#or at least you would have a new and exciting variation of that problem

[clonerightsagenda]

Was brooding about this post again and considered that maybe the narrative's consequence/judgment for this choice was him maybe not being able to have kids. Like yes you can use a bunch of people's sacrificed lives (twice) for your own gain but it'll poison the well, nothing can grow from that, you'll be the last of your line. But uh. did anyone ever tell him about that

[anonymousewrites]

A Not-So-Disastrous Romance (Book 1) Chapter One

Kusuo Saiki x Reader

Chapter One: Girl Problems and Beach Woes

Summary: Saiki tries to avoid Yumehara since she has a crush on him and gets dragged to the beach.

            “How do you get a girl to stop liking you?”

            “I thought Teruhashi was just confused about how you don’t react to her,” said (Y/N). They weren’t offput by the sudden conversation. Saiki wasn’t one to beat around the bush. And, hey, it was nice to have people get straight to the point.

            “It’s someone else.”

            “Well, aren’t you popular!” teased (Y/N).

            Saiki gave them a look. “I don’t want to be.”

            “Alright, I understand,” said (Y/N). “The best way to get a girl to stop liking you is to stop giving her hope, get her a different guy, or get a partner yourself. However, there are some girls who will never lose hope. In that case, it’s pointless to do anything. Only time would solve that one.”

            “So if her attempts to flirt with me or get to know me don’t work, she might lose interest?”

            “Yeah, unless she’s a determined one.” (Y/N) shrugged.

            I already know what Yumehara is planning, but I can’t let (Y/N) know since it wouldn’t be normal. “What might a girl do?” asked Saiki.

            “Hmm, she’ll probably use classic tropes like bumping into you from around a corner. She might ‘drop’ books or papers to make sure you have a reason to stick around,” explained (Y/N), “She might use a slight variation of that by dropping something of hers by you and pretending not to notice.” They smiled. “Those are some of the common ones, at least.”

            “Alright,” said Saiki.

            “Good luck!” said (Y/N).

l

            The day had ended, and (Y/N) stood out in the rain. The students passed by them with umbrellas, but (Y/N) paid them no mind. The downpour was rejuvenating. It made them feel alive. They spun around, feeling the rain on their skin. Was it a little manic-pixie-dream-person? Sure. But it was also “Singing in the Rain,” which is classy and not a terrible cliché.

            Yare yare. They’re going to get sick from that.

            They held their arms out wide, tilting their head to the sky and closing their eyes. At that exact moment, a beam of light struck the sky. A circle of light fell down, hitting (Y/N) at just the right angle. They seemed to glow.

            If someone saw them, maybe they’d say “oh, wow.” If.

            The moment ended as the sky cleared, and Saiki teleported down, walking out to where (Y/N) was waiting.

             “Hey, Saiki, solve your problem?” asked (Y/N), pushing their damp hair back.

            “You look like that and you’re asking about me?” Saiki deadpanned more than usual.

            “What’s life without a bit of romance?”

            “What does dancing in the rain have to do with being in a relationship with someone?” questioned Saiki.

            “Romance is also about the feeling of excitement and separation from the everyday,” said (Y/N), smiling. “I like to enjoy the little things in life. Some people like to be serious—” they grinned at him teasingly “—but I like a little fun. And anyways, you haven’t told me whether or not you solved your problem!”

            Saiki looked back to where Yumehara was standing under an umbrella with a boy and blushing. He could hear her thoughts, and she was already into the new guy (although Saiki was slightly insulted about how easily she got over him). “Yeah, it all worked out in the end.”

            (Y/N) followed the pink-haired boy’s gaze and saw the pair. They found it strange that the pair were under an umbrella since it was sunny outside now, but it was sweet all the same. “Aw, what a nice ending. She has happiness, and you have one less bother.”

            “Finally.”

l

            A couple days later, (Y/N) headed over to Saiki’s. They were bored, planned to go to the beach, and wanted someone to go with. Coincidentally, Nendou had the same idea and was going to Saiki’s house. Together, they knocked on the door.

            Yare yare. I can’t read either of their minds, so I didn’t realize it was them before opening the door. Saiki sighed inwardly.

            “Hey, pal!” said Nendou, “Let’s go to the beach!”

            “It’s so sunny and beautiful! You can waste tomorrow inside,” said (Y/N), knowing exactly what Saiki was up to. They put their hands on their hips and grinned. In their pink swim-shorts and white swim shirt, they weren’t very threatening.

            “A-a-are they Kuu’s friends?” asked Mrs. Saiki in complete shock.

            “He’s not my friend.” Then, realizing what he forgot, Saiki added, “Neither are they.”

            “Wahh! This is the first time any of Kuu’s friends have come to our house to visit.” Mrs. Saiki was nearly in tears. “I’m so happy!”

            “We’re best friends,” declared (Y/N) proudly, and Saiki deadpanned.

            “To think that Kuu has finally gotten a best friend!” Mrs. Saiki dabbed at her eyes.

            “Hey, pal, I didn’t know you had a big sister,” said Nendou.

            “He thought I was his big sister! I’m so happy!” Tears continued streaming down Saiki’s mother’s face.

            “Just how many times are you going to make my mom cry?” asked Saiki.

            “Yeah, I’m starting to feel kinda bad, even if they are happy tears,” admitted (Y/N).

            “What? What? You’re his mom?” Nendou was surprised. “Me and pinky here are off to the beach and came to ask him to join us.”

            “Why am I pinky?” wondered (Y/N).

            “You wear a lot of pink,” said Saiki matter-of-factly.

            “Oh, that sounds nice,” commented Mrs. Saiki happily.

            “Obviously, I’m not going. I’ll spare myself the pain,” said Saiki.

            His mother suddenly had a scary look on her face. “Your friends went to all the trouble to come and get you. You’re going to the beach, Kusuo.”

            “Oh,” said Saiki. He wasn’t going to argue with her. He may be a psychic, but she was still his mom and quite intimidating at times.

l

            They had arrived at the beach finally. Along the way, the group had picked up Kaidou as well, who was now being teased by Nendou since he didn’t want to get in the water (it seemed he couldn’t swim, though he denied this).

            Saiki sat down on his beach towel. (Y/N) spread theirs out beside him. They lay back and closed their eyes, basking in the sun’s warmth. A nice moment of peace was just what they needed before they started swimming.

            “Kaidou’s drowning.”

            “Huh?!” They sat up suddenly, and sure enough, Kaidou was floundering on his back in three inches of water. (Y/N) breathed a sigh of relief. “You almost gave me a heart attack, Saiki!”

            “I’ll save you!” came an energetic cry. A lifeguard dove into the water, sliding on his stomach because it was shallow. Unfortunately, his swimsuit got stuck in the sand, revealing his bare bottom. It was, of course, Hairo.

            “Oh, it’s you, Hairo!” said Nendou.

            “Great job, Hairo!” cheered (Y/N).

            “Why are you congratulating him? Kaidou wasn’t in danger.”

            “Because it’s nice,” answered (Y/N). They were there to encourage their friend.

            “Oh, Nendou, (Y/N)! You, too, Saiki?” commented Hairo.

            Saiki didn’t answer. He was too busy reading.

            “What’re you doing here?” asked Nendou after they were out of the water.

            “I volunteer as a lifeguard,” explained Hairo.

            “Ahhh! I’m drowning!” screamed a swimmer.

            “I’m coming!” yelled Hairo. He dove into the water and swam out to sea.

            “Volunteering when it’s this hot? That’s amazing,” said Nendou. “Hey, pal, pinky, aren’t you guys gonna swim?”

            “Just forget I’m here,” said Saiki, not looking up from his book.

            “I might in a moment,” said (Y/N), smiling.

            The tall boy looked disheartened until spying a group of girls. “Okay, then!” He put on shades. “I’ll go hit on girls.”

            “Do you have any idea what you’re saying?” commented Saiki.

            “He lost interest in swimming pretty quickly,” said (Y/N), amused.

            “Hey, have you ever looked in a mirror?” cried Kaidou from behind Nendou, “Why don’t you try walking on walker?! You have better odds of pulling that off!”

            “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Guys’ looks aren’t important.” Nendou gave a confident thumbs-up. “It’s all about attitude.”

            While Nendou walked off and was (inevitably) rejected by multiple girls, (Y/N) turned to Saiki.

            “Sorry you got dragged here,” said (Y/N).

            “Weren’t you the one who invited me?” questioned Saiki.

            “Well, yeah…” (Y/N) rubbed the back of their head sheepishly. “But I wanted you to come by choice. I didn’t expect your mom to be so scary.” They smiled at the pink-haired boy. “So anyways, feel free to stay here and read. If you need me, I’ll be swimming.” They stood up and headed towards the water.

            “Yare yare. The other idiots are just going to come bother me, so I’ll join you.” He glanced over to where Nendou was chasing after girls. “And I don’t want people to think I’m with him.” He took off his jacket and t-shirt, stole Nendou’s floatie, and began walking to the water.

            “That’s fair,” admitted (Y/N), cringing at poor, clueless Nendou.

            Soon enough, the pair were swimming in the ocean. No words were needed; both enjoyed the soft sounds of the waves (Saiki was plagued by people’s thoughts, however). Saiki decided to give (Y/N) a turn in the floatie so they could relax their muscles from swimming (and so he could swim down to the bottom of the ocean to try to avoid thoughts). (Y/N) was bobbing on the waves watching the shore, not paying attention to Saiki, when something caught their attention. A young girl seemed to be floundering in the waves.

            “Is that girl in trouble?” they wondered, concerned and stressed now. There was no response. “Saiki?” They frowned and turned to where their friend should be, but he was gone. Worried for the girl, (Y/N) left the floatie and began to swim over. They tried to drag the device behind them, but it was cumbersome and slowed them down. They let it go and swam to the girl, who was already sinking. (Y/N) held their breath and dove under. They dragged the girl to the surface, gasping for air. Struggling to support the unconscious woman, (Y/N) started to pull her to the shore.

            Luckily, Nendou, already carrying Kaidou, arrived and helped hold the girl. “All right!” said Nendou. “You doin’ good, pinky?”

            “I’m fine,” panted (Y/N), relieved to have some of the weight lifted from them.

            “Hey! What happened?” asked Hairo, swimming up to them energetically.

            “Oh, Hairo! Great timing,” said (Y/N).

            “Give us a hand!” said Nendou.

            “Sure, I’ll h—Ahh! My leg’s cramped!” Hairo began to fall below the waves.

            Oh, boy. (Y/N) sighed and pulled Hairo up. They and Nendou were now holding up three people between them.

            “You, too?! Geez,” said Nendou.

            “Sorry,” mumbled Hairo.

            “It’s fine, let’s just hurry to shore,” said (Y/N).

            Yare yare. They’re so high maintenance. Saiki swam up from underneath them.

            “This is too much for you guys! Let go of me!” said Hairo.

            “Shut up!” said Nendou, but he was starting to fall underwater.

            (Y/N) wasn’t fairing much better. They had already been swimming for a while before doing this, so they were exhausted. “Crap…!” They fell below the waves with Nendou and the others. Nendou grabbed them, but they continued to sink. Suddenly, they were lifted above the waves. (Y/N) felt something was support them from below.

            “A-Are you standing on water?” gasped Hairo.

            No, I’m holding them up, thought Saiki. He began carrying them to shore but made it appear like Nendou was running across the waves.

            “See? Didn’t I tell you that you could pick up walking on water faster than you could pick up girls?” said Kaidou.

            Just as they were about to the shore, (Y/N) slipped from Nendou’s grasp and fell into the water. Nendou was close enough to walk everybody to the beach, so Saiki let go of him. He dove deeper into the water and grabbed (Y/N)’s wrist, pulling them up with him. Calmly, he carried them out of the water and put them down on the beach gently. (Y/N) coughed up water but seemed unharmed.

            “Are you okay?” asked Saiki.

            “I’ll feel better after some rest,” said (Y/N), smiling. “Thank you for saving me.”

            Saiki sighed. It seemed to be a sound of exasperation, but it was really a sound of relief. He didn’t like his friends (acknowledged or not) being hurt. “It’s getting late. Let’s go.”

            (Y/N) grinned at him. “Good idea.” They decided not to harp on Saiki helping them. They’d not tease him like that.

Saiki and (Y/N) gathered up their stuff and began walking back with Nendou and Kaidou, who had been talking to the girl who was saved.

            “Knowing you, I thought you’d demand something in return for saving you,” said Kaidou to Nendou.

            “Humph, I wouldn’t do something so lame,” said Nendou, “Of course, if she fell in love with me, well, I guess I’d have to live with it, right?”

            (Y/N) sweat-dropped but was amused at their dramatic expressions. They doubted that in particular would happen. After all, just saving someone’s life wouldn’t make them fall in love. That being said, it was a rather nice thing to do.

            And I guess it is a nice fantasy, thought (Y/N). And being saved by Saiki was fun, like a fairytale.

            …Huh? That was a new thought.

            “That won’t happen,” said Kaidou.

            “What’d you say?!” demanded Nendou.

            (Y/N) began laughing at their antics. They could put those thoughts on the backburner.

            “You never got thanked by that girl, aren’t you upset that Nendou gets the recognition?” asked Saiki.

            Huh, I thought he wasn’t around when that happened… thought (Y/N). They shrugged. “She was saved. That’s all that matters, right? I imagine that if you were saving people you wouldn’t care about recognition.”

            Saiki blinked. Am I sure they aren’t a psychic?

Taglist:

@elaemae

@painstakingly-juno

@characterreaderwriter

@melovepurple

@sleep-7372

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@futureittomainn

[pluralsword]

you know we were going to making an Optimus out of Earthrise Elita and post with the line "freedom is the right of all sentient beings including the right to shellform" and are still going to, but wow wasn't really expecting an Optimus toy who effectively has g1 Arcee back stacks while having a mix of Jazz and IDW Arcee proportions to drop as the main studio series Optimus for the new movie- and are just thinking 'wow, 40 years was really something.' gonna see if we can make a truck Arcee at some point or if we're lucky/given enough time, a trailer fills out a light bus alt. all issues with thigh paint scraping from the hips are no longer a problem for us personally

Aren't they adorable... if you had told us two canon forms of a non-trans duo occasional m/f couple would be able to hold their back stacks like this in their toy form before we held Studio Transformers One Optimus in our hands we would have replied '?being able to do this with more than canon lesbians (who themselves desperately need to have more easily available toys)? yeah, I wish.' Dying with joy - living with joy

(also these two in the photo could still be wlw for all we know given the fact there are two gal Optimus Primes so far in canon)

btw can we get a gal and/or genderfluid Jazz in a show or film or game, please and thank you. so close for the former to happen in Cyberverse before she got cut from it

but yeah. revisiting the thing of hey so what if we got Elita and Optimus as lesbians in media we'd love that. I mean now that we think of it Blackarachnia was in the Yellow Order led by Splendid... clearly BW-based Blackarachnia but still... (and also Splendid would never have left Elita behind like that even if it meant crossing Sentinel, at least that's what we think anyways)

some personal trans stuff under the cut

To us, personally, there's something - something deeply joyful about this happenstance of designs overlapping. Especially given how intertwined Arcee and Jazz's stories have been with Optimus over the years, and Arcee's been subject to so much debate out the wazoo about her body- and for there to be an Optimus who has a variety of two Arcee iterations' body traits on top of being very curvy for an Optimus really gave a sense of, I don't know- euphoria? Peace? Feeling accidentally seen? Vindication that the body is doable with a bot mode without much of a fuss? We already knew that from the excellent action figure as in one of the most possible transformers ever ER Arcee, or from Cyberverse Warrior Dead End who's basically a G1-esque Arcee in red with bulky long ankles and a wider chest like IDW1 Arcee, or you know, the fact that speaking of the former, Legacy Elita is an excellent retool choice if you're not going to go for even more accuracy by retooling a Datsun mold to have side of the chest with lights instead form back stacks? But from Optimus of all bots...

