day, but the first-thing-in-the-morning quality and the fact Jo isn't driving (thus it's not as an act of service but as an equal) is like… Okay. You're carpooling to work. And if you're not carpooling, you're honest-to-god living together. What the hell.

So a lot of it is this web of inferences--it has to be, at least currently--but I really do think there's a lot to chew on. More than meets the eye, anyway. I've also been stewing in all of this for years, especially since drafting Jo's relationships section, so I might just have inhaled the fumes for too long lol

Thank you for coming to me about the nature of their relationship! Although I did put it down as being more-or-less 'uncertain' on my chart, I do agree that their relationship isn't as cut-and-dry as other relationships might be (it's going back to appreciating the complexities of RGG relationships, especially in the case of the Arakawa's where for every party involved it really IS complicated)

I wanted to exclude making any definitive statements on things that couldn't be verified without making a detour on the original post (I know I already mentioned frequently that Arakawa is able to joke about Jo being 'softer' on Masato, but I do think about their relationship often and the implied depth of Jo's loyalty if- as you said- he was able to climb through the ranks of the Arakawa family much quicker than preexisting members), but there are clear points in the game that due allude to a great trust between the two (and I also note that carpooling detail during Ichi's flashback- or at the very least I know I'd find myself noticing Jo sitting in the back opposed to the front/driving). It's definitely not hard to assert that Jo knows Arakawa well either, it's hard not to come to that conclusion when we have evidence from the game to infer that.

#long post #fave #i should prob come up with an actual tag for these asks so i can easily find them and not sift through my other fave'd posts #ill do it in the morning im right about to go to bed but i just saw this pop up on my notifications #and well. we know me i've been presented an itch i have to scratch LMAO #snap chats #i feel a bit silly now- i know that their relationship isn't exactly. 'uncertain' but i didnt want to put that so i didn't appear #hmm.. i dont know the word for it.#i guess because it's not AS blatant as daigo and mine's relationship was #i didnt want to make it appear as though i was saying theres more when there isnt?? tho there definitely is..#its a little evident i Am interested in the depths of their relationship so i promise ive thought about it #maybe i just wasnt sure how to exactly word it.. though in review the way i worded it on my chart #wasn't HORRIBLE. to most standards anyway i think however it definitely undermines the bond they have and for that #'ashamed' is hyperbolic i feel like someone would say so we'll go with 'embarrassed' to meet in the middle #but thats the benefit of peer review isnt it- just to help catch your mistakes or to help reaffirm ideas so im grateful!#but x2 again in review im a silly coward for doubting my gut on that #tho i sort of do want to torch that post- i wont tho. it's not supposed to be SUPER deep just very quick notes #so i guess i'll save the Deep Dive on jo and masumi's relationship for a future post. is what ill tell myself to keep myself sane #thank you for compiling- i suppose i'll call- their moments together !#it's a great way to keep track of every important note on their relationship that i hope people will take note of if they havent

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5sospenguinqueen · 17 days ago

Text

The Wrong Bull | Mark Webber x Interviewer! Reader

Summary: Mark was enjoying a private relationship with his favourite F1 interviewer. Until the internet started shipping you with his biggest rival

Warnings: Malaysia 2013. A lot of fabrication ie made up insta names. Swearing. Suggestive content. Indulgent blurb because who doesn’t like the idea of needy/possessive Mark.

Requested: No

F1 Masterlist

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its_yn just posted

liked by markwebber, f1 and others

its_yn happy malaysia grand prix weekend! i’m very happy to be in the paddock this weekend bringing you the insight on how our eleven teams are doing

6,622 comments

danielricciardo can’t wait to see you. always bring me the most interesting questions

→ its_yn and you always bring me the most random answers

user1 my fave interviewer. i love the way she lovingly bullies the drivers. they’re always so engaging with her

jensonbutton now that’s a handsome man

→ its_yn thank you, i try

→ danielricciardo but i’m the one with random answers?

user2 i’m so happy you’re in the paddock. you have the best rapport with the drivers and always have the best interviews with them

skysportsf1 when all the drivers beg for you to be there, we can’t say no

→ its_yn aw, you guys. i knew you loved me really

→ sebastianvettel of course. the prettiest interviewer we have

→ user3 oh, well then, get in there vettel

→ user4 sebastian making his move

user5 vettel winning on and off the track

user6 no way he bagged the hot sky sports presenter

user7 okay but the way she was smiling at him

→ user8 and the way he looked at her? talk about heart eyes

user9 if they need a third or a dog, i can bark

user10 ngl i thought jenson button was going to win her over

user11 okay, let’s chill a second guys. they just entered the paddock together

→ user12 we might be seeing the beginning of their relationship! how can any of us be calm. used to pray for times like these

→ user13 yes but we don’t want to scare them off before we get confirmation

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Back resting against the wall of Mark's driver room, legs curled beneath you, you flipped through your notebooks. Going through your notes, you occasionally jotted something down, deeming it worthy of potentially mentioning during any interviews later. The sound of the lock turning had your head snapping up in time to see Mark's tall stature fill the doorframe. His eyes landed on you instantly, and he wriggled through the small gap he had created, blocking you from view of whoever was on the other side. A few short sentences later, Mark had managed to provide an adequate excuse to be alone. The door shut with a quiet click and Mark assured you it was locked.

"What are you doing here?" Mark questioned, the soft smile on his face assuring he wasn't opposed to the sight of you in his room. "Shouldn't you be out bothering more important people?"

"More important than you?" You shot back. "I've been put in charge of the post-race interviews today so I've got a bit of a break."

Mark took note of your jacket hanging on the back of his door, and your shoes at the foot of his massage table. His things surrounded by your things. And he was warmed by how comfortable you were here. In an endeavour to find some peace admit the chaos of the paddock, you took refuge in his room. The notion stoked the little fire of possessiveness within him.

"So, you're just going to hide out here until the race?"

Your pile of snacks, the circle of papers around you, and his jumper hanging from your frame told him all he needed to know. He just wanted - no, needed - to hear you say it. Especially after he'd overheard some of the drivers teasing Vettel during the Parade. About you, and the internet's speculations. And how if the German ended up on the podium, then how could the "pretty interviewer" say no to a date. So, regardless of the fact that it was his name and number splashed across your body, he still needed to hear you say it. To confirm that you were his and his alone.

"Until I'm needed, then yes," you smiled, watching as he slowly approached.

The white fireproof clinging to his muscular arms flexed as he placed them on either side of you. His race suit was wrapped around his waist precariously, looking ready to fall apart with a slight tug.

He angled his head down towards you, cheeks dimpling when he grinned. "And if I say you're needed right now?"

Your arms looped around his neck, pulling him down to close the small gap he had left between you. "What exactly am I needed for, Mr Webber?"

His eyes darted down to your mouth, watching as your tongue darted out to wet your lips. Before you could register that he'd moved, his mouth was on yours, moving against you and swallowing your surprised squeak. His arms wound themselves around your midsection, pulling you closer. The warmth of his body pressed into you instantly, and you melted into his touch.

Sliding your hands into his hair, you tugged at the short strands so as to pull him off you in order to catch your breath. As he didn't need oxygen more than he needed you, Mark's lips continued moving. His lips moved across your jaw, under your ear and down to the fluttering pulse in your neck, leaving a fiery path as he moved. A whimper was pulled from you when he sucked gently, your back arching into him. Paper crinkled beneath you when he lowered you onto the bed.

"Mark," you moaned, "you don't have time."

"Shh," he whispered against your skin, crawling atop you, trapping you between his body and the massage table. It have a groan of protest but he paid it no mind.

Not when your hands slid under his fireproofs, stroking the heated skin of his abdomen before trailing lower. With one pull, the knot of his race gave way, removing the cushioning that had prevented his hard length from pressing into you. A throaty groan escaped him when you rolled your hips against him.

Mark chuckled at your sudden eagerness. "What happened to not having enough time?"

"You shouldn't be so tempting."

Knowing that you craved him as much as he did you had Mark reconnecting your lips, moving with more fervour. Your lips parted, allowing his tongue to slide against yours. His hips jerked against you when you pulled his bottom lip into your mouth, sucking gently. Mark's hands slid down your hips, reaching around to palm your ass and pull you flush against him. The throbbing in his underwear intensified.

Two sharp raps on the door made your eyes snap open, fear flitting across your face when the door handle rattled. Mark pressed closer to you once more; not in lust but worry that someone would see you in the dishevelled state he had created. That was a sight for his eyes only.

Another knock came before a deep voice called out for the driver. "Christian wants to see you for a pre-race chat."

"What, now?"

"Yeah."

Mark groaned before looking down at you. Lipstick smeared, cheeks flushed and blotches darkening on your neck. He wasn't sure he could go outside. The image of you like this would stay with him, making him strain against the fabric of his suit.

"Go, my love," you whispered, tying his suit back around his waist, ensuring the arms carefully concealed the problem you had created. "And try not to collide with your teammate."

Well, the mention of his biggest rival this year was one way to soften him.

"You'll still be here when I get back? Before I jump in the car?" He pleaded.

He knew the answer. Of course he did. The routine had been the same for the past two years but, as before, he needed the verbal reassurance.

"And why would I do that?" You teased, snickering when the 6'1 man in front of you started to pout.

"Because how else would I get my pre-race kiss?"

"You could away ask Vettel."

The look on Mark's face turned from faux sadness to something much darker. You yelped when his teeth sunk into your neck before he pressed a soothing kiss on the mark he'd left (yes, I laughed at that). Shooting you a wink, he dashed out the door, and you were left alone once more.

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user1 seb really turned on the charm with this one

→ user2 he got away with defying team orders, won the race, and decided to win the girl

user3 they would make such a cute couple though

user4 idk how yn managed to keep her calm, interviewer face on because if 3x wdc winner sebastian vettel spoke to me like that, i’d be giggling and twirling my hair fr

user5 okay i wasn’t a fan of the sebastian/yn train earlier but this interview may have convinced me

user6 i love how she’s trying to stay unbiased but you can see that she’s impressed with vettel’s racing today

→ user7 i actually thought she was a bit short with him for a change

→ user8 no i agree. her energy felt off. usually she laughs when they’re flirting

user9 did anyone else see webber watching them in the background?