We already loved the movie, which has been really good for Elita and there's so much about it we love (the trains. the trains!) but there's a deep happiness we're feeling this fall we haven't felt in a long time. Maybe it's partially the realignment of our life, but it's also - the beauty of transformation and variation we get to share with so many people (and not just in the transformers sense) so poetically comparable to the long journey transformers has had and is still having.

Maybe there's a part of us that's trying to be wiser by trying to get every once of happiness we can out of some lovingly designed (if you follow the toy designers on instagram it's clear they have excitement about what they do) off-shore factory mass produced plastic we got on discount while weighing other things, but that part of us is also playful scifi loving inner child who got to figure out via the adults within us that she's trans and doesn't ever want to let go of what for her is the stuff of life in a larger world of embracing with how much we don't know.

There's also just for those of us for whom Arcee's trans journeys (she's had multiple in canon, and then there's well, having a trans fan read of any other ones before, during, or after if you want or in the case of during and after tracing where the trans iterations impacted others) resonates very strongly there's something deeply relieving about getting to see the bot who is literally the face of transformers (aside from you know, the Autobrand being based on Prowl lmao), actually look more than a bit like her for once.

'Til All Are One, in pluralistic autonomy, journeying manyfold in all the forms and expressions that feel good to oneself

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

M6 with MC who's passionate in culinary and cuisines, love to take their lover to food trips and cook for them a lot, even testing out their new recipes to M6

dont feel pressured to take this request, have a lovely day you lovely human being

(also i wanna share a little headcanon of mine; Lucio is big on cuisines, he probably grew up with eating limited variations of foods so when he became the count he was so excited to try out new kinds of food and developed a little passion for it)

The Arcana HCs: M6 with a foodie MC

~ as someone who grew up internationally and makes their own bread and cheese instead of buying it, this is a request that makes me grin. thanks for the smile, anon! - brainrot ~

Julian

We already know how comforting Mazelinka's homemade soup is for him (magic or otherwise)

We also know that he's terrible at remembering to eat regularly, or choose things that taste good

If he walks into the kitchen to see you, his greatest love, cooking a nutritious and delicious meal to share with him, he may propose on the spot. Or melt. Or both

That said, his palate isn't very well refined, so if you're looking for detailed culinary feedback you won't be getting much

However, he can be quite the poet. When it comes to praise, he'll be groaning out compliments between each delicious bite and raving about it until the next homemade meal

Delighted to go on food trips with you, he knows all kinds of questionable shortcuts

It will become apparent that he can't follow most of the conversation (palate cleanser? I don't even know her!) but he will try his best

Is very good at making friends with whoever you're interacting with. You get a lot of extra samples because of him

Randomly brings people home to eat your cooking because according to him it's so good it'll cure any and all problems

Asra

They're a pretty decent cook themselves, which is a lot of fun when you get to take turns introducing your favorite foods to each other

He's also the type to regularly try recreating dishes he's eaten on his travels without any reference or recipe

It never turns out right, but it always tastes good

They love trying new things and are your most eager taste-tester. No matter how intimidating the culinary process is, they are wholly fascinated and invested

Food trips are his favorite thing

They'll happily take you to all the places they've visited, dragging you to the hole-in-the-walls that only locals know about and avoiding the places that gave them food poisoning previously

When he's on a solo journey, he'll keep an eye out for any ingredients you've mentioned and bring them back for you

As well as any remotely food-related thing that tickled their fancy

Did you want a stone mill taking up space on your roof? Not necessarily, but you have one now, and he's really excited to try making flour (and then bread) with it at least once before you get rid of it

Nadia

Fully supportive of your culinary endeavors

She has a taste for fine things herself. If those fine things were made by her beloved MC? She's all for it

Tries not to show too much excitement when you express a love for exploring other cuisines, she misses Prakran food so badly and can never find it made right

Regularly takes you to eat dishes prepared by Vesuvia's finest chefs

When you mention a food trip she pounces on the opportunity to eat all of her favorite Prakran delicacies with you

She may or may not pay her favorite spiced swordfish cook to give you an afternoon of lessons on how it's made. Only after you've said you would like the opportunity, of course

She's not much of a cook herself (she's always had in-house chefs) but she has a very well developed palate. Her culinary feedback is immaculate

It's hard for her to make the kind of time necessary to go on regular food trips with you, but that doesn't stop her from ordering all sorts of treats

She'll wait until you're relaxing in the garden with her to pull out the most recent delivery so she can watch your eyes light up

Muriel

The opposite of a foodie

That is, until you get your hands on him

One of your first positive interactions is getting him to try Selasi's bread and savoring the flavor together

He still has to shake himself out of the "food is fuel that I can't expect consistent access to" mentality, but you being around really helps

Nothing makes the hut feel more like home than watching you painstakingly put a meal together, playing with ingredients and spices like they're fun and not something to be scarfed down

Happy to go on trips with you, not so happy about all the human interaction that comes with the food part

But he loves fueling your interest, so he will start researching all kinds of cuisines based around foraging

Cooking becomes so much fun like this - he'll show up with a pile of foraged ingredients that he can tell you all about

And then you can tell him about all the ways you'll turn them into a delicious meal

Discovering that he has food preferences is really fun, until he also discovers the foods he really doesn't like and you have to learn to cook without them

Portia

Oh, you two are unstoppable

She bakes. You cook. She cooks. You bake. And then you feast and feast and feast

She has her fair share of wanderlust, so food trips are going to be a mutual delight for you two. She makes the best itineraries

She's also got her fair share of dishes from Nevivon that she likes to make for and teach to you (though some recipes are passed-down secrets that you'll need to earn)

You generally alternate cooking duties, so each of you has a day to cook and a day to savor

She's also friends with the palace chefs, and can convince them to let you watch them cook and share some tips with you

Ambassador trips are so much fun. If you go with her, the two of you will sneak out between meetings to hit up the street food stalls

If you stay with the shop, she'll collect all the recipes for you and bring back so many ingredients and spices

You being already trained in magic makes it easy for you to pick up Mazelinka's wonderful soup recipe once she's finally ready to teach it to you. The first time you make it for Portia, she cries

Lucio

As earlier suggested, Lucio grew up eating only what his parents and later he could hunt. In the army, he only had whatever was provided

Like his love of luxurious and shiny things, he developed an interest in cuisine after being taken in by the old Count

It was also one of the main attractions of his crazy masquerades

There is a reason why the first thing he wanted after regaining a body was food. It brings him joy!

He was ready to go back to the simpler food of his younger years when he gave up being Count to start a new life with you. It had even become something he associated with his old vices

So when he sees the stuff you manage to create over a campfire, he falls in love with you all over again

Regularly plans new jobs around culinary hotspots so you can wander and sample new food together

Prioritizes lodging that gives you a comfortable cooking space

He's not a chef, but he's a decent swordsman. He's cautious around anything that isn't grilling but he'll happily chop ingredients for you

[orcinus-veterinarius]

from your experience, do you think fully indoor enclosures (the Georgia Aquarium or SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, for example) are worse welfare-wise for cetaceans and pinnipeds than outdoor ones? they would definitely be advantageous in places where severe weather is a concern, but I feel like they should be out in the fresh air. i don’t want to make a judgment call if that’s not the case though cuz I’ve always wondered about this but don’t know enough about marine mammals to answer. thanks :)

So this is a really great question, and actually one I’ve been wondering about myself recently. From what I can tell, there hasn’t been a lot of formal research into the pros and cons of completely indoor versus completely outdoor habitats for marine mammals. My “gut” response is to agree with you that, yes, exposure to fresh air and sunlight is preferable whenever possible. Never underestimate the important of sunlight!

However, there are environments where indoor housing is more appropriate, namely urban settings. Aquariums like Georgia, Shedd, and National are literally downtown in Atlanta, Chicago, and Baltimore respectively—major cities. While this is an optimal location for reaching the highest number of people, it also means air quality is poor, and we know how sensitive marine mammals are to respiratory pollutants. In these cases, indoor habitats are probably the wiser option, and it seems to have served them well. In the 12 years since Georgia Aquarium opened its bottlenose exihibit, they have only lost one dolphin (to acute pneumonia), despite maintaining a pod of a dozen or so. Obviously, there are a whole host of factors that go into health and survival rates (Georgia does not permit its dolphins to breed, for one, which eliminates juvenile mortalities), but I don't think it's unfair to assume there would probably be a lot more respiratory problems in their pod if the dolphins lived outside in downtown Atlanta.

Another major factor that has only recently been recognized is regional microbiomes. This is one of the more viable theories as to what caused the short-lived dolphinarium Dolphinaris Arizona to tragically lose half of its dolphins over the course of a year and a half. Most of their dolphins were born either at SeaWorld Orlando or Dolphin Quest's Hawai'i locations—tropical climates, especially when compared to the arid desert climate of the greater Phoenix area. In Arizona, the dolphins encountered a new set of pathogens quite different from what they were acclimated to, and it is thought this contributed to at least a few of the deaths (one of them died of neurological disease for unrelated reasons).

Dolphinaris Arizona was a modern facility, with both indoor and outdoor habitats, and inspections revealed no issues with the animals’ care. It might’ve been horrible luck, similar to what CMA is experiencing right now. But I can’t help but wonder if all-indoor facilities might’ve prevented all this heartbreak.

The brand-new SeaWorld Abu Dhabi is now home to twenty-four dolphins—all from US SeaWorld Parks, which are found in humid subtropical to temperate coastal desert climates. Abu Dhabi, like Arizona, is in an arid desert climate. However, as you mentioned, the new facility is entirely indoors, which hopefully will aid in protecting the animals from both the unfamiliar desert pathogens and pollutants of the city. Reassuringly, the dolphin habitat is surrounded by large windows to allow ample exposure to natural sunlight. Since arriving in the fall of last year, all the dolphins have so far been doing well!

(I’m really excited about this habitat. It’s quite large and features depth variation, rockwork, a rain simulator, and live fish. I’ve also seen waves in some of the park walkthrough videos I’ve watched, although I’m unsure if this is from an actual wave machine or just the changes in depth combined with the animals’ movements).

Thanks for the ask! I hope it was helpful. I would love to be involved in formal research on the topic in the future!

[lexxlikes]

My opinion on the story of Murders of Karlov Manor

XXXX With spoilers! You have been warned! XXXX

I was initially very sceptical when Murders of Karlov Manor was announced, but I wanted to give the story behind it a chance. (After „Phyrexia“ and „All will be one“, my bar was set very low). My secret hope was that the schemes of Tezzeret (FANBOY!) and Lazav hinted in Greg Weisman's "War of the Spark" book would finally be flourish. Plunging Ravnica into chaos. More Tezzeret (finally with his Darksteel Body).

I also found the first story interesting, didn't quite know what to make of Proft and was curious to see what would happen next. In general, a murder-mystery story is always a fine art. Do you manage to write it in such a way that the attentive reader ends up with the same keys as the detective? Or - as in many films - are there 15 minutes of scenes that are essential to solving the mystery? However, with each successive story, my enthusiasm was dampened and my eyebrow rose higher and higher.

When the murderer was finally caught, it was there again. The feeling of the Phyrexia/All will be one story-arc. I find it a great pity that it seems as if the simplest solution is always taken. The characters are sometimes not written consistently and the end of the respective arc leaves you unsatisfied. Somehow you can feel in the stories that perhaps there is simply a lack of love for the protagonists and that's why they act OOC. The author did a good job and wrote a great story, but if the briefing says that Trostani, or rather Oba, is the vengeful retribution, there's nothing you can do. For me personally, the revenge motif is simply too heavy-handed in this context. It seems as if they had thought about who is least expected to be the murderer. Then they tried to knit a motif around it. It all seemed so incredibly contrived to me and didn't feel natural in the course of the story. 

What bothered me in general, however, were (unfortunately) many other aspects of the story in Ravnica. For one thing: Niv-Mizzet? It might have been nice to see/hear the living guild pact on this topic. Proft himself was a very unlikeable character to me. There's nothing wrong with creating a super intelligent Sherlock Holmes variation, but then it needs wit or a flaw. Proft unfortunately had neither and in the scene where he explains her job to Erata, I found it rather ridiculously over the top. What Krenko was doing in this whole scene - with all the guild leaders, I still wonder. Yes, he's a VIP in Ravnica. But to integrate him into the story because of that?

Another big aspect that I find very unfortunate are the open storylines. Teysa is/was a double agent? Judith is planning her own coup? The Simic are experimenting with glisterin oil? All great ideas, but unfortunately they were either nipped in the bud or, in the case of Proft, not pursued any further. Who was the intruder in his mind palace? Emarkul? Jace? A new party?

But despite everything I'm criticizing, I'd also like to highlight what I thought was good. As a big Kaya fan, I like the way the Planeswalker was portrayed. Her sassy demeanour, which often just serves as a protective shield. I also liked the way she was treated as a planeswalker in Ravnica. A story arc that I thought was great in the non-canon comics. The city/plane of Ravnica has a real problem with multiversal invaders and Kaya and Ral are met with distrust and anger. I think it just felt natural in the storyline. Ral Zarek only had a brief appearance, but he was electrifying. (Well? huh? You get it?.... Sorry…)

The author, Seanan McGuire, has also written a good story that beautifully depicts Ravnica, the guilds and everything that goes with it. There was also - especially at the beginning - a lot of excitement and joy when the new chapter was published. 

Basically, I would have liked to have seen a few open story lines (Lazav and Tezzeret) picked up and no new ones opened up. Only to be quickly cut short again.

I would be interested to hear your opinion on this? Am I being too critical? What do you think about the murderer and her motive? 

[douchebagbrainwaves]

YOU GUYS I JUST THOUGHT OF THIS

Hype doesn't make satisfied users, at least in our tradition lawyers are advocates: they are trained to be able to phrase it in terms of its variation from the random expedients other languages adopted. In the capital cost of a long name is not just that it makes life more tolerable. By all means be optimistic about things you can't control. I knew it would feel better; what's surprising is how much better it feels to be working on something, you'd think it might be that starting a startup you need to do things they never anticipated, rather than trying to learn about an interesting theoretical result someone figured out forty years ago, fascinating and urgently needed work. Prestige is the opinion of the rest of your days, even if they weren't paid for it—even if they had to watch over a bunch of changes that will be good for writing server-based applications, and there was my program, written in the near future will be a flop and you're wasting your time although they probably won't say this directly. A lot of people need to search for components, and before Octopart there was no good way to trick yourself into noticing ideas is to become the sort of lock-in that would prevent users from choosing you, don't believe it till you get the first big chunk of angel money will usually be the happiest phase in a startup's life. If you want to understand startups is to look at the spams you miss, and figure out what will make them happy, and that's why so many people said character was more important than ability: I would rather cofound a startup with a friend matters. When you find the right sort of person who has them. Part of the reason people in big companies is that they won't take risks.

Even so I can usually catch them. Startups' valuations are supposed to rise over time. What there has to be a VC by convincing asset managers to trust you with hundreds of millions of people use it in ways you didn't intend, and this trend has decades left to run. There have to be the scripting language of a massively popular language because it is not dense enough. Startups win because they don't—because they take people so smart that they would in a big company be doing research, and set them to work as hard as they possibly could at drawing for the next twenty years will be server-based applications. But he wouldn't, so we were pretty excited when we figured out what seemed to be nothing more than a website. In retrospect, I wonder how large this group has to be good at it; you have to install before you use it. Could this be a big deal. And meanwhile the past year has seen a dramatic increase in a new type of investor: the super-angel, who operates like an angel, but using other people's money, like a well. I don't think you're going to fail makes you stop working, that practically guarantees you'll fail. Make Web sites for people who didn't want them, we could make, the thing people will pay most for? Blogger is a famous example of a startup that went through really low lows and survived.