→ user10 vettel needs to sleep with one eye open

user11 everyone talking about sebyn but i swear she kept looking behind him at mark

→ user12 mark defo smiled at her when they made eye contact

→ user13 bfr, she’s clearly into seb here

f1 just posted

liked by its_yn, redbullracing and others

f1 and it’s a 1-2 for red bull! oh, sorry, was that meant to say 2-1?

9,222 comments

redbullracing that’s our bulls

→ user1 i didn’t realise we celebrated defying team orders

→ user2 oh please. sebastian was faster. mark needs to just accept that

its_yn well done, team red bull

→ user3 it’s okay, sis. you can say well done to the love of your life for winning

→ user4 vettel getting a celebration better than a champagne shower later

user5 f1 is foul for this lmao

→ user6 love how they used the pics where mark looks the most pissed off

sebastianvettel very good race. well done, team

→ user7 he sounds so polite like he’s not a certified track terror

user8 i’m in love with admin today. they knew what they were doing with this caption

jensonbutton has anyone heard from mark since the podium?

→ fernandoalonso he’s yapping my ear off until all the conferences are done

user9 poor mark. he looked ready to throttle seb when they were doing interviews

→ user10 omg was that the one where seb was flirting with yn??

→ user9 yes! webber was stood behind him looking murderous. so hot

user11 not to be one of those but i saw yn comforting mark after the race

→ user12 before or after her flirty interview with seb?

→ user13 not fans trying to push yn and webber based on their 3 interactions when all this seb and yn content is right there

user1 sorry but no one can convince me that she didn’t just have a celebration romp with vettel

→ user2 yes! got to celebrate his win properly haha

→ user3 when he asked if she had plans later knowing she’d end up in his driver’s room

user4 dishevelled clothes, messy hair and her red lipstick from the morning gone? did someone say driver’s room sex

user5 she really does look like she got dicked down good

user6 it’s the fact that almost everyone from the garage has left and she still got caught, bless her

user7 no because imagine angry sex with mark webber after that race

→ user8 oof, i never saw mark that way before but his face on that podium has me feeling some kind of way

→ user9 i love how everyone is thinking of seb and your magnificent brain thought of mark

→ user7 i’m just saying, if i had to pick between the blonde twink or the angry, tall aussie, i know who i’m going with

user10 okay but imagine it was mark’s room she snuck out from. seb stole his win so mark stole his crush

→ user11 revenge, hate sex

user12 did anyone else see the two marks on her neck during the interviews earlier though? i don't think post-race was the first taste miss thing got today

user13 damn, i always thought vettel would be good but he looks like he did a number on her

markwebber just posted

liked by redbullracing, danielricciardo and others

markwebber please can you stop "shipping" her with the wrong bull. she’s mine

7,012 comments

its_yn and has happily been yours for two wonderful years

→ user1 they’ve been together for two years?!

→ user2 excuse me, two years and they kept it from everyone?!

fernandoalonso does this mean i lose elite status as the only one who knows?

→ jensonbutton you knew!

→ lewishamilton of course he knew. although i feel a little blindsided

user3 no because i was fighting in the trenches for mark and yn whilst y’all were pushing the sebyn agenda

user4 who taught him to take the most romantic photos ever

→ markwebber yn did

→ its_yn i trained him good, ladies, so back off

redbullracing members of the garage have asked that you keep any noise in the driver’s room to a minimum. please and thanks

→ user5 so she did get her back blown out after the race by angry mark

→ user6 living my dream

→ its_yn i see you. he’s not for you anymore

jensonbutton genuinely did not see this coming. ngl, i was convinced yn was with seb

→ redbullracing so did we. we got sucked into all the twitter theories. they made a convincing case

→ its_yn @/redbullracing we had to disclose our relationship to you?

→ redbullracing i know. that’s how convincing they were

→ markwebber @/christianhorner how do i file a complaint about admin

user7 the height difference between them 🥰

→ user8 the height difference between them 🥵

danielricciardo well, there go my chances

→ markwebber you’re too young for her, mate

→ danielricciardo yes but clearly she has a thing for aussies

→ its_yn just the one ;)

user9 no wonder he was angry. seb stole his win and then poor mark had to watch him flirt with his girl

→ user10 and watch as the entire internet shipped his girlfriend of two years with that win-stealing man

sebastianvettel oh

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requests are open. i promise your requests are on the way. i'm just slow haha

tag list

@peachiicherries @rosecentury @c-losur3 @heavy-vettel @evie-119 @raizelchrysanderoctavius @lilorose25

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thepradapariah · 9 months ago

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Mars ☄️ and Your Sexxx Language 🐱💋✨

QUICK MESSAGE TO THE BADDIES

HELLO!!!! To all of my sweet, sweet Kosmic Baddies, Oh!! How I’ve missed you!

I cannot believe it’s been over a FRIGGIN year, but GOODNESS….believe me, when I say this past year has been a roller coaster for me, I truly mean it. I can only imagine what’s been going on in your lives as well. Just TOO MUCH!!!1111!!!!!111!!!!!1 But welcome to 2024! A universal 8 year and the year of the Dragon!!! WE IN THIS THANNNNGGG!!!! Hard work, discipline and accountability is the theme, and we can’t lose!!!!!

Believe it or not, I actually STARTED writing this to have to you for Halloween, but ummmm….this is looking like a Valentine’s Day post instead! HA!!!! Blame it on my Saturn in Pisces– my relationship to time is….non existent. But, I think this timing is better anyways. The theme is very fitting so we are going to turn apples into oranges.

***Even funnier update, now it’s past Valentine’s Day….GOODNESS!!! This has been the longest it’s taken me to write anything. Like…INSANE. Almost 6 months I’ve been steadily working on this!

Thank you to those who have continued to support me! Thank you to those who have continued to share and interact with my post through my…let’s say, hiatus! I am planning to put more energy and effort into this blog post. I LOVE writing for y’all, it is really one of my favorite things in the world.

I am going to take a moment to apologize in advance and say, the typos are probably going to be real with this one. Because I’ve been working on it for so long, I’m just ready to get it out, so it won’t be my cleanest work. I will probably be updating and editing, so bare with me!

🕯 INTRODUCTION 🕯

Sooooo….where to start? I wanted to do something fun and interesting this go round because I missed y’all so much, but I also wanted to do something light so I could get back into the rhythm of writing again….aaaaaaaaaand I thought you would enjoy something a little smexiiiii as we move into cuddle buddy season. So, in this post, we are going to talk about Mars and Your Sexxx language.

One day, as I was driving around town, it dawned on me that we always talk about Love Languages (check out my Mercury post if you haven’t already) and we never talk about sex languages. And y’all know me, and if you don’t know, you’ll soon find out, I am a Bharani moon (atmakaraka at that); and the blending between Mars and Venus is my soul’s most valuable asset to share with the world…(Did I mention my moon is the 11th House?) Sex is one of the most taboo topics (in Western puritan culture, at least), yet such a powerful resource in our human tool box and it’s ridiculously important in our relationships. The 7th House is followed by the 8th House for a reason. Intimacy, of course not always sexual, is what leads to self-discovery, the 9th House. So we cannot overlook the important step that is sexual relations. Even the word “orgasm” means “little death” and death baby, is as close as you get to God. (See how those houses flow together so well?) Hence why things such as Tantra are a sexual AND religious experience all in one. Don’t be fooled by western/christian ideals into thinking that sex is unholy or ungodly. If you think Jesus was a virgin, think again. I mean, what’s the point of turning water into wine if you’re just going to roll over and go to sleep? Y’know what I mean?

Don’t worry! If you’re a less experienced reader, and haven’t engaged in aaaaallll thhhaattt… this post is still for you! In fact, this is one of the reasons I love astrology so much, because hopefully this post will give you some context about yourself and what your SOUL craves, not just your body, so when you do start “doing the do” you can be spiritually comfortable with your wants and desires instead of ashamed or even afraid of them.

Not to put all my business on the street…but, hey, I love y’all, so I won’t keep too many secrets from you (mercury in the 8th, HA)…but, I had to do quite a bit of bumping and grinding to discover what my soul needs in an intimate relationship and I wish there was more of “guide” for me on that journey! So HERE…I’m giving it to you!

WHAT IS A SEX LANGUAGE? 😈

To be completely honest, a “sex language” isn’t something as defined as a love language, so please, bear with me as we discover this together. Please feel free to share any experiences or insight with me. Although I may not always respond, I TRULY appreciate you taking the time to share with me. I try to read everything that I can!

I’m defining sex language as how one creates and shares intimacy in their close relationships. This is particularly expressed through physical interactions and outward expressions. Mars is a planet that governs our passions, drives and desires, meaning our sex language is guided by what we deeply want and crave from our partners on a spiritual level. Venus represents more of the external notions that we have for love and relationships, while Mars represents our internal needs from love and relationships. Mars is inherently a more personal and “self-centered” planet, so interestingly enough, your sex language is all about you! I go as far to say, when you find a partner, don’t forget to check your Mars compatibility as well. If you have extremely incompatible Mars signs, you will have to do a lot more work in the relationship to overcome the constant friction. Moreover, if you have more compatible Mars signs, then WOOOO BABY, the sexual tension could be off the charts!

✨ ABOUT MARS ✨

Mars placements won’t make or break a relationship, per say, but it is a very important layer to help maintain a relationship. How many of you have heard of sexless marriages and people being unsatisfied in their relationships in a sexual way? Does that mean the couples always break-up because of the lack of sex or chemistry? No…..But does it help a HECK OF A LOT when you are wildly attracted to your partner? YES! (Of course this isn’t always a good thing…but for the sake of this post, we are only talking about rainbows and sunshine.) Just keep this in mind as you start to use this knowledge in your journey. Mars is a really important planet that is easy to overlook because it’s not in the Big Three! (Yet, it iiissss the natural ruler of the 1st House).