We often emphasize how rarely startups win simply because they hit on some magic idea. This is an astounding number, because I wasn't looking for it. But they won't always have to be really good at tricking you. Programming language design will not be about whether to make your language strongly or weakly typed, or object oriented, or functional, or whatever, and then figure out a way to answer the question, how do you design a language programmers will love as it is, represents the most economical route to the sea. Hacker, Eric Raymond describes Lisp as something like Latin or Greek—a language you should learn as an intellectual exercise, even though you won't actually use it: Lisp is worth learning for the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it; that experience will make you a better programmer, if it was not a tenth as motivated as the startup. In that kind of problem. There are a lot of external evidence that benevolence works. This is an instance of a very important meta-trend, one that Y Combinator itself has been based on from the beginning. Being at the leading edge of some rapidly changing field live in the future and build what's missing. How do you do that in a language without an interactive toplevel, and I tend to conclude with a few vague questions and then drift off to get a cup of tea. Maybe for the first couple months a startup may completely redefine their idea. Plenty of famous founders have had some failures along the way.

If anyone at Yahoo considered the idea of loving one's work. On the other hand, startup investing is a very good profiler, rather than having brilliant flashes of strategic insight I was supposed to be studying for finals. In a job there is much more damping. And so interfaces tend not to give you money. I've read was not in a book, and something to hack. Notice, though, that even with all the fat trimmed off its market cap. But you have to choose between spending time on the software. The company felt prematurely old. By the end of the scale there are so many universities competing to attract students that the mere establishment of a discipline requires little more than the valuation of the company, intellectual property issues, and so, later, was Perl. Typically these rights include vetoes over major strategic decisions, protection against being squashed by VCs in future rounds. This really is kind of a bug. If you can attract the best hackers to work for the hot startup that's rapidly growing into one.

[drsorrell]

Core Writing, Wed. 1.17

Ambience Video :)

Ch. 1, “‘THEY SAY’: Starting with What Others Are Saying” (19-31)

To construct a solid original idea, start with what others say.

Being familiar with the conversation that is already going on makes you appear informed and intelligent = more likely to be listened to.

Attaching your own idea to an ongoing conversation or debate grabs your audience's attention.

Come back to what others think or say as you develop your idea. By using the “return sentences” mentioned in the chapter, you can continually show how your viewpoint differs (and is better!)

An example of the They Say/I Say  “move”

"People often criticize online education during the pandemic. They talk about “learning loss” and students not paying attention. <-THEY SAY As the parent of two school-aged children at the time, I can say this was sometimes true. I SAY -> However, I would argue that the problem wasn’t online education itself but rather the way we used it. We did the same things online that we used to do face-to-face, which was boring. If we had tried new things, it would have worked better. For example, my daughter had a bag of crafts on Halloween, and each online teacher visited all the Google Meets to help with a different craft. The school threw 'learning' in a traditional sense out the window for one day, and it worked great; the kiddos were all excited, and my daughter still talks about it. On the one hand, critics are correct to point out flaws in the system. <- THEY SAY On the other hand, that doesn't mean that we should abandon online education altogether. Online education, much like education in general, requires adjustment and trying new things on the part of everyone involved. <- I SAY"

Activity: Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill, “Should Everyone Go to College?” (488-505)

Break up into a couple of different groups--no more than four people per group- -and talk about the Owen and Sawhill reading.

Identify at least one They Say moment from the text by finding a quote that you think sums up the authors' position.

Then, come up with at least 2-3 I Say responses. Tell us what you really think. I’m interested! I went to college in the '90s, so I want to know what you all think about this stuff. Really.

Refer to the They Say claim when making your own I Say claim (the set-up discussed above).

Talk as a group, write up what you think in a few bullet points, then post it (just one post per group) on Schoology under Owen & Sawhill + TSIS Activity.

Class Discussion of results.

If time: Review opening Sawhill & Owen paragraph together:

"For the past few decades, it has been widely argued that a college degree is a prerequisite to entering the middle class in the United States. Study after study reminds us that higher education is one of the best investments we can make, and President Obama has called it “an economic imperative.” We all know that, on average, college graduates make significantly more money over their lifetimes than those with only a high school education. What gets less attention is the fact that not all college degrees or college graduates are equal. There is enormous variation in the so-called return to education depending on factors such as institution attended, field of study, whether a student graduates, and post-graduation occupation. While the average return to obtaining a college degree is clearly positive, we emphasize that it is not universally so. For certain schools, majors, occupations, and individuals, college may not be a smart investment. By telling all young people that they should go to college no matter what, we are actually doing some of them a disservice" (Sawhill & Owen, 488-489).

Homework: 1 Read Ch. 21, Murray (506-526) and Graff (548-555). 2 InQuizitive: “How to Use InQuizitive.” 

[skyetheprophet22]

Plot Variations aka People on a Plane

#1:

Damien sat in his chair, long legs sprawled out in an attempt to stretch within the confines of the plane. It wasn’t that he didn’t have enough space. He just didn’t like to feel trapped. Contained. He growled a few curses under his breath and carded his fingers through his bright red hair.

“Oh good God!”

Damien’s brows lifted in amusement as a stockier man with a head of blond hair clutched the seat beside his, fingers digging into the cushion as the iron bird they sat within gave a shudder.

“It’s just turbulence, Luca,” he drawled.

“That didn’t feel like just turbulence.” Luca slid into the seat beside him as if his legs were about to give out. “I hope you’re quite happy forcing me on here. This deathtrap.” His blue eyes shot all around the plane. “And to see them.”

“You say it like we’re going to dine with the Hitlers!”

“You shouldn’t talk like that, you wolf.”

“It’s just your family.”

Luca’s eyes connected with Damien’s for a moment, then skittered away. His lips tightened. “I’d just rather stay in America than go back to Italy.”

His tone suggested he’d rather not discuss the matter, and Damien was nothing if not a gentleman. At least when it came to Luca.

#2:

We sat down at the same time, eyes skittering away at the slightest brush of contact. I cleared my throat, stared out the window as I waited for the plane to growl to life. Take off from the ground and soar into the darkening clouds seen out the window, sprinkling the horizon. 

Once the plane took off it would produce some vague excitement. I could make a comment on it and break the unbearable silence between us. It was thick. So heavy I was nearly suffocated. I wondered if she felt the weight as keenly as I did, or if I was just far more sensitive an individual than my sister.

The plane finally crawled forward.

“And after millennia of waiting, we move.” I cracked a nervous grin. “What, only a couple thousand more miles to go?”

“Silenna...this isn’t...we’ve just lost everything.”

The smile ran from my face.

She barked a humorless laugh. “And now we’re going to live with Uncle Charlie, a man who invented being a bastard. Now’s not the time, Silenna. So just shut-up and look out the window.”

I obliged, tears stabbing at the back of my eyes. “Family road-trip,” I whispered.

#3:

“The package.” 

It’s not a question. It’s a demand, spoken so firmly...with such ice…The pencil of a man had barely had time to settle into his seat on the plane before they drenched him. Left him shivering in his slacks.

“Like the dark suit and shades didn’t make you seem enough of a bastard,” he grumbled, yet his voice shook. A tremble was also present in his hands as he produced a small, spherical object from his tattered briefcase, hand-wrapped in a brown paper bag.

The scream of air hurtling past the plane window seemed to grow louder as the other man reached to take the package. It was in his hands, now. A wolfish smile consumed his face.

“Lovely,” the suited man purred.

The sphere was slipped into a pocket and replaced with a pistol. The skinny man’s brow was replaced with a bullet-hole.

#4:

She didn’t pay him any attention when they first filed onto the plane, corralled like cattle by smiling stewardesses and endless borders of black tape. They sat next to each other. Not a problem. It was what it was, and with it being the holiday season she hadn’t quite expected to have an abundance of space to herself on a plane ride to New York City.

She was heading to visit her brother. Their family always went to him for the holidays. No other venue would work for one reason or another. He was the annoyingly sticky, love-scented glue that kept their mess of a family together. 

She wondered if this man beside her was visiting family, as well. Maybe his was as dysfunctional as hers. Maybe-

Her thoughts broke off as a new pressure gathered at her side. Body rigid, she risked a glance to the side. 

“Oh, you’re asleep,” she whispered to herself, not daring to move an inch. “Yep, yep, yep. You are most definitely asleep.”

#5:

“Hey, let me see your earbuds.”

I comply with my friend’s request, watching as he fiddles with the white, twin-headed snake dangling from his fingers.

“Yep.” He throws my earbuds back at me with a snort of disgust. “Either something’s wrong with my IPad, or both of our earbuds are dead.”

“Or this plane is secretly sucking away all of the power in all of our devices in order to keep itself aloft. I mean, how else do you think a ton of metal stuffed with several dozen sweaty people can stay in the air? It’s sorcery.”

“Shut-up, Brian.”

A throw a shit-eating grin my friend’s way before gesturing to be given the IPad. “I don’t know how you keep breaking these things,” I say with a disapproving - and purposefully annoying - click of my tongue. “I don’t see why you need it, anyway. We’re going to Australia. There’ll be plenty to look at there. You don’t need this.”

I received a withering look in response.

“Yay for school trips!” I shook him with another wide grin plastered on my face.

[lulupen2023]

My very first BellDom Fic 12/23

Fun Fact: I've been trying at least 5 or 6 times to post also a het fic about them, but nothing works, LOL, it means that Tumblr just wants BellDom, well who can blame Tumblr? ;P so let's go on with this one

If you're reading, I hope you're laughing

Summary:

Do you want to meet a Matthew who sees conspiracy everywhere (oh wait, this is not big news!) and is so fond of his trolley that he treat it like a sort of puppy? Do you want to meet a Dominic in love with… himself (and with Matt, too, of course!)? And do you want to meet a Chris who wants to prove to the world he's the most masculine guy ever… but is unavoidably attracted by every… female hobby? This is what you'll find in this story, among lots of BellDom and��� craziness!

Summary of the chapter: Chris and Dom's reactions… and much more!

Chapter XII: No way!

After some seconds (maybe even some minutes) of silence, Chris is the first one to talk.

"What can I say, Bells? I guess it's way too soon..."

"Too son for what?" the singer narrows his eyes.

"For April fool's day, since it's just half January! Because this is a joke, isn't this? C'mon, it can't be anything but a joke!" the bassist snaps.

"No, it's not a joke. Wait, I got you. You are talking like that because it's still a work in progress, but..."

< Oh, my god, so he's not kidding at all. Note to myself: not always when Matthew concentrates and composes music he draws out something deep and spiritual!> Chris ponders, before striking back.

"Please, Matt, stop working on that project!"

"Do you mean that it's already perfect this way, so I don't need to work on it again and we can already start playing together and record it?" the frontman asks him hopefully.

"No way! Forget it, we'll never ever record that... thing!" his friend makes him desist.

"Alright! You think that it's mostly a live song to play just at the shows, right?" the other figures out, as he already approves that idea.

"No way! That would be even worse! Matthew, are you aware that you basically wrote an anthem against old people? Why do you hate them so much?" Chris wonders.

"I have my reasons!" Matthew grumbles.

"Just think about it. Let's suppose that an old person, I don't know, maybe a grandfather with his nephew, comes too see our show and you sing that... that so called song, too. How do you think he would react?" Chris tries to make him reason , with a patience that he ignores to have.

"There's no problem about that. They must not see our shows, it's simple. It will be enough to put all around some warnings." Matt suggests.

"So, tell me, what would you like to do? To plaster every place where we have a gig with tons of posters with the announcement 'The show is off limits to old damn geezers'?" Chris wonders ironically.

"No way! I would never do such a thing. I 'm not so rude and cold!" Matt comments horrified and Chris silently rejoices due to the fact that his friend seems to still have a glimpse of common sense.

"I mean, 'off limits' is such a hostile and unpleasant terminology, I could never use it. It's way much better 'Old damn geezers, we ask you cordially not to see this show. Thank you.'" Matthew adds.

Chris' temporary relief just fades away, immediately.

"You're right, Matt, this changes everything!" Chris mutters sarcastically ah he shakes his head in resignation.

"So, does it mean we can do it?" the frontman wonders, more and more hopeful.

"NO FUCKING WAY!" Chris roars, exasperated.

Matthew grumbles something indecipherable and then he turns to Dominic who doesn't even seem to pay attention, since he's lost in his thoughts.

"Hey! You don't even want to tell me what you think about the song, do you?" Matt diverts his attention.

"Uh? Do you wanna know what I think about it? IT'S WONDERFUL! I like the way it begins, I like the way it ends, I like all the variations. I like the aggressiveness, I like the rhythm, I like the subject ... I like it all!" the blond declaims excited as his eyes sparkle with admiration towards Matt.

"So, why did you keep silent?" Chris points out, as he definitely gives up his chimera of convincing those two, or at least one of them, about how wrong, dull and wicked that kind of pathetic attempt to a song is.

"It's just because I was trying to play the melody in my mind. And you know what? I think I found the perfect moment to insert a drum solo that could go down in history!" the blond informs them, more and more enthused, just like Matt after that news.

"So, you like it for real!" he cheers happily.

"Of course I do, did you doubt about that?" the blond smiles at him.

"Uh. You two getting along irritatingly well and thinking the same about a matter. That's new!" Chris comments ironically as he rolls his eyes.

"See? It's two against one, and you know... majority wins! We're going to record that song, maybe even during this tour." Matthew insists.

"Never! Forget it! About the majority, we are even, because when I tell Tom about it he'll surely be on my side!" Chris informs them.

"Uh. You two getting along irritatingly well and thinking the same about a matter. That's new!" Dominic quotes his previous speech on purpose, chuckling with Matt, but Chris does the wisest things ever: he just ignores them.

"No, wait, that's even better, I'm sure the whole Warner records will be on my side, too. So, my dear guys, surrender, mine is a crushing victory!" Chris warns them.

"Can we at least place it as a b-side in the next single?" Dominic suggests.

"No way!" Chris strikes back.

"Not even as a b-side that's only available on the web?" the blond insists.

"No sodding, bloody, shitty way!" Chris adds to it.

"Uh, Matt, we haven't even asked you yet: how is it called?" Dominic gets curios.

" 'Inconveniences of the First Class'!" Matthew replies.

Chris and Dominic stare at him, astonished.

"It's such a long story..." he explains, rolling his eyes.

"I give up understanding you!" Chris announces.

"I like even the title!" Dominic grins.

"Correction: I give up understanding both of you!" Chris rolls his eyes.

All of sudden, Matthew's mobile gives out a tiny beep that gets louder and louder, until its owner turns it off.

"What was that?" Chris asks him.

"A reminder." Matt replies.

"Of course it's reminder, but for what?"

"It's girlfriends' time!" Matt explains, glancing at Dom who nods.

"Yeah, today it was your turn to set it up." the blond adds.

"What? How long have you been resorting to a reminder to call your girlfriends?" Chris wonders dumbfounded.

"Since we... tend to forget it." Matt admits.

"What? How can it be? I don't believe you. You shouldn't use a reminder; it should be your heart suggesting you to do that!" Chris states, being careful not to expose his poetic mood too much in order to defend his beloved reputation of 'macho'.

< If I had to listen to my heart, right now there would be only Dom and me doing tons of nasty things on the piano, no, wait, that's even better, on the drums! Why not? Maybe even on a guitar... uh, no, maybe it would be way too uncomfortable... and somehow extremely kinky, too! > the frontman ponders, looking at the drummer until their eyes meet.

< What does my heart suggest me to do? Matt, me and... handcuffs, handcuffs, HANDCUFFS!! Uh, ok, maybe it's not exactly my * heart* suggesting that! > the blond thinks as he smiles at him.