WHY IT ALL MATTERS 🌚

I truly believe there is a shift in the collective and many couples are going to be coming into union over the course of the next year or so. Why? Because Ketu is FINALLY transitioning out of Libra and entering Virgo. If you’ve noticed, we’ve seen quite a bit of celebrity break-ups and covid relationships coming to a screeching halt. Hence why I say, if you’ve been single, or haven’t been in a serious connection in the last few years or even ever, now is the time that your next partner might be going through some significant ending with an ex. Union is on the horizon for a lot of souls who have been doing theeee spiritual work. That’s why I couldn’t think of a better topic to get started to set the mooooooooood. Bow-chicka-wow-wow.

So without further ado, let’s get into the nitty gritty. I’m going to do something different and start with Mars in Pisces/12th House and work backwards to Mars in Aries/1st House! I thought “Hey! Why not switch it up a bit? Pisces shouldn’t be forced to scroll ALL the time!”

***Note: If you’re feeling extra spicy, you can read for whatever sign is in your 1st House and 8th House as well because those are traditionally Mars ruled Houses. And you can read for your 12H, because the 12H is also the house of bedroom pleasures! Always keep in mind that we are complex creatures and astrology is like a puzzle, so it’s okay for some things to resonate and other things to not. Learn as many perspectives as possible so you can define yourself!

With Love & Lust,

Enjoy!

A-D 💋

Mars in Pisces/Mars in the 12th House

“Cut me like a rose, turn me like a beast” Only- Ry X

If your natal Mars is in Pisces or the 12H, you may actually have a hard time knowing what your desires are. Why? Because Mars can feel as if it’s drowning in the deep spiritual waters of Pisces. Your wants can be quite dreamy. You crave a sexual experience that transcends space and time, forcing you to leave your body and touch God himself in ecstasy. (I’m a western Mars in Pisces, so…I get it). When it comes to your sex language, you want your partner to just get “you”. You don’t want to have to explain or talk or direct, you’d rather just receive and give a special type of unconditional love that knows no bounds. Because of this “boundless love”, you may actually, literally, lack boundaries. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing, so we are going to focus on the positive. You are truly accepting of those who are accepting of you. Because Pisces is a mutable sign, you are willing to fit into whatever box your partner wants to put you in…and you receive great pleasure from making a deep seeded fantasy of your partner come true. You could be just as playful and imaginative when it comes to role-playing as a Gemini.

Because Mars is in Pisces or the 12H, you’ll find that a lot of partners will project their wishes and dreams onto you. Hence why you want a love that is really deep, because people can get washed away in the shallow end of your energy without ever fully realizing how deep your waters flow. This can be frustrating. And because Mars isn’t the most comfortable here, you can have some unhealthy ways of expressing your sexual frustration. Particularly if your Mars is in the 12H, you can be attracted to self-gratification through self-pleasure and also self-harm. You may even conflate the two, harm & pleasure, and have a dark side to your sexual fantasies. Your passions and desires can end up being repressed because people may not understand them, or be able to meet your high expectations. Amd babes, I love you, but just know, your expectations out of partnership are OTHERWORLDLY. But no worries!! You are SUPER DUPER freaky and almost a guaranteed partner that will go down in history books, particularly after you get comfortable in your own sensuality.

One of the things to watch out for with this Mars, is you can be passive-aggressive in the bedroom. You can take a more passive role, expecting and energetically demanding that your partner take the lead. You may not realize you even give off this energy, but the internal need that you have to dissolve into your partner, like sugar into water, can be very intense. And the gag is, sugar doesn’t really fully dissolve, so what you’re seeking can be impossible to satisfy on the earthly plane. Because of this, it is IMPERATIVE for you to have spiritual outlets within your sexual connections. It may be that you and your partner practice Tantra, or you simply pray together. With this Mars, you can absolutely use sex as a tool for manifestation. Watch your thoughts during sex, because you truly can create MAGIK!

Mars in Aquarius or Mars in the 11th House

“I believe in aliens, I don’t believe in love” Familiarity by Teezo Touchdown

If your natal Mars is in Aquarius or the 11th House, you are something special. Why? Because out of all the signs, you are the most unique lover. I KNOW!!! How friggin’ cliche, Aquarius=Unique, blah blah blah…boring. YES! It’s said all the time, but it’s the truth. In Vedic Astrology, it is important to note that Aquarius is ruled by Saturn and Rahu. This is hugely impactful as to why you are unlike anyone else. Even as you read this, you won’t be exactly like the next person reading this, because the Saturn Rahu combination can be influenced by so many different factors. Aquarians are the hardest sign to write for in general, simply because you are going to be very individualist when it comes to how you express yourself. Now, all that being said, you still crave, very deeply, a sense of belonging. So please, don’t ever take for granted how special you are. If someone is lucky enough to break through your hard exterior, they really are in for an extraterrestrial experience!

Because Mars is in an air sign here, you may or may not be the most sensual and/or sexual person on the planet. You could be. But you could not be. And that is the gift…or curse…of this Mars placement. I have Mars in Aquarius myself, and I remember reading an article that said “this placement can be infuriating to your partner because you are so nonchalant.” And I can definitely say I’ve lost relationships because the other party assumed I was disinterested because I wasn’t the most expressive when it came to my emotions. It’s important to remember that Mars in Aquarius/11H is actually a neutral placement. It isn’t a death sentence or the worst thing on the planet, but it’s not necessarily the best. So don’t be too hard on yourself if your partners don’t understand you very easily. You will just have to do more work to learn how to communicate and accommodate in your relationships. This may be something that follows you throughout life…and forget your partner….it could be infuriating to you! BUT NO WORRIES! Mars in Aquarius or Mars in the 11th house is usually more concerned with developing and nurturing friendships, which seems to contradict the more lustful side of Mars. Longing for friendship and connection versus longing for sensual pleasure and connection can be seen as two different things.

What Mars in Aquarius/11H wants more than anything is L. O. Y. A. L. T. Y. Because this Mars placement can grant so much freedom, it is imperative for the person with this placement to feel safe and secure in the sexual relationship they are building. This is NOT to be confused with possession. Expecting loyalty from a partner isn’t the same as feeling as if you own your partner. You believe that your partner should have freedom to express and live their life the way they want to, and you expect the same in return. However, you do expect your partner to consider you when they make their decisions in life. It is very much “give a dog a bone, leave a dog alone, let a dog roam and he’ll find his way home” (S/o DMX, may he rest in peace). Meaning, in your sexual language, you want your space and privacy, but you want to feel a belonging no matter how far away you are from your partners.

NOW, for the fun stuff. You are one of the most explorative lovers on the planet. You may have a “the more the merrier” type attitude and be interested in group smexii time or oragies. You may have a dream to experience Amsterdam and the Red Light District. The beauty in having your Mars in an air sign/house is that you can remain detached from the sexual experience and partner– therefore, you may not experience jealousy because you aren’t super possessive. Again, you’re all about freedom baby!!! You may also have some pretty “far-out” kinks. You may be interested in different genders, or same gender, or mix gender or no gender or latex or pantyhoes or dress up or furries or hentai or tentacle porn….and if you’re not into it, chances are you will at least click a questionable link or two. You don’t carry the same shame as others do when it comes to what turns you on sexually. You don’t like anything boring or too routine, so your search history could be a bit…odd….BUT HEY!!! As long as it’s not hurting anyone or anything and pleasure is being derived from all parties involved, then let adults do what adults do is kind of your attitude.

Friendship is the key to your heart…and to your…uh…biological box….lol. When it comes to long-term relationships, I can bet my bottom dollar that you’re far more interested in the friendship aspects than the inherent relationship drama. When your friends ask “why are you still dealing with them”, you will follow up with “well, we are friends before anything else.” And you mean that deeply. The really funny thing is…on the other hand, you are also very likely to get down with complete strangers and never think about it again. You can hook-up and detach with the best of them, or your loyalty to a confidant can keep you in a relationship for a very long time…it. Just. depends.

The one thing that is true about your sex language, is that you speak ALL different kinds. When you look back at your life and your experiences, if you are more of an adventurous Aquarian, lets say you have a lot of air and fire in your chart, you will most likely have all kinds of stories from all different people and places. You will be one of the most interesting partners and friends to talk to about all the mixed bags of experiences that you’ve had..which is awesome. If your Mars in Aquarius/11H is paired with a more “earthy” sign or even water, you will most likely have a rom-com type love thing happening…that tugging “will they/won’t they” energy at the beginning of relationships, only to fall head over heals with the “guy/gal next door”. You may also find your sexual partners online, in a group setting or be hooked up by natural friends. “How’d you meet?” “Oh, I heard from a friend of a friend that that d*ck is a ten out of ten!”

Mars in Capricorn or Mars in the 10th House

“My vicious love, My lethal heart, I wanna screw you up into me” - Bad Bad Bad by Ramsey

If your natal Mars is in Capricorn or in the 10th House, then your sexual language is money, money…and….uh….more money. I kid, I kid…but not really. It would be easy and predictable for me to say you just lust after money, but it goes much deeper than that. Believe it or not, Mars is actually exalt in Capricorn, so, you couldn’t have a better Mars placement. Your natural ruler Saturn and Mars truly are the best of friends. And if you’re familiar with Tarot, then you know The Devil represents Capricorn energy and The Devil is all about seduction and temptation. Unlike some of the more dreamy Mars placements like Pisces/12H or Cancer 4H that use their sexual language as an escape from reality, or the detached air placements like Gemini/3H or Aquarius/11H, who are too aloof to harness Mars’ energy, YOU my Capricorn/10H individuals are acutely aware of how powerful the nature of sex can be…and most importantly, how it can be used to your advantage.

To the average person on the street, you may not seem like the super sexual type. You prefer a sophisticated lover to a “cute” one, so people can assume that your standards are too high. And perhaps, your standards are high, because you understand the value of your presence and your time. In fact, you HATE wasting time, so why would you waste time on lovers who don’t bring anything to the table? Sadly, for most of the public, they won’t ever have the experience to be with a Capricorn/10H Mars because quite frankly, they can’t afford it.

Funnily enough, I’m sure as you’ve been reading this, you’re like “dang…am I that shallow?” And the answer is yes and no. You’re shallow because we live in a shallow world– and you know in order to survive it, you have to use what you got to get what you want. The other side of this is, you’re not shallow at all because you are willing to work and discipline yourself and sacrifice for those that you truly care about. There is such a depth to you in the long run, that it makes sense that you make it really difficult for people to get to you. Because you know and I know, once you’ve committed to someone, you’ve committed for as long as you possibly can. Your sexual language is all about stamina and endurance. This is true in and and out of the bedroom. As an earth sign/house, you are a sensual being. You enjoy each and every bit of romance that you can get. A nice meal, some good perfume, dressed to the nines is all considered foreplay to you. You entice your partners with a certain dignified class and only the brave will approach. In your younger years, you could find this extremely frustrating at times because men will really have to get their sh*t together before they can even THINK to approach you on that level. But the more that you use your Mars to get you where you want to be in life, partners will follow behind you and constantly buzz around as if you are the Queen Bee and they are mere workers for your attention.

Funnily enough, you are quite the heart-breaker with this Mars placement. Because you are so focused on your goals outside of love, and yet, you can crave sensual pleasures, you will be very direct with a partner, but they may not be aware of how serious you take yourself. How can this manifest? Let’s say you meet a partner and everything is groovy, but you are working on a big project for work, you’re working on a degree of some kind, or you’ve said you won’t rest until you make partner at the big company…unlike other Mars placements, you won’t let romance sway you or take you off track. You are probably the best example of “right person, wrong time”. You don’t have as much of an issue as other signs walking away from a situation that is distracting you from your more worldly desires. This can leave people utterly confused, because you seem like a perfect partner, but honestly, you’re just not focused on aaaalll the drama that can come with fully committed relationships. People may actually take this energy and say that you’re a player…or worse…a floozy (one of my favorite words lol, definitely needs to make a comeback). You actually aren’t. You will be one of the most committed partners they could find, but if it’s not the right time…it just ain’t happening. So your partners will have to maintain some level of patience or they will miss out. On the other hand, because Mars is a planet of extremes, you may go through periods in life where you are celebate. It may take you awhile to stop channeling that Martian ambitious energy into your career and put it towards your sexuality. That being said, you will enjoy the more sensual side of sex. You could have great stamina and endurance. Because sex may not come around as often as you’d like, you will learn to savor every drop of your partners and please them in a calculated, thoughtful and masterful way! How smeeexxxiiiiiii!!!!!

Mars in Sagittarius or Mars in the 9th House

“I’ve been everywhere, man, looking for someone. Someone who can please me, love me all night long” Where Have You Been by Rihanna

If your natal Mars is in Sagittarius or the 9th House, your sexual language is that of many languages. You fall in love with the exotic, unknown and unexplored. You like your partners like James Bond likes his cars– foreign. You appreciate partners who expand your understanding of reality. Your partners have to expand your mind…and body…into positions that you never thought were possible. If you don’t attract partners who are of a different race, culture or class from you, then you will be attracted to partners who are otherworldly and spiritual or are just as serious about their religious beliefs as you are. Like Mars in Pisces/12H, your planet is ruled by the planet Jupiter, aka Guru. You NEED to learn from your partner. You NEED to explore with your partner. And you NEED to be able to teach your partners something as well. “I wanna know…can you show me…I wanna know about the strangers like me”...It’s giving…Tarzan and Jane. I have Mars in the 9th House, and it has manifested in a very fun way! So with my bias, I believe that this can be one of the more fun placements if you just go with the flow. Unlike other Mars placements, you don’t necessarily feel the need to control your partners. You’d much rather experience them, learn the lesson and move on to the next new shiny thing. Much like your brother, Gemini, you are equally as invested in getting the knowledge and seeking more knowledge. You of all signs are unlikely to overstay your welcome in a relationship. You can come off quite restless and unsatisfied…UNLESS you are just fascinated and enamored with an individual.

You can find yourself attracted to people who have accents, or speak a different language than you. But you will be even more turned on by someone who shares the same religious beliefs as you. You may actually be willing to convert religions for your partner OR, and this is more likely, you have a partner who is a different religion than you are, and instead of being ashamed by it, or making it an obstacle, you embrace it– ultimately respecting their religion, while maintaining the traditions of your own.

You will naturally desire to travel with your partner. Making some of your favorite memories in life when you made-love in some far off land. If the sentence, “I made love to a Frenchman I met while eating a baguette at the local cafe under the Eiffel tower and I’ll never see him again, but he’s the love of my life” turns you on…congratulations, you’re in the right spot.

This Mars placement is fueled by your deepest desire to see the world and its deepest truth, and then just imagine how much you can learn about the world through the lens of an intimate partner. Your sexual language, like I said earlier, involves language in and of itself. You want to hear the stories of distants lands, fascinated by the foreign nature of your divine counterpart. You will want to be intimate with partners who can speak for hours and hours about their adventures and endeavors. You need to be intrigued at the very least.

I also find that with this placement, there may be an age difference in your relationships. You either will be attracted to someone who is much older and wiser, OR, interesting enough, you could find yourself with someone younger. Why is this? You will appreciate a person who still has zest for life. You will be equally attracted to partners who are bright eyed and bushy tailed! Plus, I know I’ve talked a lot about your partner entertaining and teaching you, but the truth of the matter is, you will want to be as much of a sage to your partner as well. You will enjoy teaching them the ways of life and the pursuit of happiness. They will look to you with eyes of wonder as you paint beautifully vivid pictures of your life experiences that have shaped your view of the world.

Another element to this Mars placement, is you are one to challenge authority. This may manifest in your sex language by liking to explore BDSM culture in some way. Because this Mars is all about freedom, you may be turned on by the thought of your partner controlling you…just so you can say no. You can come off as a “well, make me”...kind of lover when it comes to foreplay. You love a challenge and you like partners who challenge you in some way when it comes to living out your sexual fantasies. Another way this may come out is you AND your partner may have a knack for getting into trouble or enjoying sex with some kind of risk involved. You get off being able to sneak away for a quickie. You’ll have sex in the backseat of a car. Joining the mile club is definitely on your bucket list…all the things! Because you are such a rebel, you tell stories that have “normies” clutching their pearls and leave their mouths open. You want to have memorable sex that is worth writing a book about!!!

I can not drive home enough how spiritual your sexual relationships have the potential to be. You are not a shallow lover. You are a lover full of wonder and full of lust…wanderlust…if you will. Sagittarius/9H is a very serious zodiac/house. You're destined to seek truth– so your sexual partners HAVE to enlighten you in some way. You don’t want to get stuck in the mundane, boring stuff of a relationship, (and please, don’t get too carried away, because we do live on planet earth!) you want to experience shrooms, talk about God and make love in the forest! Smexxiiii!!!!

Mars in Scorpio or Mars in the 8th House

“Every breath you take, every move you make, every smile you fake, every single day, I’ll be watching you” Every Breath You Take by Sting

Okay, okay, it would be all too easy to say your love language is stalking, and more stalking and even more stalking, but…that’s only a small fraction of what this Mars placement has to offer. If your natal Mars is placed in Scorpio or in your 8th House, your sexual language is that of raw passion and intensity. That being said, it is also about restraint and self-restriction, and sometimes self destruction. I tend to find Scorpionic energy and 8H energy to be radically internal. You, actually, may not be the most expressive lover. You are more comfortable waiting, studying and planning to pursue a lover, rather than going in full force. Because Mars is your natural ruler, Mars is more than comfortable here, but unlike your brother sign, Aries, you are more of the “planning” part of war, rather than action. This is the strategy of self-defense more than anything. You don’t want to walk into an intimate situation to be intimate yourself, you want to extract vulnerability from your partner like a detective solving a murder crime. Your sex language is more of a riddle than a question. And you would like a partner who intrigues you and leaves a lot of mystery. In my many many years of dating, and many many encounters with Scorpionic energy (I attract them like flies…it’s crazy) I always find that Scorpios are nowhere near as mysterious or hard to figure out as they perceive. Behind all that black and dark stares and gazed is usually a pretty pretty boring, but shy person. There is such a caution with this sign when it comes to acting on those very deep and sometimes all consuming desires, so you are very careful to not put yourself in harm's way. Another hot take that I have on this placement that may seem a bit contradictory to the Scorpionic stereotype is YES YES YES, you are smexxxxiiii and all of the things, but that doesn’t necessarily make you the most sexual person. You take intimacy and sexy very seriously, more seriously than most, because for you intimacy and vulnerability can be used against you and be seen as a weakness, so you are hard pressed to just be going around willy-nilly swinging from partner to partner. You also view sex/intimacy as more of a “power” thing than a “love” thing. And what do I mean by that? You know that deep intimacy and truly being intertwined with another individual gives you an unreal amount of access to that person on a personal and spiritual level. It is always important to remember where Scorpio/8H lines up in the grand scheme of things. It follows the Libra/7H of partnership. The 8H is actually the house that dictates how a relationship will play out. This. Is. Imperative. To understand this placement. You are far more focused on how the partnership plays out, rather than the partnership itself. Again, unlike your predecessor, Libra, who is ruled by Venus and may be more interested in the looks of a relationship and romantic partner. Your sexual language is more interested in the psychology of your partner. You don’t care nearly as much about the outside as you do the inside. What draws you to your partner is a need to access the ultimate truths through your partners. Hence why, you are followed by Sagittarius/9H of Truth and Liberation. Your sex language involves restraint, power and hidden truths.