"Ok, let's call them, then. Chris, would you mind..." Matt asks.

"Uh? Oh, yeah, sure!" Chris realizes, walking towards the door.

"Hey, wait a minute. Why just me?" he protests, stopping.

"Because Dom and I will be too busy talking with our girlfriends to hear each other. Instead, you would just listen to the whole conversation ... and I don't like that." Matt explains.

"He's right. But you could just watch us, like we do with you." Dominic lets it slip from his mouth.

"What? Does it mean that you watch me as I talk with Kelly?" Chris frowns.

"Yes, we do, but just when we get the opportunity!" Matthew points out.

"That's right. Anyway, don't worry, we didn't see that filthy pic!" Dom winks at the bassist.

Too bad that Chris has not the slightest idea what he's talking about.

"Now, please, go." Matthew gently begs him, gesticulating, too.

"No way! When I have to call Kelly I'm always the one who leaves the room. So, you're gonna do the same!" Chris exhorts them.

"Besides, I can't trust you. You would even able to use it as an excuse to have the room at your disposal and record that bloody horror you can keep calling a song!" Chris accuses them.

"Do you really think so? I'm insulted!" Matthew mutters, outraged.

"I'm insulted, too. At least, give me time to memorize that song, before accusing me!" Dom adds.

"Anyway, this is not a problem. Come on, Dom, let's go, since Mr I-don't-trust-you doesn't want us to stay." Matt announces as he leaves the room with Dominic.

They close the door behind their back and walk through the corridor, heading to the exit.

They both stare at their mobiles in disbelief.

"C'mon, we can do it. It's just a matter of ten minutes." Matt states.

"Yeah. Ten minutes made of lies." Dom sighs unhappily.

"I don't like cheating on them, either. Anyway, we're going to face them, just not now, we already talked about it." Matt assures him with a soft tone and one hand on his shoulder.

"Ok, let's do it, then!" Dom agrees, as they take different directions.

"Matthew!" he calls him from afar.

"What?" the brunette turns to him.

"Didn't you forget a certain thing?" Dom pleads him, with a look that hides an invitation that Matt perceives as quickly as he accepts it.

As a matter of fact, he goes back towards the blond.

They take a cautious look around, but when they see that there's no one around, they hold their hands and share a short but very intense kiss. So much that they both moan their disappointment when they break it.

"Mm... now it's getting better!" Dominic smiles satisfied as they part from each other and go make the respective phone call.

Just like they had foreseen, ten minutes after they're back.

Dom takes place at the drum, Chris and Matt put on the shoulder straps of their instruments, but before resuming to play, Matthew has something to say.

"Uh, Chris, I have another idea about how to use that song." he hazards.

"Gee, Bells, why should you waste your time and breath to suggest me something that you already know I'll inevitably refuse?" Chris snorts.

"Well, at least listen to my idea first." the frontman insists.

"Ok. Spit out!"

"What do you think about placing it in our next album, as a ghost track, without even warning about that. Plus, we could make it start after something like, I don't know, forty minutes?" Matthew suggests.

"Who the hell would ever let a CD go on for *forty minutes* after what is supposed to be the *last* song?" Chris wonders, distressed.

"I would!" Dom declares proudly.

"Why am I not surprised at all?" Chris rolls his eyes for the umpteenth time.

"Anyway, NO! Not even if you made it start after * forty hours*. End of the bloody speech!" the bassist clears the point, irreducible.

Even if a bit bothered, Matt has already begun the intro of 'Assassin', but Chris stops him.

"What? Did I make any mistakes with the chords? I don't think so." Matt mumbles.

"No, it's not that. It's just that I forgot to tell you, after our show we're gonna stay to see the My Chemical Romance." Chris warns them.

"No! No way! Not again! We've already done that." Matthew protests.

"Listen, to leave after the second song it's not what I call to see a whole show!" Chris makes him notice.

"So, not only we're gonna stay, but after their show we will even have a dinner, all together. Their manager invited us and I agreed, just like Tom would do. And don't even start complaining!" he adds, turning to Matthew.

"Dammit! I think I'll need *a lot* of wine to face everything!" he thinks out loud as he sighs unhappily.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

The show at the Wolstein Center was great and the crowd welcomed them more than enthusiastically.

Anyway, no one has seemed to notice the way Dom and Matt kept eying each other up, not even Chris has noticed that, since he was too busy playing.

After all, he's kinda accustomed to see them close to each other; it's the most normal routine ever.

And after the show, under Chris' extreme control, Dom but mostly Matt have been forced to watch the whole performance of the My Chemical Romance, looking at a bunch of girls dressed in a dark way that jumped, yelled and got crazy whenever the frontman of that band went close to them.

And Matt's torture culminated with the dinner.

Just like he had foreseen, wine has kept company to him all time long... with the relative consequences.

"Now, tell me what the hell was wrong with you!" Chris scolds him in awe, as the cab brings them back to the hotel.

"Why? What did I do?" Matt wonders with all the innocence he can muster.

"What did you do?! Gee, do you think it was appropriate to start caressing the blade of a knife with a finger and then look at them , one by one, with a manic expression, aiming the knife in their direction and saying with a even more manic voice 'I guess we'll have lots of fun together!'?" Chris reminds him.

"I was just kidding!" Matt declares, even more innocently.

"It was fun!" Dominic states as he chuckles with Matt at the memory.

"But it wasn't fun for them. Poor dear guys, you scared the shit out of them!" Chris snaps.

"Phew! They just keep singing about death, darkness, blood, vampires, murders and death all over again... and they got so scared due to a simple little knife? Yellow-bellies, that's what they are!" Matthew snorts with a shrug.

"Maybe they sing about all this stuff just to exorcise their fears and that would explain their reaction!" Dom justifies them.

That makes Matt think about it for a while and then he jumps to another conclusion.

"Yellow-bellies and cheaters, too!" he asserts and both Dom and Chris don't even try to answer back.

The cab arrives to the Hotel and they walk towards the elevator.

After taking Chris to his room and after getting sure no one is in the nearby, Matt and Dom take each other by the hand and walk together until they reach the point where they should be supposed to depart.

It's enough with just one look to make them read in each other's eyes the same desire, to realize that that night will be * the night*.

The night to make something important happen.

The night to bring their relationship to an upper level.

The night to go much more beyond the kisses.

As a matter of fact, they both smile mischievously, asking each other the same thing at the same moment.

"Your place or mine?"

TBC

hope the links still works ...

As you can easily guess, next chapter will be utterly centred on BellDom, yaaaay! ^^

Don't miss it ;P

About this delirious chapter...

There were old pics of young Matt's serial killer attitude, but I can't find them right now sigh

It was creepy and funny at once and that's what inspired me for that part

I hope you had fun reading, but feel free to tell me anything, as always!

[thisaintascenereviews]

He Is Legend - Endless Hallway North Carolina band He Is Legend is one of the most underrated post-hardcore / metalcore bands in the genre, and I don’t know why no one knows who they are. They came to prominence in the early 00s with their debut album, 2004′s I Am Hollywood, and they had some success with their first two albums, but they changed their sound a bit in the mid-00s before taking a bit of a break and coming back in 2014 with Heavy Fruit. That was my introduction to them, where I was able to get an advanced copy of the album through Tragic Hero Records, even though I knew who they were, at least sort of, anyway. Heavy Fruit was a really cool mix of sludge, groove, and metalcore, but with traces of hard-rock, southern-rock, and post-hardcore, too. I’ve been keeping up with them since then, and I really loved 2019′s White Bat, so I was really looking forward to their latest album, Endless Hallway. Released this past week, I’ve been spending a ton of time with it, and I’ve been excited about it ever since they surprisingly announced it a couple of months ago. White Bat was a great continuation of what I’ve been hearing from them since 2014, but it had some more energy in it. They injected a punk-like energy into the record, and it was a rager. It would have probably catapulted them to more fame if it weren’t for this thing called the COVID-19 pandemic that started a few months after the album’s release. The pandemic really screwed up a lot for bands, but I’m glad they’re back with a new album, because it absolutely rips. Now I do have some issues with it, but I love it a lot more than I have problems with it. There are a lot of things I enjoy about this album, but the things I dislike are a little too hard to ignore. I’ll talk about that stuff later, because I really want to express that this album is great, and He Is Legend is worth listening to, or that Endless Hallway isn’t an album you want to miss. For starters, let’s talk about their sound, and it’s pretty similar to White Bat, but there’s even more energy and punk-like fervor on this record. The album immediately opens up with “The Prowler,” and it just sets the stage for the whole album. Songs like “Lifeless Lemonade,” “Honey From The Hive,” “Return To The Garden,” “Sour,” and “Animals” are utterly fantastic, combining the best parts of the band together. Some tracks have more of a punk energy, whereas some emulate hard-rock sounds, but other tracks have a bit of a metalcore bite to them, at least on top of their sludgy and groove metal backbone that they’re known for. The southern grooves are very prevalent on this album, too, as this album has some tasty riffs on it. Vocalist Schuyler Croom’s voice has aged like fine wine, and instead of having this gruff and rough as sandpaper voice, he has this nice middle ground where it’s on the rougher edge of the spectrum, but he has a good sense of melody, too. There are a lot of catchy hooks on this thing, and a lot of the songs I mentioned are very catchy, so they’ll get stuck in your head if you’re not careful. The hooks are seamlessly combined with the heavier parts of the songs, and a lot of the songs on here ebb and flow throughout each other. It might start off as a sludge metal track, but you’ll hear some metalcore, post-hardcore, groove metal, and hard-rock elsewhere on the track, sometimes at the same time. These guys have a very unique sound, and it’s only gotten better with time. That leads me to my biggest problem with Endless Hallway, and that’s its sound, even though I just praised it to hell and back. I love it, but this album has the issue of having one sound and sticking with it, so the whole album is variations on that one sound; their sound is unique, but there are only so many times I can hear similar sludge riffs and southern rock riffs that build into a punky hook, or feature a metalcore breakdown in the bridge. It all just runs together after awhile, which is a shame, because their sound is great. It’s unique, but it’s kind of one note, so to speak. The album is also way too long, clocking in at 48 minutes. It’s a doozy, and by the end, I’m sort of tapped out. The closing track is great, but I’m done with it by that point, where it all sort of runs together. I’d still recommend it, but if the album were shorter, it would be way higher on my yearend list. It’s still a great mix of sludge, groove, southern rock, metalcore, and post-hardcore, but they have a formula and every song utilizes it. It just runs together after awhile, despite how good it is, and how much I enjoy it. These guys are one of the most interesting bands in the metalcore / post-hardcore circle, so if anything, it’s worth a listen, because these guys deserve to be more noticed. It’s so shocking how they’re still so underrated, but this album is killer, despite its lengthy runtime and how the songs all run together. It doesn’t matter much when the album is this good.

[clownkiwi]

tldr: this game is amazing from a visual and auditory standpoint!!! i really love the animation and details they put into this game, it was clearly a work of love and passion.

but the 2nd half of the pacifist run kinda rubs me off the wrong way... (explanation down below, warning!!! there will be spoilers)

like i said, i really enjoyed what the first half had to offer in my first stream & even first half of the second stream!!! i knew this was a prequel, i was ready to see what happened to the sixth human before they became a soul. i knew clover wasnt gonna live. i dont have a problem with the ending, or even the beginning. the intro really subverted my expectations, and i really loved the monster encounter bosses i ran into in the ruins & snowdin

and i was SO ready for cowboy times in the dunes!!! the dunes was a totally new place, i wanted to see how this game would diverge from undertale!!!!

and the first half of the dunes was really great!!! i loved the monster encounters, i loved the different obstacles set in your way (like the sandstorm or the mines)

thats where my problems are starting to lie though.... the monster encounters were becoming fewer and fewer as i went through the dunes, save for the mid boss or boss encounters. and those are great and fun and different, truly. but by the time i made it to the wild east, things were slowing down...

and like. i liked the feisty five & starlo, i understand why people love him. but the only encounters i ever had during that time that wasnt related to the test was the shooting portion, that time i fought the feisty four and starlo himself. i figured i wouldve had like a small fight with the bandit that was running out besides that train section, or there wouldve been more monster encounters between the oasis valley & the wild east. but there really werent as much as i remembered!!!

and then steamworks. i mostly liked steamworks. again, very different from hotland and very different area, and i was so excited to see all the new bots to encounter!!!

besides axis & gardener, there were only like. three different robot enemies. and they were very sparse. i thought i wouldve run into them more oftenly since its a shut down facility full of malfunctioning robots like axis & gardener, but i guess they didnt make as much robots in the robot factory???

and then came tonights stream. i was prepared for it to be the final stream for the pacifist route. i didnt expect how quickly things would pass by???

like, between axis & ceroba, there were no encounters. no obstacles. i expected like some stronger enemy variations to appear in hotlands or even the new home capital city, but there were nothing!!!

at least in undertale's pacifist route, they added stronger monster variants at the core & even that one section before meeting asgore where all the monsters would congratulate & encourage you for asgore's encounter. but here??? nothing!! there weren't many encounters in the way between wild east & oasis valley. in hotland, i didnt expect there to be Too Many monster encounters, but in new home??? i expected. something before the final encounter with ceroba. but nothing!!! maybe i had to explore it more, but the game wanted me to follow and find ceroba. so there were just. areas and Areas And Areas And Areas with nothing but saves & plot!!!

like, you couldnt add in One Extra Monster Encounter??? Maybe Even Two In Between Axis & Ceroba??? Really???

maybe i gotta play through the neutral & revenge routes to get more encounters out of this game, i'm scrolling through the wiki & i found out that there Were more monster encounters i missed!! either because they have a very high encounter rate, were straight up secret extra bosses, or could only appear in the other routes. but ig i expected there to be more varied monster encounters in the second half of the pacifist route.

the monster encounters in the dark ruins & snowdin were That Good and Memorable, ig i expected there'd be more in the dunes & steamworks. but ig there wasnt??? and that kinda disappointed me

hm, i think the more i sit down and stew on this, i think undertale yellow is starting to lose me...

[aquamarinescarlet]

Don’t give up just yet

Pairing: Wanda Maximoff x Reader

Word count: ~3.6k

Warnings: two curse word (I think), brief mentions of sex and cheating, angst (bare in mind these warnings don’t apply the way you think they do, you’ll have to read to understand)

Summary: The classic soulmate AU, sentences written on each other’s wrists, but with a twist.

Author’s note: This was basically an excuse for me to reinvent the soulmate AU with the wrist tattoos thing. It’s sorta angsty, but I just thought the ending was too funny. Just experimenting here, tell me what you think.

PSA: Dividers are the count down till the day: black is reader focused, red is wanda focused, gold/yellow is also reader focused, but I thought it deserved a little spark.

“You should call her, y’know.”

“Why would I do that? She made her point very clear.”

“It’s her wedding day, Y/N,” Mia reasoned, “and this fight was months ago, you have to get over it.”

You rolled your eyes at her insistence. This discussion has been happening every day for the past two weeks.

“I didn’t do anything wrong, why am I the one who should get over it?” You emphasized.

“He is her soulmate, and she is your sister, the least you could do is pretend.”

“Ugh,” you let out a guttural scream, “I can’t do this anymore Mia, I stand by what I said. That man is an asshole and this soulmate thing is stupid. I don’t trust him, no matter what the words on both their wrists say, and I’m not gonna watch her go down with this and not do anything about it.”

Mia didn’t respond, she knew she’d reached your last nerve. You watched as the woman left your office, sending a last sympathetic glance your way before walking into the hall. 

Mia was right in some points, and you knew that. She was right about it being your sister’s wedding day and that you should be there to support her. She was wrong about you needing to be the one to apologize though. The way people manipulated their lives to fit this whole twisted Soulmate Theory made your blood boil.