As I said before, it may be really difficult for you at times to truly connect with your partners because your energy can demand sooooo much from them. You will require partners to go through such depths in their relationship with you, that they may not be able to handle it. And on the other side of that, you may stay away from relationships because you may mistakenly feel like it brings out some of your “worst” qualities. With this Mars, you may go through a very intense relationship when you’re young, one where you give your all, I mean…you would kill or be killed for those you love, and because that relationship fails, you may never want to experience those types of lows again and stay away. You are one of the most loyal of the Mars placements, so you are very careful to study who exactly you are giving your loyalty to. I recommend with this placement, you may find yourself oddly attracted to Aquarian/11H energy. It sounds weird, water and air, but in this case, Aquarian energy is endlessly fascinating because they are so unorthodox, you will never truly figure them out, so you’re constantly intrigued by them. Aquarians also value loyalty the same way you do. They will allow you the freedom that you need to sit in your own emotions, but value the friendship in such a way, you won’t feel abandoned by them. Even if the people you are attracted to don’t have Aquarius in their chart, I think that quality is something you should consider when looking into intimate partners. It is probably the partner who gives you the most space and it is the hardest to figure out, that will give you the most in life. If you have a partner that is easy to conquer, not only will you be bored, but you can easily slip into those darker energies of control and manipulation to get you way…even when it’s unnecessary.

AAALLLL that said, you are still a hell of a lover! I mean…wow. You intricately know how to please and conquer. You use sex as a language itself when you’re ready and willing. And man, do you have a way with words. You can easily hypnotize a lover to fall under your command, so be careful with this gift. You are more than comfortable in this arena once you move past your fears in the subconscious. You can channel this energy, much like the exalt Mars in Capricorn to succeed with some of your greatest ambitions. You will put your sexual energy into your work and projects in a way like no other! Just don’t take everything so seriously! It’s okay to have a good time. Be intimate and open up some! You’ll enjoy getting your head out of the sand!

Mars in Libra or Mars in the 7th House

“What a rush & what a high, cause when your love don’t fight, smoke gets in your eyes” Smoke In Your Eyes by Skepta, Ossie, Harry Stone

If you came to this section thinking that I was going to talk about how sweet and balanced you are when it comes to your sexual language…THINK. AGAIN. BABE. You are nothing of the sort. Seems contradictory, huh? Because Libra/7H is all about balance, right? Well…not when it comes to this Mars placement.

If you have your natal Mars in Libra or the 7th House, you are quite the spicy lover. To be completely honest, Mars is VERY uncomfortable here. Why? Because Libra is naturally ruled by the planet Venus, which is essentially the opposite frequency of Mars. I like to think of Mars and Venus as the brother and sister planets of the Milky way. Traditionally ruled by Ares and Aphrodite in Greek mythology respectively, they are technically half-siblings. So when you think of this Mars placement, this of how a girlie-girl would feel surrounded by all boys at a football camp. Sure, she may attract a lot of attention and she may have plenty of options…but she will CERTAINLY have to set clear boundaries to command the respect she deserves, as well as deal with the fact that no one around her may have the same interest. See how this can be uncomfortable? It’s not the worst thing to happen, but it can cause you to feel like you have to play the field a little bit differently because of Mars being in the House of Libra.

Okay, so now that we covered why this placement might be different than what you were imagining, let’s get into what this post is actually about!

If you have this natal placement, your sex language is all about breaking up to make-up. Because you’re on this constant quest of seeking balance, YOU will subconsciously or consciously seek chaos in order to regain balance. Your indecisive and somewhat aloof nature in relationships can be a source of frustration when it comes to your sexual expression with your lovers. If you have Mars in your 7H, you genuinely LOVE conflicts and attract conflicts to your relationships. You can be quite passive aggressive, honestly, and stir the pot to get attention. AAALLLL this being said, you still enjoy the finer things and love the idea of love, even though you may not have the most direct way of going about it. Your partners may even find you hard to read, and this can frustrate you, because your wishy-washy-ness is so innate to you, you may have a tendency to think that everyone is as back and forth with decision making as you are.

Ironically, more so than any of the previous placements I have discussed before, I will focus more on what sexual language you like from your partner rather than yourself. Of course, you like good food, good wine, good clothes, good banter, good company…you have Libra, like DUH, but I want to offer a different perspective on this placement.

So when it comes to your partners, you truly like a partner who takes charge, regardless of sex. You crave a level of masculinity and directness in your love language because as I stated earlier, it can be difficult for you to make decisions for yourself. You overemphasize how people will perceive you, and this can cause you to stunt your decision making, so you’ll find yourself craving a partner who can be unabashedly unapologetic in their approach to life. You seek partners who are brave and courageous and you will find yourself testing anyone you fall in love with to see if they have that spark of passion in them. You may find yourself seeking different things from different people, so you may have multiple lovers– and just like how it may take you forever to pick out your outfit in the morning, it may take you forever to figure out what you value in a partner. It is important to note that Libra/7H energy is indeed a masculine energy. I’m sure most would assume it’s feminine because of the “sophisticated” and charismatically social nature usually associated with Libras, but when it comes to sexual relationships, Taurus/2H energy is the feminine side of Venus. Libra energy in this way is more detached than people would think. As stated earlier, because you enjoy dates, chatting, getting to know people, you may be a really good casual dater! This could send mixed messages to potential lovers because you may have never really had any intention of dating them long-term– or, you really just haven’t decided yet. Now are we starting to see how this Mars placement can attract certain conflict? You will desire and crave a partner that can make decisions for you. This may lead to some kinkiness in the bedroom because you’re open to compromise and you can be bossed around in this regard.

Overall your sexual language is complex because of the inherent contradiction of this natal placement. You can make this work in your favor as long as you keep open communication with your partner, even if it’s to tell them that you need some more time before you’re comfortable making any lasting decisions. When you date, you will have to allow your partners to understand your up & down nature. Most people will probably take your pragmatic nature personally, so if you can find a way to channel this into being sexually playful with your lovers, it can be a great way to keep romance fun and interesting. As stated in the beginning, you are most likely to end up in an on-again-off-again kind of relationship because you like for the scales to be tipped, so you can rebalance them. You are far more detached in commitments than most people would assume, so it is essential for you to date like-minded people who understand that your coldness is not a reflection on your feelings. You choose to remain objective in your judgements and seek fairness in your relationships—even if you are the one who was unfair to begin with! Kiss it kiss it better baby!!!!

Mars in Virgo or Mars in the 6th House

“I got commitment issues, but I’m tryna fix that for you…I don’t believe in love, but that doesn’t mean I don’t take you serious” Commitment Issues by Central Cee

With Mars in Virgo or the 6th House, you may be surprised to find how non-committal you are when it comes to relationships. Why? Because you find relationships to be impractical. So when it comes to your sexual language, you are quite all over the place. Lovers can find you hard to catch, almost like trying to keep a fairy in a jar. You prefer to flutter around and keep things light in the sexual department. To you, sex can scream responsibility. After all, sex can be a pretty risky and dirty affair. All the fluid exchange and, ultimately, the required vulnerability, can make you quite uneasy. With this Mars placement, you can go between the two extremes of putting too much emphasis on sex or not enough emphasis at all. This is due to the natural ruler of Virgo/6H being Mercury, which, I find to be, an asexual planet. You are more interested in the intellectual connection than the physical connection.

BUT PLEASE, don’t get me wrong! You know you’re way around the bedroom. Your sexual language is constantly evolving. You do well with long-term partners that you can trust, study and get to know. You prefer a lover that is loyal, so you don’t have to worry about where they’ve been, or better yet, who they’ve been with. You find joy in repetition with one partner. OR, you are really open to “protected” one-night stands. You are either all in or all out. You don’t like to waste time on sexual relationships that you don’t see a return for a long-term investment. That being said, if you are unable to invest in the long-term, you can find yourself in a position of sexual frustration. You may really desire a person, but because of your deep need for perfection first, you may stall connections & find a lot of pleasure in masturbation for the time being. You, like your opposite sign, Pisces, can really get into your fantasies. You may find that erotica and romance novels can be great resources to pass the time while you likely toil between celibacy and being a whore (this is particularly funny to me because Virgos are known for being the Virgins of the zodiac– hence the contradiction in Mars in Virgo. The planet of sex and desire ruled by a “Virgin” is, uh….a difficult juxtaposition to say the least.) – again, it’s all about mental stimulation with you.

When you do meet a partner that you can FINALLY settle down and feel comfortable with, you will be a very giving lover. Because Virgo energy is usually associated with servitude, you better believe that you will make it your duty to service the object of your affection. You care very deeply about the satisfaction of your partner— far more than you care about your own. As stated earlier, you don’t mind finishing up solo as long as your partner is satisfied. You will find every nook and cranny, every deep desire, every love spot that your partner has, because you will analyze their body with astute detail. You will break your partner’s sexual language down and adapt it to be your own, because after all, you are a mutable sign. As well as being an earth sign, you do have a very deep sensual nature to you. Although you can come across as quite guarded with new partners, once you blossom, you really enjoy heavy petting and physical touch. You can spend so much time in your head and alone with your thoughts in other aspects of your life, you may find it very powerful to have a partner that literally grounds you and brings you back to planet Earth by holding you in their arms. Again, after you’ve bent over backwards (pun intended) to please your partner, you, more than any other sign, except maybe Leo, really needs to be acknowledged and celebrated for your hard work. You don’t take kindly to being undervalued or under appreciated when it comes to your romantic relationships in this context.

Believe it or not, this placement can actually be quite kinky! Why? Because of the influence of Mercury again. As stated before, you want to learn your partner’s as well as you possibly can to make sure you are seen as perfect in their eyes– sooooo, that means you’ll have some exploring to do. Mercury is such a curious planet, that it may not be kinky for the sensual pleasures of it all, but it will be interested in testing out sex & kinks for “research purposes”. This can give you a sort of detached feeling when it comes to sex, which may or may not work in your favor– you’re able to disassociate in a way that makes sex almost an out of body experience…it may take you some time to actually feel pleasure from sex. You are so focused on the other and pleasing your partner, you can forget that sex is supposed to be a two way street! I just want to reiterate, that this placement is so mutable, that you may find yourself pretty ambivalent towards sex at different times in your life. You’re kind of like “eh”. But there is hope, when you find a partner that lights your fire– you will find yourself wanting sex like a child wants candy! There is plenty of potential here for a beautifully active and engaging sex life– it just may take more time to develop than others.

Learn your own kinks! Have fun! Explore the more sensual side of life for yourself!

Anyone who is able to win you over (which is NOT an easy feat by any means) will be able to revel in the fact that you are such a wonderful lover! But don’t forget, sex is not a test that you can get an A + in, it’s supposed to be the culmination and celebration of it all!

Mars in Leo or Mars in the 5th House

“She may be the queen of hearts, but I’m the queen of your body parts” - Cockiness, Rihanna

If you have Mars in Leo or Mars in the 5th House, you are Britney Spears, all eyes on me in the center of the ring just like a circus, bay-bee. You LOVE to put on a show. Your sexual language can make love-making a spectacle! You’re over the top, you’re loud, you roar. You LOVE LOVE LOVE the attention. So much so, you may not even need sex to fulfill that internal desire for you. Huh? What do I mean? I mean, you may be satisfied using your creative gifts for sexual gratification. Chances are with this placement, you are highly creative and charismatic. You find sensual pleasure in being able to share your creative gifts with other people. Haven’t you heard of entertainers saying they had so much fun on stage, it was orgasmic? That’s where you come in.

Ironically, I don’t naturally find this placement to be the most sexual. Don’t get me wrong, you are DOWN DIGGITY for a good time, but you really use sex as an ego booster. You may even be quite lazy in the bedroom. You could easily live by the code “my present is my presence” and be a dazzling pillow princess. This isn’t a bad thing, and it definitely doesn’t have to be the case all the time! When you’re turned on, you’re turned on, but when you’re just casually engaging in sex, or are in a long-term commitment, you may feel like sex is something that is owed to you. Not in a weird entitled way, but more like a Queen sitting on a chaise lounge being fed grapes– like, “duh, you should have sex with me, I’m beautiful”, type energy. This, if you haven’t been able to guess already, can lead to a selfish attitude in the love-making department. You must remember that sometimes, your partner wants to be catered to as well. That being said, you won’t shy away from Valentine’s Day. You are the type to go all out! You’ll put on the lingerie. You’ll lay out the rose petals on the bed. You’ll pay extra for that honeymoon suite. OR, you will expect your partner to do all of this without you asking. You treat holidays and sex as if it’s a royal affair.

Due to your standards being so high, I cannot express to you enough that you may really put all your sexual energy into your creative pursuits until you find a lover of high-value and high sex drive. You love and somewhat need to feel desired in order to break down your walls. You don’t play hard to get– you ARE hard to get, so this may leave you with extended periods of non-sexual activities. You are more than willing to give up sexual pleasure for your own personal pursuits– in fact, you are more likely to do that if you have specific career goals.

You may be a tad bit surprised at my interpretation of Mars in Leo, perhaps you were assuming it would be a bit spicier, but I challenge you to look at your ruler, the Sun (yes, the actual burning ball of fire in the sky) . Not literally…well, you can, but make sure you wear sun-glasses. But in all seriousness, the Sun shines alone. The Sun is too hot to let anything near it, and it carries such a gravitational pull, that things simply orbit around it, but can never get too close. With Mars in Leo/5th House, you may find yourself in this position when it comes to your sexual nature. You attract a lot of people towards you, but they are unable to get too close, for fear they will burn up in your presence. Or, you shine so bright, you are forced to do it alone. Being the Sun and the center of the Universe is a hard job, but ultimately an isolating job. Your being, your creative gifts, your star power and the way you shine can cast such a shadow on those who dare come near you. It really can be one of the most challenging placements because you probably won’t understand why people can’t/don’t come near you. Again, you’re just soooo great, people can have an overwhelming and unrealistic ideal of what it will take to make you happy. It’s a double-edged sword. On one hand, it’s flattering, but on the other hand, you can suffer from being put so high up on a pedal stool that you never asked for!

One tip for you, is to keep your hair beautiful and lushes! People will be attracted to your wild side and want to bring that out of you. You can either really love having your hair pulled or be turned off by it because you spend so much time making it look perfect. Either way, your hair may be an essential part of foreplay for you and something that suitors may find undeniably sexy.

As long as you are mindful to share the spotlight from time to time and not always prioritizing your needs & your desires, you can be a remarkably loyal partner. Fierce is the word that comes to mind and you can be very fierce in the bedroom. (When you want to be.) You can outshine any of the competition. Most people truly can’t hold a candle to you when it comes to how committed you are in an intimate relationship. You are proud and you protect those that are around you and that you deem worthy. You have a royal air that surrounds you and it loudly and proudly screams `bow down bitches' when it's time to get down and dirty!

Mars in Cancer or Mars in the 4th House

“Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain, you like your girls insane” Born to Die- Lana Del Rey

If you have Mars in Cancer or Mars in the 4th house, ironically, your sex language involves a knack of overwhelming emotional destruction. Dramatic, yes, yes, I know, but very true. Mars is VERY uncomfortable in the deep waters of Cancer/4H. Mars in the 4th House, in particular, is a naturally difficult placement because it sits in the House of happiness, as well as aspects the 7th House of partnership and the 11th House of friendship– making that native, uh, a little difficult to deal with. Why? Because your emotions can be so erratic and illogical, it can be difficult for people to understand what you want. Heck, you probably don’t understand what you want most of the time. I promise I’ll get to the good stuff, but keep in mind that this Mars placement is in detriment! (It’s exalted in Capricorn, the opposite sign.) So when it comes to your sexual language, you value such a deeply emotional commitment from your partner, you could constantly try to test them by pushing their emotional boundaries.

There is a mixture of pleasure and pain. You love an emotional outburst– this can be good and sexy, or bad and scary. Emotionally bonding make-up sex, is your cup of tea…ESPECIALLY if you are the one who caused the “break-up” in the first place. You truly enjoy engaging with your partner in a loving way, when you can, but because Mars is so unstable here, it can be hard for you to maintain emotional consistency within long-term relationships. You can find that your passions wax and wane for your partner. Sometimes, you just want to run into their arms and kiss them in the pouring rain, other times, you want them to LEAVE YOU DAFUQ ALONE. This can be quite jarring to your intimate partners, but also to yourself. I recommend embracing this quality and being as honest as possible! Instead of literally creating a sh*t storm in order to be left alone, just communicate to your partner that you need a little space from time to time. But also be willing to give your partner that same courtesy and grace if they ask for the same.

You can feel a need to wrap yourself up in your partner's desires. It may come from a genuine place, but because Mars is an aggressive planet, you may be quite aggressive in how you demonstrate your love to your partner because your deepest desire is to be able to emotionally control them. This can manifest in an extremely emotionally manipulative way through passive aggressiveness and just causing overall uneasiness within your dynamics and partnerships. One of the lovely sides about this particular placement, is when you mature, you can have an extremely high emotional I.Q. Because you are naturally very sensitive to your surroundings, you can literally sense the emotional and physical needs of your partner without them having to say a word. You can be so emotionally intune with your lovers, it can feel like telepathy if they need anything from you. You just know, y’know?

In the bedroom, you can go from one extreme to another. Sometimes you want to be dominant, and sometimes you want to be dominated. It is important for your lovers to be able to ride your waves and learn what is needed from them at any given moment. Again, Mars is all about conquest. So when Mars is in the 4H in particular, you want to be able to be the leader in your home, but you also want someone who can take the reins when necessary. Again, this can be a difficult balance to strike within your sexual relationships because people may not understand the method behind the madness, typically because there really isn’t a method…it’s just kind of madness AND THAT’S OKAY!

Because Mars is so uncomfortable here, it is imperative for you to be able to channel your energy in creative ways or you can fall victim to your own emotional tirades. You want a clear line of communication with anyone you are interested with and they absolutely need to have some emotional intelligence or else they will drown in your water. You don’t want to suffocate your lovers with so much emotional intensity, that you both are unable to remain somewhat grounded in the chaos. You of all people understand just how powerful emotions and sex can be together, so be careful to use it wisely!!! When done right, you can have anyone wrapped around your finger.

Mars in Gemini or Mars in the 3rd House

“Talk is cheap my darling, when you’re feeling right at home. I wanna make you move with confidence. I want to be with you alone” Talk is Cheap by Chet Faker

If you have Mars in Gemini or Mars in the 3rd House, then you are all about an intellectual connection when it comes to your sexual language. You want to catch viiibbbeezzz. You want to be razzle-dazzled with the lingo. You want someone hip, cool, in the know…because, well, you’re hip, cool & in the know, y’know? It’s only fitting that your partner be the same. You, of all placements, may truly crave “your other half”. And I know, I know, we live in a world now, where people are saying “you are a whole person and you’re looking for another whole person yadayadayada…”, but you’re a TWIN. You want to be able to connect with someone as if you share the same brain, the same thoughts, the same…everything. This isn’t to say that you’re not sexual…you just enjoy mental jousting for foreplay. Think of how beautiful the dance between two evenly matched fencing partners is– the ebb and flow of tension – playing both parts of the aggressor and the defender– gliding almost effortlessly with a weapon in hand. It’s like the tango…but with swords. That’s how you envision your love. Beautiful art, yet dangerous. You may not be the most sensual lover at first, but in time you will certainly warm up. Why? Because at the very least, you are a curious partner! You. Want. To. Explore. You may be the type of lover to want to try almost anything once. You want to be surprised. You don’t want your bedroom to be boring. You resent repetitiveness and you welcome new experiences. You may even fall into the “switch my wig, make ‘em feel like he cheating” category. You like to switch up your look, your style…sexual positions (lol). This can even translate into role play! (Especially teacher/student).