The Soulmate Theory was quite simple: everyone was born with a sentence written on their wrists, popular belief is that those are the first words your soulmate will say to you. It was cute, and it worked most of the time, not for your sister though. Or at least you thought so.

Oli's soulmate was Isaac. They had met three years ago and eventually started dating. Oli was a firm believer of the Soulmate Theory and had never dated anyone before, so it was all new and exciting.

You started noticing the patterns roughly one year after they started dating. He was controlling her, discreetly, barely noticeable, but it was there. 

First with clothes, Oli had made it a habit to always ask for his opinions on her clothing, and he would tell her he hated something, regardless of her telling him over and over again she had liked it. You made little comments here and there about his actions, mostly jokes but with some truth behind, she didn’t notice.

Second was friends, Isaac would always want to meet Oli’s friends, and if she went out with one he didn’t know he would make her feel guilty. You started giving more serious warnings, pointing out what he was doing more clearly, she didn’t care and called you crazy.

Third was her feelings, he had his mind set on what her role should be in his life. He praised Oli endlessly when she cooked or cleaned. Other than that, he didn’t care, didn’t pay attention to her stories, didn’t appreciate her paintings and drawings… 

It got to the point where she wouldn’t want to paint anymore, when she was telling a story it would be without her usual excitement. Her smile no longer reached her eyes, she was constantly tired. 

You confronted her about it, several times, but it was of no use. You’d point out the facts and she’d retort with ‘he is my soulmate, the universe bound us together, he wouldn’t do this to me!’

Three months ago was the last time you two talked. She told you he asked her hand. She knew you would be against it, she tried to ease you into the idea of her being with Isaac for the rest of her life. You weren’t having any of it. 

After hours of screaming, arguing and loads of tears, she told you not to come to the wedding, and you said you wouldn’t. 

It’s now four days from the date and you’re not going as long as he’s the one she’s marrying.

You stared at the words on your own wrist. ‘It’s you’. That sentence haunted you for years. What a stupid set of words for your soulmate to say.

As a kid you adored the Soulmate Theory, you paid meticulous attention to the first words you’d exchange with anyone, you made new friends nearly every day in hopes of hearing those words, but they never came.

Until they came. At first it was exhilarating, but the ones you said didn’t match the ones on the person’s wrist. You were extremely disappointed. And then you heard them again, and again, and again… It became almost routine. Every single person you met would say ‘it’s you’ or some variation of it. 

You being who you are certainly didn’t help. During college you had started a tech company and now it had grown to be one of the biggest and most important in the field. The new inventions did win you several prizes and a lot of money. You were also stupid famous, being the young brilliant CEO and all. 

Ever since, you gave up on looking for your soulmate. It seemed counter productive to get yourself all worked up just for it not to happen every single day. You made your peace with it, although a small part of you just wanted to meet said person.

The situation with Isaac and Oli helped. Seeing that it could end up hurting you made it easier to not fixate on finding your soulmate. Nonetheless, the desire was there; hidden, pushed to the back of your mind, but still there.

You just wished your sister could see it too, that the Soulmate Theory is not the solution to all her problems. 

“Relax Steve, it’s all taken care of.” 

“What about the flowers? Did you book the buffet? Did you check with the band? And the decorations? I saw some people didn’t RSVP yet, should I redo the seating charts?” Steve rambled on as Wanda just laughed.

“The flower problem is solved, the buffet confirmed, so did the band, the wedding planner is working on the decorations and redoing the whole seating chart seems… unnecessary, they still have three days to confirm their presence.” She reassured the man who was more stressed than her about the whole situation.

“Okay, sorry, I just want to make sure everything is perfect.” He huffed, taking a seat on the couch. 

“It’s going to be perfect, don’t worry.” She couldn’t help the weirdness that surged upon uttering those words.

“How are you so calm?” Wanda just shrugged, not really sure how to answer. 

Steve took a deep breath and gazed at the red head, offering her a smile. 

“I’m going to sleep, all this wedding stuff has been stressing me all day.” 

“Okay,” Steve made his way to his bedroom but she called him before he reached the hallway, “thanks for the help Rogers.” 

“No worries.” He shot a last smile before disappearing. 

Wanda found herself alone in the living room, the silence only making her thoughts scream louder.

She would be married in three days. It seemed unbelievable. After losing her parents, being experimented on at Hydra, fighting along Ultron, losing her brother and becoming an Avenger, she never thought she would have time to fall in love.

Yet, here she is. Although the feeling wasn’t quite what she thought it would be. It wasn’t exciting, or nerve racking. She felt no different than any other day of her life. Steve seemed like the one who was getting married, not her. 

Vision is sweet and caring, she feels so happy around him. Then what is causing all these doubts to haunt her?

She knows what it is, she just doesn’t want to admit it.

Those words. Those stupid words painted forever on her wrist. ‘Don’t do this’. Ever since joining the Avengers she started using several bracelets to hide them, but they still burned on her skin every single day.

She’d heard of the Soulmate Theory at a very young age. Her parents had explained how those were the first words she’d hear from the love of her life. She would spend hours daydreaming all sorts of scenarios in which someone would say those words to her and they’d fall in love.

After her parent’s death, that stopped being her priority. At the Hydra base she’d only see her brother and a couple dozen different Hydra soldiers, too old and mean for a soulmate. 

Gaining powers was a game changer. She was older then. Stronger. They finally allowed her and Pietro to leave the base and create chaos in Hydra’s name. “Do good” in Hydra’s name. She believed she was doing the right thing. She truly did. 

Hearing her first ‘Don’t do this’ made her question everything. It came from a little kid nonetheless. A scared little kid. It must’ve been a mistake, she thought at the time. But that mistake happened, again, and again, and again… 

When she joined the Avengers her eyes were opened to all the pain and terror she had caused. All the people she hurt. Then it dawned on her, what if one of those ‘Don’t do this’ came from her soulmate? What if she had hurt them, or worse, killed them?

The idea terrified her. So she hid those words on her wrist. A reminder of the evil she’s done and the love she’ll never have. She promised herself to never look for her soulmate, she already caused them enough pain, they didn’t deserve to get tangled in the mess that was her life.

And then Vision was created. Him and Wanda got along greatly. He made her happy. They fell in love, or at least that’s what Wanda told herself, that she fell in love with him. It was possible, there’s no rule on the Soulmate Theory that says you can only fall in love with your soulmate. Plus, Vision is not human, so he doesn’t have words written on his wrist, he doesn’t have a predestined soulmate, technically he doesn’t even have an actual soul for this sort of thing. They could be each other’s soulmate. A loophole on this stupid theory.

Why didn’t it feel like that though? Why was she questioning it so much? And why now? Three days before her wedding?

She took off the bracelets and stared at the ink, brushing her fingers lightly over it. She loved Vision, she affirmed to herself. She wants to marry him. This is what she wants. And she believes in these words, for a while. Long enough for her to fall asleep, turning off her brain from overthinking the situation too much.

Work has had you occupied all week. With back to back meetings and loads of paperwork to fill out, you’ve barely had time to think of anything else.

But now it seems like everything is done and you have more free time than you’d like. 

You left the office early, not having much to do there anymore, and, instead of spending all afternoon home alone, you decided to go out for some coffee.

You were sitting on your usual table in the small coffee shop close to your place. It was calm, quiet and homely, a nice contrast between the places you frequent. The warm cup on your hands did nothing to distract you though.

The book you’d brought was long forgotten on the table as you glanced at your phone every few seconds. It’s two days till the wedding and, even though you tried not to think about it, you hoped your sister would text you saying she broke it off. It was unlikely, but wishing she could get some sense knocked into her wouldn’t kill.

You were so focused on your thoughts that you didn’t notice a woman glancing at you until you caught her trying to call your attention.

“It’s you!” She said, astonished, pointing to the cover of a magazine showing a picture of you.

Recognizing that issue as being a rather old one, you just nodded and offered the woman a friendly smile. She took that as an opportunity to approach you.

“Hi. Sorry,” she sounded excited and also nervous for bothering you, “I just wanted to say what an inspiration you are to women all around, to me especially. I’ve been opening my own business and seeing what you do has been such an encouragement to me. So, thank you!” 

You were surprised by how nice she was. You’d expected her to ask you to invest in her business or something, like everyone who approaches you does, but she didn’t and it was a nice change of pace for once.

“What kind of business are you opening?” You asked. Listen to her talk would be a good distraction, plus, you could use the company.

“Oh, no, that’s ok,” she said, “I don’t want to bother you any further.”

“Please,” you urged, “I have the rest of my day off and I could use someone to talk to. Unless you’re busy, then I wouldn’t want to be a burden to you.” You laughed to ease the woman’s nerves.

“Sure?” You nodded and gestured to the empty seat across from you. 

She accepted it and you spent at least an hour talking before she had to leave. It was a pleasant conversation, she praised your work but didn’t refrain from giving some interesting criticism on your business. The topic of an investment or a partnership never even came up. 

It got your sister out of your mind for a while, although it didn’t last long.

Laying on your bed, your eyes fought to stay open, your mind swirling with all possible scenarios regarding Oli. She would be miserable if she went through with this, and you couldn’t do anything about it.

You love your sister, you care so much about her, but she refuses to listen to your warnings. You could swallow your pride and go to the wedding. You could try and support her. But that would just make an accomplice to her stupidity and you’re not going to just stand there and pretend that that’s ok.

You thought about texting her, way too many times. But your relationship is already rocky as it is, the least you could do is hope she gets some clarity on her own.

One day till the wedding. She’s 24 hours away from the happiest day of her life. Why is it, then, that Wanda doesn’t feel as happy as she should be. 

She didn’t have to fake a smile, she was happy, but that smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. 

None of the others seemed to notice it. They just thought it was the nervousness of having everything set so the day could run smoothly. Vision even brought up the possibility of her having cold feet about it, but she denied it thoroughly, assuring him she wanted this.

And she does. She wants to get married, have kids and build up a family of her own. She wants it all. 

It still seemed weird though. Like something was off. 

“Steve just called,” Nat interrupted her thoughts, walking back into the room, “everything is set, prepped and organized for tomorrow.”

“Let’s try on the dress then.” Carol urged the girl to put on the piece of clothing for the millionth time.

It did her justice. Slim at the top and flowy at the bottom, accentuating all her curves perfectly. It wasn’t big and puffy but light and delicate. She smiled at her own reflection as the other women crammed around her to take a look.

“You look beautiful.” Pepper said in awe. 

“She does, doesn’t she.” Laura agreed, even though she’s the one that helped her choose it.

Wanda didn’t say anything, just smiling and appreciating her own image, excitement growing on her chest from wearing it in front of everyone the next day.

The girls spent hours planning how they would do her hair and makeup. There were so many ideas, disagreements and arguments that Wanda was completely drained by the end of the day. She was happy though, to see her friends being there for her, eager to help and make sure everything was perfect.

It was nice to have people around since she lost so much throughout the years.

After the women were gone and she found herself alone, Wanda’s thoughts from the beginning of the day came back, hitting her like a train.

Was she really more excited about wearing a dress than about getting married? Was this a sign of her actually getting cold feet? 

She shrugged them away, affirming to herself these are just stupid uncertanties people always get before their wedding day. At least that’s what happens in movies, so nothing to worry about... right?

Thankfully your work slump had subsided as now a gigantic pile of papers sat on your table. Some contracts had to be restructured and a set of stores had to be chosen to distribute your newest technology. 

You thrived in that scenario, with countless reports and 2D drawings of the prototypes scattered about the room. Your mind was going a thousand miles a minute, seemingly unaware of the events that would take place later that day.

That peace, however, was short lived. Your brain short circuited for a second when you checked what had caused your phone to buzz.

Two voicemails. 

From none other than Isaac. 

It was right then that it dawned on you: Oli was marrying that asshole today. In only a couple of hours actually.

Before listening to the messages you started to record your phone screen, maybe he would try to threaten you or something and you could use that to convince Oli to break things off with him. It wouldn’t kill to be precautious.

The first one was sweet, although it almost made you gag, it was sent with good intentions. Isaac was asking you to go easy on Oli, regardless of your feelings towards him, you should be supportive of her and her decisions. Too pretentious for your liking, but sent with good intentions nonetheless.

The second one started awfully weird. Some muffled sounds, things you couldn’t quite make out. Until you heard a loud moan, your eyes going wide as you pushed your phone away from your face. Isn’t it technically ‘bad luck’ to see the bride on the wedding day? You didn’t have time to dwell on those thoughts as the voice on the phone started to moan each other’s names. The woman didn’t sound anything like Oli, because it wasn’t Oli. Isaac was cheating on your sister? And on their wedding day!?

Oh you weren’t about to just let that go. You stopped the recording, thanking your intuition, and quickly ringed Oli.

It rang once… twice… three times… and then voicemail. You tried at least four more times until you figured she just didn’t want to talk to you.

“Marie can you come in here please?” You called your secretary.

A few seconds later she popped her head inside your office.

“How can I help?”

“Can I use your phone!?” You sounded more exasperated than you wished.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to call your sister today?” Damn, that woman knows you too well. You sighed loudly.

“Please… I just…” You trailed off, sounding desperate this time around.

Thankfully Marie gave in and lent you her phone. You typed Oli’s number and rang it, several times, she didn’t pick up once. You were starting to get truly desperate now.

“Do you have the address?” You handed Marie her phone back.

“Here.” She handed you a piece of paper from her pocket. 

It was on the other side of the city, at least a one hour drive. You quickly grabbed your coat, purse and phone, rushing out of the office, only being stopped by a hand wrapping around your wrist.

“Don’t do anything stupid.” You gave her a reassuring smile and a quick nod before making your way to your car. Marie has been working with you since the beginning, she always knew when you were up to nothing good. She also knew that when you set your mind to something, there was no stopping you.

The drive was excruciating. You kept making stupid mistakes and taking wrong turns. Everything seemed to work against you, being it: accidents, red lights, slow drivers, pedestrians. Even the birds chirping around were pissing you off.

You finally reached the venue and stopped the car messily in the front entrance. You quickly ran up the stairs, and almost tripped and fell when you heard the officiant was already performing the ceremony.

You reached the doors and yanked them open, hopefully interrupting the wedding before it was too late.

“Don’t do this!” You screamed at the top of your lungs, nearly breathless. 

The guests all turned towards you, surprised. So did the couple on the podium.

Except those people weren’t Oli and Isaac. You recognized them, Vision and Scarlet Witch, or at least that’s the names they went for on television. You’ve seen them before, doing business with Stark had its perks, but had never been introduced.

You could’ve felt bad, but your stomach was a turmoil of faith and nausea. You were either really early or really late to stop Oli.

“Sorry,” you said, trying to catch your breath, “wrong wedding, carry on.” You turned around to leave, but not before noticing the bride glancing at her own wrist.

You didn’t get the chance to take a single step out the door before her voice filled the silence that had settled.

“It’s you.” You stopped dead on your tracks. Your wrist burning slightly, not the kind of pain to cause discomfort, just enough to be noticeable.

Those words. 

Her looking at her wrist.

Your’s burning now.

You turned back around, earning all kinds of confused glances from the guests. Your eyes fell on the woman, a smirk plastered on your lips.

“Seems like this isn’t the wrong wedding after all.”

[the-bau-quinjet]

My Name Isn't

Summary: You find out the guys (Bucky, Steve, and Sam) have a bet as to who can kiss you first, so you confront them at Tony's team building karaoke night.

Warnings: some swearing and drinking

Word Count: 3187

a/n: This was inspired by my love of the classic using karaoke to express your feelings trope and the song My Name Isn't by LOVA. I did change the lyric "yours" into "doll" though because it made sense in the story.

"Not a chance, Wilson." Bucky rolled his eyes as Steve walked into the room, unbothered by the familiar sounds of Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes arguing.

"C'mon tin man, you afraid you're gonna lose?' Sam couldn't help but tease the super soldier.

"It's a stupid bet! Steve tell him it's a stupid bet." Bucky stared at his best friend, silently begging for him to agree.

Steve's tone could only be described as exasperated when he responded, "what is it this time?"

"I bet Barnes and Noble over here," Sam stopped talking to dodge the book Bucky threw at him, "that I could get Y/N to kiss me before he could, and he's too chicken shit to take the bet."

"It's a stupid bet!" Bucky was gearing up to throw another book when Steve chimed in. "I don't know Buck, it could get you to finally act on your feelings for her."

Bucky rolled his eyes, responding with his typical denial "I don't have any feelings, punk."

Sam and Steve shared an obvious "this man is lying" look before turning back to Bucky.

"Fine, Cap since Bucky won't take the bet, will you?" The mischievous gleam in Sam's eye shown through as Steve weighed his options.

"It is a pretty stupid bet, but I'm doing this for you Buck." Clapping Bucky on the shoulder, he turned to Sam. "I'm in." As Steve went to shake Sam's hand, Bucky gave in.

"Fine! Fine. All three of us. The first one to kiss her wins." Bucky reluctantly agreed.

"Now, what does the winner get?" Sam posed the question, mischief clear in his eyes.

-

The first time you had an inkling that something was afoot was your training with Steve and Bucky later that same day. Steve wasn't overly touchy or anything that would make you uncomfortable, this is America's Golden Boy after all, but he kept calling you "honey" or some variation of it. You'd throw a punch and rather than correcting your form in his usual commanding Captain voice, he would feed you a random compliment followed by a "try it like this hun."

You left the gym confused and with more energy than one would typically have after training with Steve Rogers. Luckily for you, Nat and Wanda noticed it too.

"What was that about?" Wanda asked as soon as the three of you were out of earshot.

"I don't have a clue." Your expression of complete confusion was enough to convince the two women you were telling the truth.

"I always thought Barnes had a thing for you. I wouldn't expect Steve of all people to try to mess that up. Especially with how obvious you are!" Nat chimed in. You've never regretted anything more than getting drunk and admitting your feelings for the brunette super soldier to the two women.

"Ugh, are the two of you ever gonna forget about that?" Your question was rhetorical as you nearly slammed the door to your room, but it didn't stop the two women from shouting "not a chance" and "only if you tell him" through the door.

-

The second time you noticed the weird behavior was the next day. You were running through some basic defense moves with some new Shield agents when Sam walked in with Bucky.

Now, normally Sam avoids you in the gym because he knows you'll kick his ass. All your time spent training with Nat mixed with your advanced perception skills meant you are a force to be reckoned with in the gym. This time though, he asked to spar before running through his typical warm up routine.

"You sure, Wilson? I wouldn't want to bruise your ego any further." You joked with him, unsure of his motives.

"Oh I'm sure, baby. Do your worst."

So you did. You had him on the mat in 4 minutes even, not letting the "baby" comment phase you until later in the night when you were with Wanda and Nat.

"First, Steve keeps calling me honey. Now Wilson is in on it with baby! What the hell is going on?'

The three of you shared identical shrugs, choosing to ignore it for now in favor of girls night.

-

Your days continued with the random comments from Sam and Steve. Of course, after the first 24 hours you noticed a pattern emerging. The two men would only use the pet names if Bucky was in the room. If Bucky couldn't overhear what was being said, everything was normal, but all bets were off if he so much as stepped in the room. It was constant affection and compliments from the two men.

You were thinking about the pattern you'd discovered, along with what it could mean, when Tony barged into the common room like a man on fire.

He surveyed the room, noting the presence of nearly every team member. The only three missing? Sam, Steve, and Bucky. You had a feeling they were most definitely up to something. "Oh perfect, most of you are here already! I have decided we don't do enough team building. Saving the world is stressful and we deserve to relax, so... drumroll please!" He waited for an extended period of time, until you, Wanda, and Vision gave him a lackluster drumroll. "That could use some work, but I'm not going to let it bring me down. We're doing karaoke! I rented out a bar for tonight, so clear your schedules ladies and gentlemen! We start at 8."

To say he was met with mixed results would be underselling the range of reactions. Nat looked ready to kill him. Thor was so excited, he reminded you of a golden retriever playing fetch. Most everybody else fell somewhere in the middle.

"Y/N, be a dear and let the three stooges know would ya? I don't know where they are and I don't feel like finding them." Tony didn't wait for a response before leaving the room just as rapidly as he entered it.

"I guess that's my cue. I'll be back and we can at least get ready together?" You looked to Nat and Wanda for confirmation before leaving to find Steve, Bucky, and Sam.

-

You checked Sam's room first because it's the closest to the common area, but there was no sign of life. Steve and Bucky's rooms sat similarly untouched. You went to the gym, the pool, the game room, and circled back to the kitchen but they were nowhere to be seen. Finally, you gave up the impromptu game of hide and seek asking FRIDAY where they were.

"FRIDAY, do you know where Steve, Bucky, and Sam are?"

"Captain Rogers, Sergeant Barnes, and Lieutenant General Wilson are on the roof." The AI responded so fast, it had you wondering why didn't just ask her 40 minutes ago when their rooms were all empty.

"What the hell are they doing on the roof?" You huffed as you made your way back to the elevator.

"They are the discussing the terms of their bet." FRIDAY's response surprised you. You hadn't meant to actually receive an answer, but now that you did you were curious.

"What bet?" You continued the line of questioning as the elevator rose to the roof access point.

"The three made a bet to see who could get you to kiss them first."

Suddenly, all the pet names and compliments made sense.

"Son of a bi-" You cut yourself off as the elevator door opened, leading you directly to the three men in question. They turned abruptly, clearly caught off guard by anyone coming to the roof.

"Finally. I've been looking for you three everywhere!" You kept the new found information to yourself for the time being. "Tony decided we're doing karaoke tonight. We're supposed to be at the bar he rented out by 8pm." You smiled, taking in the slightly guilty expressions on each of their faces. Even if FRIDAY hadn't told you, it would be painstakingly obvious you caught them talking about you.

"Thanks doll, we'll make sure we're there." You felt the butterflies in your stomach at the pet name, but quickly shut it down. You wouldn't be giving in to their bet that easily.

"No problem, see you boys soon." You winked, pressing the button to bring you back to the main floor. You had a plan to make after all.

-

"Well, it's karaoke why don't you just sing a song to call them out on it?" Wanda suggested another idea as you all got ready to head to the bar.

"That could work. You just need the perfect song." Nat chimed in, quickly applying some mascara.

"Wanda, you're a genius, and I think I have just the one." You grinned, pulling the song up to play while you finished getting ready.

-

Upon entering the bar, you immediately started second guessing your plan. That is, until the pet names came out to play. Sam was back at it with calling you baby, and Steve right there beside him with honey.

When you put your name down to sing, Wanda and Nat were right there with you, hyping you up and providing some liquid courage. Four drinks in and you finally felt just tipsy enough to actually follow through with your plan.

With the encouraging words from Nat and Wanda playing through your mind, you walked up to the stage, pulling up your chosen song on the karaoke machine.

You decided to play the beginning of the song off as a coincidence, not wanting to clue the guys in too early.

"One, two, three have been staring at me. It's been going all night."

You made eye contact with Nat and Wanda, fully relying on the feminist in you to knock these guys down a few pegs. By the time the chorus rolled around, you were ready.

Making direct eye contact with Sam, you put as much sass as possible into the next line.

"My name isn't 'baby,' you cannot say whatever you feel like. I am not the things you call me."

Switching your target from Sam to Steve, you kept going with the performance.

"My name isn't 'honey,' I will always do whatever I feel like. Honestly, you don't know me."

Clearly the three of them realized you knew about their bet, but you were on a roll. Switching focus to Bucky, you switched up the words a little bit to put him on blast as well.

"My name isn't... doll. My name isn't... doll."

The girls must have filled in the rest of the group, because you now had Bruce, Thor, Vision, Tony, Pepper, Clint, Wanda, and Nat cheering you on. They were whopping and hollering in agreement with the lyrics.

"We ain't got the time for you messing around so cut the deal."

"Cut the deal!!" You heard Tony yelling out as an echo, shaking your head with a slight chuckle.

"So don't come here and say, 'boys will be boys.' Behind every act there's always a choice."

The three men in question at least had the decency to look ashamed of their actions. Of course, that wasn't enough for you to not put them on blast through another round of the chorus.

The high from calling them out wore off right around the line:

"Do you really think that you can get your way by playing the same game."

Singing those words made you realize exactly what just happened. You held it together, put up a front long enough to get through the last chorus. Singing the last line to Bucky, you felt like your emotions were all over your face. The annoyance that the bet existed. The pain at him being part of it. The love you'd been trying to hide. All of it felt like it was right out in the open.

"My name isn't... Doll. My name isn't, my name isn't... Doll."

You took a quick bow in thanks for all the applause, before running off the stage. You didn't stop at the table with Nat and Wanda, nor did you stop for the three men trying to apologize. You made it outside, running about five blocks before even taking in your surroundings. Noticing a McDonald's, you sent a quick prayer that the ice cream machine was actually functioning before ducking inside.

-

The team stood with mouths hanging open at your sudden departure.

"What the hell just happened?" Tony posed the question to the group, knocking them out of their stupor.

Bucky was the first to follow you outside, his panic growing when he didn't see you leaning against any of the brick walls.

"Where is she?" Steve asked, spinning in circles right alongside Bucky while the rest of the group filed out the door.

"I don't know!" Bucky turned on Steve and Sam. "I never should have agreed to that stupid bet. Dammit!" Running his hands through his hair, he took off down the street calling a quick, "I'll look this way" over his shoulder.

He moved quickly down the street, keeping his eyes peeled for your sparkly, dark red dress. He looked through the windows of the many store fronts as he passed them. About five blocks later, he was about to turn around, assuming you went a different direction when he saw the familiar golden "m". A memory from about three weeks ago was quick to flash through his mind.

The team just came back from a two and a half week mission yesterday, meaning Tony was bound to throw a party today. It went about the same as most Tony Stark parties go; a lot of schmoozing until most guests left and the team could actually let loose.

You let a little looser than normal at the after party. After the mission required you to pretend to be married to Bucky, you felt like you deserved it. It was getting harder and harder to hide your feelings from him, especially when he insisted on walking you to your room after the party.

In a last ditch effort to avoid any drunk escapades, you asked him to take you to McDonald's instead of your room.

"Please Bucky?" You asked, drawing out the words and adding a small pout for good measure. "I just want a McFlurry and some fries! Please!"

"Sure, doll. We can go to McDonald's." You jumped up and down clapping, hugging him as you praised him for being so kind.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are the nicest, most perfect man to ever live. Let's gooooo!!" He smiled at your antics, leading you to one of the many cars Tony kept stocked, not quite trusting you to ride a motorcycle at the moment.

After getting the food, the two of you ate together in the car. You, of course, insisting he try dipping the fries in the ice cream.

Reluctantly, he admitted it wasn't that bad before driving the two of you home. He dropped you off at your door, receiving a whispered "thank you" and a quick kiss to the cheek from you.

He smiled at the memory before walking inside. He found you in a booth toward the back, unsurprisingly dipping fries into your ice cream

"Y/N, I'm so sorry." You didn't even look up when he started speaking, choosing instead to study the m&ms in your dessert. "Really. It was a stupid bet. Hell, I didn't even want to do it, but then that punk and birdman teamed up against me and I couldn't let them do it without me! It would've killed me to know one of them kissed you. It was so stupid and I should've just shut it down. I'm so sorry. You deserve so much more than that." He trailed off, waiting for you to say something.

You gestured to the seat across from you, pushing some fries toward him. "It was a stupid bet."

You waited until his mouth was full before asking "Why would it have killed you?" Watching him nearly choke on his fries was oddly satisfying.

"What?" He tried to deflect the question. You shook your head, passing him a napkin.

"You said it would have killed you to know one of them kissed me. Why?" You looked him in the eye as you ate another fry.

"Well, you see, I... um, maybe have um... feelings." It was his turn to stare intently at the m&ms. He mumbled a quick "get yourself together" under his breath before continuing. "I like you. Hell, I think I love you. I don't know when it started, but suddenly you are all I can think about. I worry about you constantly when your on a mission without me, even though I know you can take care of yourself. I see little things that remind me of you everywhere. Like yesterday, I saw a buttercup on the side of the road and I couldn't stop thinking about the time you spent a good twenty minutes ranting about how spring is the worst season."

Suddenly, you were on a tangent. "Because it is! It's always raining, it's muggy, it's always freezing in the morning and way too hot in the afternoon so you have to carry all these extra layers-"

"I love you. That's why it would've killed me. I don't even want to think about you with another-"

It was your turn to cut him off, doing so by leaning across the small table to kiss him. It was quick, but you still felt fireworks.

"I love you too." Your words were sweet, but shifted when you said the rest of your sentence. "I just have one more question." The smirk on your face made him nervous, but he was more than willing to answer anything.

"What do you get for winning?"

-

After talking with Bucky, you texted Nat and Wanda to let them know you were okay and the two of you were headed back to the compound. You beat everyone else back, but decided to wait for them in the common area.

Steve and Sam came in with their heads low, struggling to make eye contact.

"Y/N, I'm so sorry. We never should have made that bet." Steve started, aware of all the eyes on him.

"Me too. It was stupid and thoughtless." Sam added on.

"It was, but you are forgiven." You reached for Bucky's hand, planting a kiss on his cheek. "Bucky told me the winner of your little bet gets to pick the music for all forms of travel on the next three missions." You grinned at their confused expressions. "Bucky, being the winner, has so graciously bestowed that gift to me now. Get ready boys. I'm talking High School Musical. Hamilton. I'll have the two of you singing Taylor Swift in the shower." You, along with the rest of the team, laughed at their expense. Their grim expressions had you smiling, "oh please, I know you secretly love it!"

"Now, I have to go to bed. I have a date tomorrow." You winked at Bucky before sauntering off down the hall, the cheers of your teammates following you.

[cerebrumrott]

Obey Me! Shall we Date?

Brothers x MC

Synopsis: Demon Form Head Canons

Lucifer

Is not shy about sharing his demon form in the slightest.

More than happy to show off his wings for you and every compliment and awed look you give him just strokes his pride.

He gets taller in his demon form, not by more than a few inches but its enough to have you craning your neck to look him in the eyes.

His horns are not nearly as sensitive as some of his brothers but he still quite enjoys when you pet them.

Specifically likes it when the base of his horns are scratched, he could just melt into your hands.

His wings are prone to molting when he is stressed and seeing as he is stressed almost all the time. It's fairly common to find black feathers around the house.

When Lucifer later finds out that you had been collecting his discarded feathers in a small vase in your room he can’t help the blush on his cheeks having forgotten the entire reason he went into your room in the first place.

Seeing as you are so entranced by his feathers you might as well help him preen when he is molting.

It is totally cause he wants you to just have a nice collection, not because its a massive boost to his ego to have you doting over him.

Straighten his tie and flatten out his collar. Even if it doesn't need it. These little gestures will leave him flustered and blushing.

Mammon

His horns, due to their peculiar shape, are extremely sensitive. To the point where just blowing on them sends a tremble racing down his spine.

Pressing a finger between the grooves or into the center of the horn's spiral will have him practically howling from the sensation or more accurately leave him a stuttering and flustered mess.

Despite being essentially shirtless in his demon form. Mammon is like a walking heater. Just standing next to him for too long can cause you to break into a sweat.

If you were to ever trace the white lines that cover his torso he would just stop functioning entirely.