I cannot express to you enough how much learning from your partner turns you on. You love asking questions & consider getting to know someone a conquest. The more difficult the puzzle, the more you yearn to solve it and this type of stimulation oozes over into your sexual pleasure. You’re curious to know what your lover’s love. You can have an objective perception of sex, because you aren’t the most naturally emotional person, so you can look at the love making process as getting to know every nook and cranny of a partner’s body– learning what makes them tick & “ick”. You become more emotionally open with a partner, the more confident that you are that you know them. You like learning, but you don’t like unpleasant surprises. This may be counter intuitive, but I find that after you go through your “lemme try any & everything era”, you will genuinely enjoy one partner. It will make you feel secure and like you have that missing piece in life. You don’t come across as the most committal type, but when you do commit, you commit fr fr, you just need a certain level of freedom in life to continue to expand your horizons far past the mundane in life.

Another element you may add to your sexual reservoir is……drugs. “DON’T DO DRUGS, KIDS & STAY IN SCHOOL”...alright, there is my disclaimer. Now back to what I was saying, you may be curious to try mind-expanding drugs & smex. Because you can be so cerebral, drugs like ecstacy can help you actually feel your body. The tingle will start from your subconscious mind, and venture into your conscious body, possibly making love-making a more pleasurable experience. If this doesn’t interest you, don’t worry, no pressure! Just making a note that this placement is more likely to think outside of the box when it comes to making their sex lives thrilling and exciting! Not saying that vanilla sex is boring…just saying in general. You do you!

Overall, this is a curious placement. It’s a fun placement, but it can be an extremely flighty placement in the beginning. Don’t let your fear of getting stuck, stop you from finding a true partner that you can really see the world with. You can find that “other half”, that “twin soul” that really knows how to light a fire in you and warm your cold cold cold gemini heart. In your moments of passion, you will prefer to keep things fun and light. Only when someone truly captures your mind, can they capture your body and soul! SEXYYYYYY!!!!

Mars in Taurus or Mars in the 2nd House

“People stop to ask me, how do you please your man? Take it from the black sheep baby, any way I can. Sometimes it’s with fire and sometimes, with ice…Just don’t get it twisted, his body’s gunna pay the price.”

- Rock My Boy’s Body by Joseph Stephens

If you have Mars in Taurus or Mars in the 2nd House your sexual language is about sensuality, sexuality, & seduction. You believe in making love an all encompassing experience and you will stop at nothing to make sure your partners have an all exclusive pass to your BO-DAY. IF it is earned. Because Taurus is naturally slow moving energy, you may be slow to open up. As I’ve studied astrology for years now…I’ve come to realize that Taurus energy is just as private and cautious and it’s opposite sign, Scorpio. If you have this placement, you feel the need to study your lovers and you wait and wait and wait and wait and wait before you make your move. But if you are able to wrap them in your warm embrace…you won’t want to let go and they won’t want you to either.

Like Leo, when it comes to your sexual language, you believe in putting on a show. But your show is subtle, quaint and slow burning. You will have the candles burning, the scented lotion and fresh out the shower smell, you will have the most luxurious sheets on the most comfortable mattress. You don’t believe in cutting corners when it comes to your comfort and whoever is lucky enough to wind up in your bed, simply gets to enjoy how you live your life. I could bet you have an impeccable taste in music and truly know how to set the tone when it comes to seduction. As stated before, you are able to create a world of pure pleasure for those you love and make them spell-bound to you, because chances are, they haven’t been able to match with a sexual partner who cares so much about the details of ALL 6 senses. (I’m including intuition because, y’know, I’m a tarot and an astrology girlie.) For example, I dated this guy with heavy taurus placements a few years ago. I very much remember and very much miss this awesome TV room that he made for himself. Instead of having a regular degular couch, he had a couch that was also a bed. It wasn’t a couch that converted into a bed….it was just a couch that had a bed in it…and massive 70 inch television mounted on the wall. When I TELL you, I wanted to marry that man because….UGH!!! I was so comfortable! I could melt into the floor when I was with him. And I have YET to be with anyone who has a room set up quite like that. The feeling has stayed with me long after we have been together. THAT is what I mean by the power of Mars in Taurus. It lingers when you’re done!

On the other side, you of all signs, can be extremely jealous and possessive over your sexual partners. You DO NOT LIKE TO SHARE. AT. ALL. The 2nd House is all about owning and possessions and you may take this mindset with you into your romantic relationships. To the right person and in a healthy way, this can be enduring and make your partner feel safe and secure in your presence. In turn, you also want to know that your partner is crazy about you and cares deeply about your well-being. Again, in a healthy dynamic, a little jealousy and possessivness isn’t bad. It can show that someone does have an interest in you and takes pride in the fact that they are able to claim you as their own. This is just something to be mindful of in this placement, because if underdeveloped, it can lead to issues of selfishness & strong resistance to allow your partner’s freedom. Of course this can bleed over into the bedroom as well. You don’t want to get so focused on your own comfort that you end up putting your partner into a routine that they no longer enjoy. Your favorite position may not be their favorite positive. It can feel like eating lobster every single day. Like, yeah, Lobster is great day 1, maybe even day 2, but by day 5….yuck. Depending on other placements in your chart, you may attract partners who are very much like you, in the sense they prefer routine, OR you may attract partners who are so wild and out of the box, it forces you out of your comfort zone. All I can do is say embrace whatever floats your boat.

There is no doubt that you are one of the most sexual, sensual and passionate lovers of the zodiac. Your innate knowledge of pleasure makes you an expert in the bedroom and you can be hard to beat. Although it may take you a while to warm up, either physically or emotionally, you eventually show your partners that it is absolutely worth the wait! Because you tend to be safe and secure in yourself (the 2nd house rules self esteem) you share that safety and extend your protection to those you love the most. Your sexual language is unforgettable. You know how to love someone head to toe! WOOOOO!!!

Mars in Aries or Mars in the 1st House

“Dollhouse, dressed up, perfect messed up, Torture me to sleep, paint the air I breathe. Fishbowl, chokehold, dirty water, I’m cold. Dirty as can be, have your way with me.” Dollhouse (with Lily Rose Depp) by The Weeknd

If you have Mars in Aries or Mars in the 1st House, your sexual language is intense & powerful. You have a way of pulling people into your orbit just by being your unapologetic self! The force is with you! Best believe! And people feel it. You get what you want and you want what you get and you have a way of luring in your prospective sexual partner by projecting your lust onto them– so much so they feel it when they walk by you. Much like your sister, the Mars ruled Scorpio, there is a carnal desire that surrounds you. It’s magnetic. It’s magnificent. And it’s very fleeting.

When it comes to your bedroom pleasures, you can be a pioneer of the “Wham! Bam! Thank you ma’am or…sir” (not as cute of a rhyme) mindset. You may have a habit of treating your lovers like conquest– wanting to overpower them and wrap them up in your passionate fantasies. You deeply enjoy power play in your sex life. Yes, you could easily be the dominant one in your relationships, BUT you could also seek refuge in being submissive to your partner. How? I know it seems contradictory. But chances are, with this placement (unless it’s in a water sign in your first house) you are more than likely the boss and the leader in your everyday life…so when it comes to sex, you may want to just “relax” and let your partner do all the hard work for once. If that’s the case, you may be a bit of a brat in the bedroom because you still like to challenge your partner for shizz & giggles, but you are certainly fun and definitely unforgettable.

Your sex language is raw and real. You don’t like to hold back your passion and you appreciate a partner who can match your enthusiasm in the bedroom. You love the runner chaser dynamic, and again, you can easily play both parts. You are strong and competitive and don’t like to lose the interest of your lovers, even though you can get bored pretty easily. You may prefer quickies over long drawn up love sessions, but that doesn’t mean you don’t like to indulge your sinuses from time to time– you’re just not one of the most lovey dovey of the zodiac and prefer loud, wild, hot, steamy sex opposed to soft caresses and whispers of sweet nothings. You may also be a person who uses sexy time to advance a certain agenda. You could use sex as a tool of manipulation to get what you want. That may seem extreme, but think about a stripper using her sensuality as a means to make money so she can pay her way through law school. THAT’S what I mean. Because you may not be so shy about your sex appeal, if used correctly, it can be your weapon of choice when it comes to getting what you want from someone.

Passion matters to you more than most. You would prefer a risky lover than a predictable one. You also may be a fan of the ole’ break up to make-up trope. Make-up sex is always better. And you don’t mind starting a fight in the streets, simply to uh…you know…end it….in the sheets…..if you catch my drift. You aren’t one for subtleties. You are probably one of the most straightforward and upfront people in the world and you may play shy, but once you allow a person to get to know you, you don’t hold anything back. Because you are a cardinal energy, you always have a childlike flair to you! You keep things interesting and youthful. You’re not afraid to cross boundaries and push the limits of yourself & your partner in the midst of a sexual act. You really may think that sex is something that can be “won”. You want to be the best. You want to be the one that lovers can’t get enough of. You don’t appreciate being compared to others and honestly hear partners talking about their past as if it was some sort of challenge. You definitely have a jealous and possessive streak, but like I always say, when this is a healed energy it can be enduring to the right partner. As long as it’s not obsessive and unhealthy, you can provide comfort to your lovers that you are there for them and only them. You expect loyalty in return, of course, but you don’t mind protecting and defending what you see as your own. Your love is real. Your love is honest. Your love is young and wild and free!

#astrology #astro notes #astrology observations #vedic astrology #astro community #sidereal astrology #jyotish

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treasure-mimic · 1 year ago

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So, let me try and put everything together here, because I really do think it needs to be talked about.

Today, Unity announced that it intends to apply a fee to use its software. Then it got worse.

For those not in the know, Unity is the most popular free to use video game development tool, offering a basic version for individuals who want to learn how to create games or create independently alongside paid versions for corporations or people who want more features. It's decent enough at this job, has issues but for the price point I can't complain, and is the idea entry point into creating in this medium, it's a very important piece of software.

But speaking of tools, the CEO is a massive one. When he was the COO of EA, he advocated for using, what out and out sounds like emotional manipulation to coerce players into microtransactions.

"A consumer gets engaged in a property, they might spend 10, 20, 30, 50 hours on the game and then when they're deep into the game they're well invested in it. We're not gouging, but we're charging and at that point in time the commitment can be pretty high."