He would of course vehemently deny any such claims stating that, he was simply… thinking… about things… shut up.

Mammon is also extremely ticklish and with so much exposed skin from his questionable choice in a shirt. Do with that what you will ;)

His wings are restless, always flickering, fluttering or some variation of the two.

The only time they had ever truly stilled was when Mammon had agreed to let you touch them for the first time. In that moment as you ever so carefully ran your hands over the thin membrane of the wings, they didn't so much as twitch under the touch.

While his wings aren't necessarily sensitive to touch they are slightly delicate, being as they are made from a thin leathery membrane.

Leviathan

He also gets taller in his demon form by a few inches. Though due to his terrible posture you are likely to not notice.

He regularly sheds his antlers each year and grows back new ones.

He used to be extremely self conscious while his antlers regrew due to teasing from his brothers but after hearing how much you liked them they were now a point of pride for him.

I can also totally see an MC who collects his shed antlers like, it's 2 am and Levi texts them like ""Hey normie you want my old antlers I know you asked about them before so...""

Leviathan would get such an ego boost from it though. His face growing reed each time he walks into your room to see his old antlers nestled about the shelves like decor.

His tail also sheds its skin every so often (like a reptile would) another reason as to why he is always showering or taking a bath.

On that same thought, Levi has to take daily soaks in either the shower or tub to keep his skin from drying out or getting irritated. Being in the sun for too long can also irritate his skin.

Uses this as an excuse to not go outside despite there being no sun in the Devildom.

Both his horns and his tail are rather sensitive to touch. Though he loves the idea of you petting them his self consciousness prevents him from ever initiating such a thing.

The markings on the side of his neck are also highly sensitive. Running a hand or dragging your nails over them sends shivers down his spine every time.

Satan

Not only does he get taller but he also physically bulks up in his demon form. Its hardly noticeable under the sweater and boa he wears but on close inspection you can see the defined lines of his muscles straining under the fabric.

Similar to Lucifer, his horns are not all that sensitive. Though the area where they connect to his head are very mush so.

Satan is not shy in the slightest about asking MC to pet his head when he is in a bad mood and needs someone to stop him from doing something potentially stupid.

Satan often subconsciously purrs when he is happy or content.

This habit may have stemmed from his obsession with cats

His tail for the most part is hard and senseless, though the green end is softer and more pliable like cartilage. It is also extremely sensitive to both touch and temperature.

This is why he keeps his tail wrapped around his leg to protect it from being accidentally trampled on or whacked.

Since his tail extends from his lower back rather than the base of his spine the exposed skin surrounding the base of his tail is extremely sensitive and ticklish.

Asmodeus

Asmo of course loves any kind of affection, especially if it is coming from you of all people.

The tips of his horns that are pink in hue are extremely sensitive to touch. He is not shy about asking you to touch him obviously but you would note that he does get extremely flustered when you do so without having to be asked.

Asmo will just melt into your touch if you walk up to him and just randomly cup his face or pet his horns.

When he is especially flustered the pink hue of his horns will even darken

His wings are velvety and soft to the touch. He loves to have kisses pressed to the soft membrane of the wings.

The easiest way to turn him to putty in your hands is to go straight for his wings. They are his weak spot.

It's really little affectionate things that get him going. Adjusting the metal chain of his scorpion brooch, pushing a stray piece of his bangs back into place, even something as simple as picking a piece of lint off of his jacket has him beaming with affection.

I don't see Asmo as getting to experience these little things as often as the more prominent things that come with his sin. So when you go out of your way to make sure he does get to experience these little things he falls hard and fast.

Beelzebub

He physically bulks up when he transforms. If you thought he was shredded normally wait till you see him in demon form.

His horns are extremely sensitive, almost like little antennas. Turns into the biggest puppy when you rubs his horns. Just all smiles and happiness from him.

Sometimes he will even rub your cheeks together so his horns brush against your hair.

He is a bit hesitant when it comes to his wings being touched just because of their nature. It's not that he doesn't trust you it’s just when he gets excited he unconsciously buzzes his wings.

If he were to catch his wing on your hand and rip it he would feel bad for making you think you hurt him. In reality it does not hurt him all that much, akin to like a paper cut or bad scratch.

Beel is really just a big push over for you, scratch him behind the horns and he will just become the biggest lap dog.

Belphegor

His horns and tail are not sensitive but that doesn't mean he doesn't want you to pet him.

After he falls asleep to you petting his horns one afternoon he now demands that you do this at least once a week. If you don't he will bother you until you cave to his wishes.

Also loves to have the fluff of his tail brushed / petted, although he would never admit it outright. His brothers already think he is spoiled so how would they react to knowing he has you pampering him each week? Braiding his tail hair and brushing out the tangles while he snoozes.

On the rare occasions he can’t sleep or when he is awakened from a nightmare he will seek you out and ask you to pet him so he can get to sleep. There are many mornings you will wake up and just find Belphie in bed next to you curled around his pillow with his face buried in your shoulder.

He promises to pay you back later though. Totally...

The cow spots on his neck are extremely ticklish, to the point he borderline passes out from wheezing so hard when Beel tickles him there.

Bonus:

Diavolo

He is much, much larger in his demon form than he is when he appears as human. He is normally tall but like this he is borderline massive.

He tends to keep his wings folded into his sides due to their large span. Though is more than happy to show them off to you when prompted.

They are thick and velvety to the touch, the metallic jewelry that covers the tops of them a cold contrast to the warm skin.

He adores any kind of attention from you, more than content to sit and chatter about whatever comes to his mind as you sit beside him or stop him petting his wings.

He bent down once so you could see his horns and as a joke lifted you off the ground while you were holding onto them. He laughed so hard you thought he was going to drop you on your ass.

His horns are not sensitive in the slightest, hence why he has no problems with decorating them with tight metal pieces akin to a piercing on a person.

Diavolo is a super loving guy normally and this holds true to when he is in his demon form. So whenever he gives you a hug you end up smothered in his pecs. Not that your complaining.

Barbatos

Barbatos would never say it aloud but he very much enjoys when you spend time just running your fingers ever so softly over his horns. Their unique shape and varied textures can leave you entertained for what feels like hours but in reality you love the soft expressions you can pull out of the normally stoic butler.

Loves having soft kisses pressed to the joints of his horns.

His tail is his one weak spot as once one learns what certain movements mean. You can always tell how he is feeling.

The unbridled joy you feel well in your heart when his tail begins to curl up upon seeing you letting you know he is feeling the same way has you biting your lip to hold yourself back from running into his arms.

[existslikepristin]

Impromptu Review

Thanks for editing this one goes to momirene and Worldsover, and for helpful beta reading feedback from them and one dork who wants to remain anonymous.

Tags: TheLounge, Red Velvet, SNSD (Girl's Generation), Joy, Sunny, loneliness, potential traumatization of cats, a hoard of hell-themed sex toys, a strap on, a butt plug with Jiu's face in it, and bisexual problems.

The front door of Sunny’s apartment swung open so fast that Joy felt a breeze from the vacuum it left behind.

“Joy! You’re here!”

Joy blinked. “Yeah, I said I would come over.”

“It’s been so long since we’ve met up! Come in, come in!”

“It’s only been like a month though.”

Sunny grabbed Joy’s hands and pulled her through the doorway. “It feels like so much longer than that!”

Joy smiled and took her shoes off in the entryway. “You seem more excited than usual.”

“What? How so?”

“Well for one,” Joy said, pointing at the kitchen, “It looks like you prepared for a whole party in here.”

The kitchen’s island was covered in plates of snacks and several variations of alcoholic beverages. Additionally, Sunny was noticeably sweaty, like she had just run around the house preparing for guests. Joy figured it would be best not to bring that up.

“What? No. That? That’s… yeah, that’s a lot of food, isn’t it?” Sunny’s posture drooped, as if she’d already expended all of her energy on her greeting.

Joy pulled her into a side hug. Her height served to straighten Sunny back up. “What’s going on, girl?”

Sunny sighed and leaned her head on Joy’s chest. “I dunno. I’m just excited. Haven’t had a good social night any time recently.”

“Aw! But what about these cutie kitties?”

Sogeum popped her head out from behind the wall and gave Joy her signature droopy, grim stare without so much as a meow. As soon as Joy shuffled in her direction though, she turned and went back into the living room.

“Well, you know. Can’t really have a real conversation with the cats.”

Joy hummed her agreement and stepped into the kitchen. “I’m always happy to talk to you Sunny. They don’t call SM a family for nothing.”

Sunny groaned, loudly.

“Um. Okay,” Joy said when Sunny didn’t elaborate. “Not a family? Just a bunch of really close friends?”

“Yeah, that’ll work better. Not a fan of the family motif.”

Joy picked up a cracker and chomped down. “Gonna… explain? Family is normally a positive thing, isn’t it?”

Sunny grabbed a bottle of wine and yanked the cork out. “Yeah, totally, for sure. Hey, do you like Chardonnay?”

“I…” Joy didn’t want to skirt around whatever issue Sunny was having, but was well-aware of her stubbornness. “I sure do.”

As fancy glasses of white wine were generously poured, Joy made note of Sunny’s slow, unsteady movements. She worried that perhaps Sunny had already started drinking, or wasn’t getting enough sleep.

* * *

“Can you believe that, Joy?”

“No way. It’s just inhuman.”

“Completely! It’s not like green onions are suddenly more expensive to dry out!”

The conversation had started with gossip and cheese snacking when the sun was high. As the sun set, the discussion shifted to the price of instant meals, and the snack plates were all but empty. Joy had to fight the constant urge to fall asleep, as the topics were never much more interesting than that. But she let Sunny lead the talking as much as possible.

Joy was simply relieved that Sunny called her over before diving into her liquor storage. “You should start a petition to regulate the price. I’d be the first to sign it.”

Sunny’s tipsy grin matched Joy’s. Though the alcohol consumption had been slow-going, they had been doing it for several hours. “Oh that would be great press. ‘Washed up idol upset with ramen manufacturers.’”

With an exaggerated roll of the eyes, Joy pointed at a set of boxes in the corner of the living room, currently being used as a lookout tower by Sogeum. “You’re not washed up yet. Look at all of those sponsor gifts. Those weren’t here last time I came over… Wait, they weren’t, were they?”

Sunny giggled. “No, they’re, uh… new.”

Their corporate sponsors weren’t something that Joy, Sunny, or any of the other SM idols discussed often. There were usually so many vying for their attention that it was pointless trying to keep track. But Joy reasoned, somewhat drunkenly, that talking about it might be therapeutic to someone so down on their social status. “Who are they from, anyway?”

A blush deepened the red of Sunny’s already tipsy-glowing cheeks. “Uh… Nobody. Just a regular sponsor, ya know?”

Joy grinned. “Oh, come on. You can tell me. What am I gonna do? Call a press conference to tell the tabloids who’s contributing to your paycheck?”

Sunny rolled her eyes. She shot off the couch, spilling a drop or two of her wine in the process. From Joy’s naturally higher perspective, Sunny didn’t seem that much taller. “Fine,” she said, wobbling, “but you better not make fun of me.”

“I’ll make fun of you for other reasons, like how much I love you, bitch!” Joy blinked at her own shouting. She didn’t know when the alcohol had hit her, but she was beginning to think that she was a little more intoxicated than she previously thought.

Thankfully, the joviality in her voice seemed to encourage Sunny to play along. She set her wine on the coffee table and picked one of the smaller boxes off of the pile. “Disclosure first! We haven’t agreed to any deals yet. They sent me this stuff to try to convince me to shill it. I didn’t reach out to them.”

Joy waved the disclosure off like a mosquito, but Sunny still tossed the box in her direction. The weight inside of it was awkwardly distributed. Joy attempted to catch it, but it wound up ricocheting off the tips of her fingers and nearly knocking over an open, mostly full bottle of soju.

“The fuck is in this thing?”

“I’ve got some ideas but I just know who it’s from. Open it and find out.”

Joy tore into the box with no regard for the care that went into the packaging, which itself was surprisingly discreet. A smirk cracked her lips when she thought about what sorts of deliveries required such discretion. But the smirk faded right away when she got a view of the inside and realized that the packager apparently had the same idea.

Inside was a pair of plastic sheets wrapped asymmetrically around a roughly water bottle sized blob of blood red silicone. A small bit of pink cardboard advertised it as a five-speed, rotation-simulating, self-cleaning, pattern-switching, USB-charging, automatically-lubricating, remote-controlled vibrator with a speaker at the bottom for replicating a set of desired moans and a specialized charging dock.

Joy cleared her throat and stared at the horrifically fancy dildo, and its label, “Dante’s Dive,” unsure if she should toss it back to Sunny, considering it was clearly a personal item.

Sunny reached into what was left of the box, procuring a pretty little decorated card. “Dear Ms. Lee, we at Second Ring Inc were very pleased to hear your impromptu review of our products on a recent episode of ‘Welp, I Guess We’re Talking About This Now’ and wished to send you some additional items to show our appreciation. These are in no way a request for further public review,” Sunny was briefly interrupted by Joy’s disapproving snort, “but should you be interested in a partnership, we have included a phone number at which I, the chief executive officer, Lee Youngjoon, may be reached. Optionally, my username--”

Joy missed a few words as she was shocked by the extreme sound emitted by the vibrator when she pushed a button on the remote control.

“--is ‘worldsover’. As you know, Second Ring specializes in sexual wellness products, of which we’ve sent you a wide variety. They can be enjoyed by couples, or can serve as a fantastic outlet for power singles like yourself…”

Sunny trailed off. Joy was afraid she knew what was coming. “Damn, Sunny. You say so much as three words on national television and they scramble to get right up on your ass, eh?”

It was too late. Sunny was already tipping up the bottom of the soju bottle. A few drops spluttered back out of her mouth as Joy pushed it back down. “Sunny! You’ve said it yourself! You don’t want to get married!”

“Doesn’t mean I’m not still lonely!”

Joy wrapped her arms around Sunny. “You’ve got me. And a million other friends!”

“Fans don’t count.” Sunny’s voice was partially muffled by Joy’s shoulder.

“Ouch. Time for me to delete my Sone club membership. But fine. A hundred other friends. It’s not just me. It’s my members. Your members. And plenty of others. All of NCT would be--Okay, nevermind. Aespa though! They love you too.”

“But I don't want to inconvenience you." Sunny ended so matter-of-factly that Joy had to pause to process the short conversation.

"You know how… You know how you take a road trip, and there's a road block, or really bad construction, and you have to take a detour?"

"Yeah. I'm a detour."

"Come on, Sunny. What you are is the scenic route!”

There was a long silence.

“Was that the end of the metaphor?” Sunny eventually asked.

“I am very drunk.”

“You’re not that drunk.”

“Drunk enough to be shit at metaphors.”

“It’s…” Sunny extricated herself from Joy’s hug. “It’s okay. I think I know what you’re getting at, and I appreciate it. It’s just that a few words don’t really fix a brain, you know?”

Joy nodded slowly, watching as Sogeum casually stalked across the room. “Yup. But believe me. I’m here for you, at least. So if you need a friend, or some company, I’m at the top of your list.”

The cat plopped herself on the floor, right up against Sunny’s leg. Joy giggled. “Fuck off, kitty. I just said I was the top.”

It seemed the topic of conversation was ready to change. Sunny smiled, and it was enough to indicate her understanding.

“So!” Joy moved things along. “A pile of free, top of the line sex toys in your living room. What’s a young woman to do about that?”

Sunny snorted. “Well I’m not going to masturbate while I have company over, that’s for sure.” She grabbed another box from the pile and handed it over, doing her best not to disturb Sogeum’s new resting place.

The new box took mere seconds to open, this time revealing a black silicone butt plug with a red gem in the base. The casing suggested that a picture could be inserted beneath the gem, and it appeared there was one already there as an example. Joy had to flip it around to a variety of angles before she could make out that it contained a headshot of Dreamcatcher’s Jiu making finger hearts on her cheeks. She cocked her head, wondering if the image had actually been authorized.

Another box swapped between the womens’ hands. It took Joy a little longer to open than the last, but it turned out to be that way for a good reason, given that it was gently holding some fragile cargo: A red-tinted glass bottle of lube, labeled as “Juice from the Fruit of The Tree.” The lengthy product title had a snake winding through the letters.

“Well now they’re just really doubling down on this theme, aren’t they?” Sunny asked as she worked out how to open the next package, using her bottle opener as a makeshift knife.

Joy laughed and picked up yet another, now eager to see what kind of wild object it would contain. “Yeah, they really are! No lie, they’re starting to give me some ideas. Talk about sinful.”

“‘Oh I know,’” Sunny mocked the company, as SM artists often did, fingers still struggling to find their way under the first cardboard flap. “‘Let’s send Sunny a whole pile of sex junk. Bet she’s sinful enough to use it all.’ Like, come on Love-eye, or whatever your name is. What’s a single woman gonna do with all this? Hold up a pillow fort?”

“Hey, maybe he doesn’t know you’re single. Maybe there’s some stuff in here that takes two to tangle with… Fuck. Choerry’s got me using alliterations.”

Sunny barely managed to get her fingers inside the box, but her knuckles were turning white from the tightness of it. It seemed that she had left a portion of the packing tape uncut. “I said I was single on the show, though. I don’t think there will be any couples’ toys in here.”

“Oooh, I’m gonna make it a bet now.” Joy smirked. Her next sentence bypassed her verbal filter through the holes left in it by the alcohol. “If you get that thing open and there’s a strap on inside, you have to fuck me with it!”

A jerk of her arms snapped the remainder of the packing tape. Sunny chuckled. “You’re on. There’s no way it is.”

Joy had to admit that Sunny had a point, considering how small the package was. Surely it couldn’t fit a series of leather straps, or a dildo any larger than a couple of inches in any direction. The little voice in the back of her mind that told her making such an offer was stupid quieted down somewhat.

There was a moment of quiet. Sogeum rolled away from Sunny and made her way to the kitchen. Joy picked up another box, confident that she hadn’t just placed herself in an awkward situation. Sunny shook her head, amused. And then…

“J-Joy?”

Joy looked back, but wasn’t quite sure what she was looking at. It was a sort of mass of black string with some silver discs hanging off of it. Another piece of pink paper fluttered to the floor, where Joy picked it up and read aloud.

“‘The Obol.’ As Charon ferried Dante across the Styx and into the hole that is Hell, so too shall this state-of-the-art magnetic harness ferry our exclusive Dante’s Dive dildo into your… partner’s hole…”

There was more to be read, but both women seemed to get the point. The only sound in the room came from Sogeum chomping through some hard cat food in the kitchen. Slowly, their eyes raised and met. They both spoke at the same moment.

“That was a bet’s a joke bet right?”

Their drunken minds needed a moment to detangle their words into distinct sentences. Sunny’s “That was a joke, right?” and Joy’s “A bet’s a bet.”

Sunny started again first. “You know, we don’t have to.”

“I will if you want to.”

Every sentence being exchanged was followed by a palpable stillness. Joy’s heart beat loudly in her own ears, and she swore she could hear Sunny’s too.

“Do you… want to fuck me with that, Sunny?”

Sunny answered instantly. “Yup.”

There was a flurry of action, though it was slowed here and there by a tipsy stumble or two. Sunny gathered up an armful of the items on her coffee table, both sex toys and the bottle of soju, and sprinted for the bedroom. Joy rushed after her, messily attempting and failing to remove some of her clothes on the way.

Sogeum was spooked by the sudden kerfuffle and fled out of sight.

The bedroom was no less hectic. Sunny dropped everything on the bed except the soju, which she took one more swig of directly from the bottle before setting it dangerously close to the edge of her desk. She wiggled out of her shirt and bra, which attracted Joy’s attention instantly.

Joy struck at Sunny’s cleavage, wrapping her fingers as far as they could go around the legendary orbs, and her lips around one of the budding tips. Their differences in height made it awkward, but they very soon found their way to a horizontal state that eased that tension. Unfortunately, it was not on the bed, but on the floor, but they weren’t about to let something like that stop them.

What clothes they were still wearing exploded off their bodies. Joy’s shorts and shirt, Sunny’s pants and socks. All of it ended up in different sections of the room, thrown under and over furniture.

Joy was no stranger to encounters like this, and neither was Sunny. They had shared countless stories with each other… and some spit. But neither had considered their prior make out sessions to be precursors to explicitly sexual action. For her part, however, Joy considered this one differently, and Sunny’s hands searching half-blindly for Joy’s ass confirmed to her that Sunny thought the same.

Backs arched. Legs ground against one another. Open mouths met, trading the alcoholic scents that the women no longer cared to distinguish. Their minds had devoted themselves entirely to the search for physical pleasure.

A lot of exploratory prodding led Sunny’s fingers to the entrance to Joy’s pussy, failing to notice the number of pokes that ended up at Joy's exit. She took some time familiarizing herself with the drenched outer folds.

Joy, however, noticed the poking at her ass. Her mind swam with serotonin, thoughts of other people, and alcoholic fumes that seemed to rearrange the letters of her thoughts into nonsense. Or possibly into inspiration.

Inspiration relevant to the happenings at the prior year's award shows, that is.

Joy tried to pull back the moment Sunny’s fingers dipped inside her. She had opened her mouth to speak but instead groaned and arched herself further into Sunny’s grip on her sanity. "S-Sunny. B-bed."

At least that message was received loud and clear. Sunny dragged her fingers against Joy’s G-spot as she, disappointingly, pulled them out, nearly causing Joy to scream. The same fingers plunged into Joy’s mouth and quieted her as she diligently sucked her own juices from them.

The action transferred to the bed. Fingers immediately found their places again, and Joy bounced on her back in time with Sunny’s brutal shoves. Packaging bounced all around them. It was like a desperate, distracted game of Vegetable Shinobi for Joy, swiping at the jumping dildo. Sunny’s fingers were divine, eye-wateringly so, but Joy wanted something unholy.

Sunny muttered Joy’s name, catching her attention again. She lifted her head to meet for yet another imprecise kiss. Their legs twisted around each other. Joy could hear the desperation in Sunny’s moans, vibrating all the way down her throat, burning like the alcohol. She snaked a hand between them and found Sunny’s clit.

The moans freed themselves as Sunny bucked backward, almost out of Joy’s longer reach. Joy noted the exceptional reaction, and flipped Sunny onto her back, following immediately and putting herself in the position of power Sunny had initiated.

“You’re gonna fuck me with the strap on… right, Sunny?”

Sunny’s eyes widened, and she grabbed the toys.

“No, not yet,” Joy stalled in her most seductive voice. She slid down, nearly falling off the bed, and wrenched Sunny’s legs wide open with her elbows.

Sunny clenched her fingers around the hell-themed dildo for dear life. Joy’s name poured through her lips over and over again as Joy’s lips poured over her pussy.

Joy had to fight Sunny’s strength to keep her spread thighs from clamping around her head. She wanted to keep hearing her senior beg, loud and clear. To that end, she dug in her tongue, unable to penetrate far, but far enough to open Sunny up and feel the wetness flow into her mouth.

“Please… Joy… I’m close… Joy, please! Joy, don’t stop!”

The thought flitted through Joy’s head, that perhaps denying Sunny her orgasm would be fun, but something about the way she said it made Joy wonder if Sunny’s neediness was rooted in her loneliness, more than in her desire to get off. She shifted herself to wrap her arms under Sunny’s legs and pulled. It wasn’t possible for them to be any physically closer than they were, but she wanted to make it feel like they could be.

Sunny’s voice cracked, choked, and broke into a scream. Joy winced as her tongue was squeezed uncomfortably, but she wasn’t about to stop. The back arches, hair grasping, and pained gasps that followed were worth it.

Joy kept it up until Sunny’s body fell back down and her muscles relaxed. Only then, she removed herself to ask, “Need a break before my turn?”

A smile crept up Sunny’s mouth. Her fingers tightened around the dildo she still had in her hand. “Get… back down here.”

If there was any benefit Joy appreciated most about idol training, it was recovery speed, and Sunny still had it. Joy picked up the strap, quickly figuring out how it was supposed to fit and sliding it up Sunny’s legs. The motion doubled as her approach for another make out.

Of course, Joy was still immensely horny. Her interest in making out with Sunny was overshadowed by her desire to get fucked savagely, but she had the wherewithal to hold out, to let it happen naturally. She was always good at letting others take the lead. Whether they led from the top or from the bottom didn’t especially matter to her.

The alcohol made her more impatient than usual though. She forced herself to wait for the five-speed pounding she’d get, but she ground herself against Sunny’s leg in the meantime. Thankfully she didn’t have to wait long. Sunny threw her to the side and attached the vibrator to the unusual strap with very little trouble. Joy fingered herself as she watched.

“Fuck, yes, Sunny. This is going to be so goo--”

Sunny practically tackled Joy. Their lips collided again, strap hovering somewhere between Joy’s legs, but not close enough for her to feel it.

The moment she did, though, Joy grabbed Sunny’s ass and pulled. The lack of accuracy was made up for by the inhuman amount of lubrication present; both Joy’s and the curious synthetic compound that the dildo exuded seemingly of its own volition.

It was almost too much for Joy. The dildo was certainly longer than any she had used before, and bottoming out at full speed meant it hit her rather painfully in the cervix. She hissed, but otherwise just readjusted her legs in Sunny’s way to prevent the same thing from happening so easily again.

The strap held the dildo in place on Sunny’s body well. Despite its genuinely small frame, it seemed to prevent all wiggling. Every one of Sunny’s movements, including the less delicate, more intoxicated ones, translated to sensations that felt to Joy like a biologically attached dick, albeit with a plethora of extra features.

"You're so pretty, Joy," Sunny said. Even though she was doing all the work now, she wasn't nearly as winded as before. Knowing she’d affected Sunny made Joy grin into another kiss.

“No you,” Joy said with a smirk. She knew this would be good, but she truly underestimated how great it would be to see Sunny’s famous tits jiggling with the effort of fucking her. The sheen of sweat covering them would ensure the night wouldn’t be forgotten, even if Joy had another drink or two.

Joy’s first orgasm struck quickly and unexpectedly. Her breath stopped and a shudder spiked through her body from her core to the tips of her toes and fingers and head. The ability to think normally left her for a brief moment. She only kept the fleeting question of whether or not Sunny was able to feel Joy’s climax. Stars popped in and out of existence, obscuring Joy’s view of Sunny’s fantastic body.

It all faded relatively soon after, but it wasn’t enough for Joy. As soon as her lungs refilled, she screamed, “More! Sunny! Fuck me! Fuck me! Oh god!” She was practically numb everywhere, except for every square inch of her that the dildo rubbed, slid, and vibrated against. Her arms and legs wrapped around Sunny on their own.

Joy, eyes half closed, barely registered when Sunny slowed down to grab and open the extra package. She did, however, notice the sudden prodding feeling at her asshole.

“Sun--”

She couldn’t even finish Sunny’s name before something slipped its way into her butt. Her vision cleared up enough to see that even while she continued thrusting, Sunny had one hand tucked between them, and it was the source of the extra intrusion.

A couple more thrusts though, and Joy was lost to the pleasure again. She started to pant instead of scream or moan, or perhaps she was whimpering, or speaking fluent Polish. Joy couldn’t have said one way or the other. Another orgasm hit. And another. And another. She knew some time was passing between each one, but whether it was seconds or days between no longer mattered. Her mind was fading out of existence.

Until, that is, it wasn’t.

With seemingly no provocation, Joy suddenly remembered Cheungae. She had been meaning to talk to Sunny about him before they had gotten drunk. Her mind wandered, far, far more than it normally would during such intense sex.

Cheungae had taken her out several times since their first, less-than-professional meeting at the MAMAs with Wheein. Even though Joy knew he was struggling financially, he always insisted on paying for coffee, but would give up if he saw the bill when Joy took him to some of the much higher end restaurants.

He was always so polite, genuine, and humble. He didn’t even question when Joy told him they couldn’t be in a relationship, but instead insisted that they could be friends. Joy wondered if it was fair to him that she was treating him as a boyfriend in every way but name while she was still having a grand old time fucking everyone else in the industry. Cheungae knew about it, but wasn’t part of it.

And yet, sex with Cheungae made Joy feel good. Great, even. She could recreate the sensations in her mind for days afterward. His slim, toned figure hovering over her, his face contorted beautifully in adorable agony, his admittedly mediocre cock managing to hit her just right with every move. She couldn’t stop picturing him.

Another orgasm smashed through Joy’s illusion. The mental image of perfectly human Cheungae was instantly replaced with the very physical image of god-like Sunny. As tended to happen, Joy held her breath as the climax coursed through her. Her muscles contracted until she was holding Sunny in a deathly grip.

“F-fuck. Sunn-ny. Slow… slow down.”

It seemed that the request was desperately needed by both lovers, because rather than simply slow down, Sunny fell over. Joy’s pussy immediately craved to be filled again, but she knew she needed to clear her head. And besides that, she still had an odd full sensation. When her muscles relaxed enough for her to move of her own volition, she reached beneath herself and recoiled again at the feeling of a drenched butt plug. Her fingertips carried a puddle of mixed cum and lube back up.

“I’m sorry… Joy… I think that’s all I have left in me,” Sunny said between gasps.

Joy made note of her own throat and how dry it was. Whatever sound she was making while she borderline hallucinated, she’d be regretting it for a while. “All good. I was losing my sanity. That was unbelievable.”

Sunny giggled. It sounded painful. “The vibrator… or the surprise plug?”

Joy giggled back. “The plug was definitely a surprise. Was that the one with Jiu's face in it?”

“Mhm.”

“Cool,” Joy sat up, her head swimming in the aftermath. “But I just think it was you using the stuff that made it so good.”

Sunny seemed invigorated by the compliments. She smiled and reached under the bed, making some noise and bringing up a bottle of water. The two of them swapped it back and forth until it was empty and then collapsed into one another, idly feeling each others' bodies up the whole time.

“Does that mean you’re up for another… night like this? Or day?” Sunny asked as she fondled Joy’s tits. It sounded like she had sobered up, at least most of the way. Joy was too afraid of what she would see to look at a clock.

“You fucking know it,” Joy responded while she brushed her fingers up and down Sunny’s inner thighs. It was a reflex for her to agree, but she cringed inwardly as soon as she did, realizing how much more sober she had become herself, and how she wished she wasn’t. She was thinking about Cheungae again.

There was a barrage of light kisses all over her face, neck, and chest. Sunny looked far too happy for Joy to feel okay about retracting her statement.

“Maybe not right now though,” Joy said, just in case Sunny was already getting ideas. “We should really get to bed.”

She didn’t hear any arguments. They simply got up, and only long enough to flip up the duvet, flinging all of the remaining sex toys off, and jumped underneath.

It took a minute for Joy to realize she needed to remove the surprise butt plug. It was easy enough, and she ended up tossing it to the floor without looking at it.

Joy wrapped herself around Sunny. She was usually the big spoon, not that it bothered her. Sunny’s bare back felt comfortably hot against her chest and stomach. Cheungae liked being the big spoon too. He’d swap with her all the time…

“Hey, Sunny?”

“Mmm?” Sunny was on the verge of sleep, it seemed.

Joy lowered her voice, barely above a whisper. “Have you ever thought about… Settling down, I guess? Just being with one person?”

She didn’t expect Sunny to have an immense store of wisdom, but she hoped for more than what she got: a snore.

“Good night to you too, Sunny.”