He also called game developers who don't discuss monetization early in the planning stages of development, quote, "fucking idiots".

So that sets the stage for what might be one of the most bald-faced greediest moves I've seen from a corporation in a minute. Most at least have the sense of self-preservation to hide it.

A few hours ago, Unity posted this announcement on the official blog.

Effective January 1, 2024, we will introduce a new Unity Runtime Fee that’s based on game installs. We will also add cloud-based asset storage, Unity DevOps tools, and AI at runtime at no extra cost to Unity subscription plans this November. We are introducing a Unity Runtime Fee that is based upon each time a qualifying game is downloaded by an end user. We chose this because each time a game is downloaded, the Unity Runtime is also installed. Also we believe that an initial install-based fee allows creators to keep the ongoing financial gains from player engagement, unlike a revenue share.

Now there are a few red flags to note in this pitch immediately.

Unity is planning on charging a fee on all games which use its engine.

This is a flat fee per number of installs.

They are using an always online runtime function to determine whether a game is downloaded.

There is just so many things wrong with this that it's hard to know where to start, not helped by this FAQ which doubled down on a lot of the major issues people had.

I guess let's start with what people noticed first. Because it's using a system baked into the software itself, Unity would not be differentiating between a "purchase" and a "download". If someone uninstalls and reinstalls a game, that's two downloads. If someone gets a new computer or a new console and downloads a game already purchased from their account, that's two download. If someone pirates the game, the studio will be asked to pay for that download.

Q: How are you going to collect installs? A: We leverage our own proprietary data model. We believe it gives an accurate determination of the number of times the runtime is distributed for a given project. Q: Is software made in unity going to be calling home to unity whenever it's ran, even for enterprice licenses? A: We use a composite model for counting runtime installs that collects data from numerous sources. The Unity Runtime Fee will use data in compliance with GDPR and CCPA. The data being requested is aggregated and is being used for billing purposes. Q: If a user reinstalls/redownloads a game / changes their hardware, will that count as multiple installs? A: Yes. The creator will need to pay for all future installs. The reason is that Unity doesn’t receive end-player information, just aggregate data. Q: What's going to stop us being charged for pirated copies of our games? A: We do already have fraud detection practices in our Ads technology which is solving a similar problem, so we will leverage that know-how as a starting point. We recognize that users will have concerns about this and we will make available a process for them to submit their concerns to our fraud compliance team.

This is potentially related to a new system that will require Unity Personal developers to go online at least once every three days.

Starting in November, Unity Personal users will get a new sign-in and online user experience. Users will need to be signed into the Hub with their Unity ID and connect to the internet to use Unity. If the internet connection is lost, users can continue using Unity for up to 3 days while offline. More details to come, when this change takes effect.

It's unclear whether this requirement will be attached to any and all Unity games, though it would explain how they're theoretically able to track "the number of installs", and why the methodology for tracking these installs is so shit, as we'll discuss later.

Unity claims that it will only leverage this fee to games which surpass a certain threshold of downloads and yearly revenue.

Only games that meet the following thresholds qualify for the Unity Runtime Fee: Unity Personal and Unity Plus: Those that have made $200,000 USD or more in the last 12 months AND have at least 200,000 lifetime game installs. Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise: Those that have made $1,000,000 USD or more in the last 12 months AND have at least 1,000,000 lifetime game installs.

They don't say how they're going to collect information on a game's revenue, likely this is just to say that they're only interested in squeezing larger products (games like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, Fate Grand Order, Among Us, and Fall Guys) and not every 2 dollar puzzle platformer that drops on Steam. But also, these larger products have the easiest time porting off of Unity and the most incentives to, meaning realistically those heaviest impacted are going to be the ones who just barely meet this threshold, most of them indie developers.

Aggro Crab Games, one of the first to properly break this story, points out that systems like the Xbox Game Pass, which is already pretty predatory towards smaller developers, will quickly inflate their "lifetime game installs" meaning even skimming the threshold of that 200k revenue, will be asked to pay a fee per install, not a percentage on said revenue.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Hey Gamers!

Today, Unity (the engine we use to make our games) announced that they'll soon be taking a fee from developers for every copy of the game installed over a certain threshold - regardless of how that copy was obtained.

Guess who has a somewhat highly anticipated game coming to Xbox Game Pass in 2024? That's right, it's us and a lot of other developers.

That means Another Crab's Treasure will be free to install for the 25 million Game Pass subscribers. If a fraction of those users download our game, Unity could take a fee that puts an enormous dent in our income and threatens the sustainability of our business.

And that's before we even think about sales on other platforms, or pirated installs of our game, or even multiple installs by the same user!!!

This decision puts us and countless other studios in a position where we might not be able to justify using Unity for our future titles. If these changes aren't rolled back, we'll be heavily considering abandoning our wealth of Unity expertise we've accumulated over the years and starting from scratch in a new engine. Which is really something we'd rather not do.

On behalf of the dev community, we're calling on Unity to reverse the latest in a string of shortsighted decisions that seem to prioritize shareholders over their product's actual users.

I fucking hate it here.

-Aggro Crab - END DESCRIPTION]

That fee, by the way, is a flat fee. Not a percentage, not a royalty. This means that any games made in Unity expecting any kind of success are heavily incentivized to cost as much as possible.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A table listing the various fees by number of Installs over the Install Threshold vs. version of Unity used, ranging from $0.01 to $0.20 per install. END DESCRIPTION]

Basic elementary school math tells us that if a game comes out for $1.99, they will be paying, at maximum, 10% of their revenue to Unity, whereas jacking the price up to $59.99 lowers that percentage to something closer to 0.3%. Obviously any company, especially any company in financial desperation, which a sudden anchor on all your revenue is going to create, is going to choose the latter.

Furthermore, and following the trend of "fuck anyone who doesn't ask for money", Unity helpfully defines what an install is on their main site.

While I'm looking at this page as it exists now, it currently says

The installation and initialization of a game or app on an end user’s device as well as distribution via streaming is considered an “install.” Games or apps with substantially similar content may be counted as one project, with installs then aggregated to calculate the Unity Runtime Fee.

However, I saw a screenshot saying something different, and utilizing the Wayback Machine we can see that this phrasing was changed at some point in the few hours since this announcement went up. Instead, it reads:

The installation and initialization of a game or app on an end user’s device as well as distribution via streaming or web browser is considered an “install.” Games or apps with substantially similar content may be counted as one project, with installs then aggregated to calculate the Unity Runtime Fee.

Screenshot for posterity:

That would mean web browser games made in Unity would count towards this install threshold. You could legitimately drive the count up simply by continuously refreshing the page. The FAQ, again, doubles down.

Q: Does this affect WebGL and streamed games? A: Games on all platforms are eligible for the fee but will only incur costs if both the install and revenue thresholds are crossed. Installs - which involves initialization of the runtime on a client device - are counted on all platforms the same way (WebGL and streaming included).

And, what I personally consider to be the most suspect claim in this entire debacle, they claim that "lifetime installs" includes installs prior to this change going into effect.

Will this fee apply to games using Unity Runtime that are already on the market on January 1, 2024? Yes, the fee applies to eligible games currently in market that continue to distribute the runtime. We look at a game's lifetime installs to determine eligibility for the runtime fee. Then we bill the runtime fee based on all new installs that occur after January 1, 2024.

Again, again, doubled down in the FAQ.

Q: Are these fees going to apply to games which have been out for years already? If you met the threshold 2 years ago, you'll start owing for any installs monthly from January, no? (in theory). It says they'll use previous installs to determine threshold eligibility & then you'll start owing them for the new ones. A: Yes, assuming the game is eligible and distributing the Unity Runtime then runtime fees will apply. We look at a game's lifetime installs to determine eligibility for the runtime fee. Then we bill the runtime fee based on all new installs that occur after January 1, 2024.

That would involve billing companies for using their software before telling them of the existence of a bill. Holding their actions to a contract that they performed before the contract existed!

Okay. I think that's everything. So far.

There is one thing that I want to mention before ending this post, unfortunately it's a little conspiratorial, but it's so hard to believe that anyone genuinely thought this was a good idea that it's stuck in my brain as a significant possibility.

A few days ago it was reported that Unity's CEO sold 2,000 shares of his own company.

On September 6, 2023, John Riccitiello, President and CEO of Unity Software Inc (NYSE:U), sold 2,000 shares of the company. This move is part of a larger trend for the insider, who over the past year has sold a total of 50,610 shares and purchased none.

I would not be surprised if this decision gets reversed tomorrow, that it was literally only made for the CEO to short his own goddamn company, because I would sooner believe that this whole thing is some idiotic attempt at committing fraud than a real monetization strategy, even knowing how unfathomably greedy these people can be.

So, with all that said, what do we do now?

Well, in all likelihood you won't need to do anything. As I said, some of the biggest names in the industry would be directly affected by this change, and you can bet your bottom dollar that they're not just going to take it lying down. After all, the only way to stop a greedy CEO is with a greedier CEO, right?

(I fucking hate it here.)

And that's not mentioning the indie devs who are already talking about abandoning the engine.

[Links display tweets from the lead developer of Among Us saying it'd be less costly to hire people to move the game off of Unity and Cult of the Lamb's official twitter saying the game won't be available after January 1st in response to the news.]

That being said, I'm still shaken by all this. The fact that Unity is openly willing to go back and punish its developers for ever having used the engine in the past makes me question my relationship to it.

The news has given rise to the visibility of free, open source alternative Godot, which, if you're interested, is likely a better option than Unity at this point. Mostly, though, I just hope we can get out of this whole, fucking, environment where creatives are treated as an endless mill of free profits that's going to be continuously ratcheted up and up to drive unsustainable infinite corporate growth that our entire economy is based on for some fuckin reason.

Anyways, that's that, I find having these big posts that break everything down to be helpful.

#Unity #Unity3D #Video Games #Game Development #Game Developers #fuckshit #I don't know what to tag news like this

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