#peak teenage behavior right there

[discocandles]

i love oreki as a character bc he's so fucking funny. like ofc there's the sarcastic one-liners(i have never laughed more at the words yippee-skippy before), but also just the places his brain goes. dude gets trapped in a building and is like "we have 4 other ways to escape" and all of them are property damage.

and when chitanda says "umm, that's probably a bad move in a shrine on new years." he's basically like "shit, you're right."

[littlefankingdom]

About Dick, he never wanted his private life to be public, he just went through a phase as a teen when he missed the spotlight of the circus, because teenagers often have this dream of stardom. In World's Finest: Teen Titans, he says he misses it to Bruce, after his guardian forbid him to join his teammates at a convention about them, this is inspired by this. It's a normal dream for a teen, and Dick knew he could make it a reality if Bruce let him. But, like I said, it was a phase and he is very happy Bruce didn't bend to his puppy eyes.

Nobody know the kids of famous people, the Kardashians are well-known because they have a show (and people who don't give a fuck about it cannot name them), and some kids are known if their parents put them in the spotlight (North West, for example, but like, you could show me a picture of her and I would not recognize her).

I don't think the Wayne kids are famous. Bruce is, he is this attractive rich philanthropic guy who loves the cursed hell that is Gotham, it's his cover for Batman. But his kids? This man is overprotective, he would not let the press anywhere near his kids. If people knows barely anything about them, it's less likely they can be hurt in civics. And the more kids he gets, the less people remember them all.

A paparazzi took a picture of Dick/Jason/Damian at school? Wayne's lawyers at their front door. A rumor was published about them? Wayne's lawyers at their front door. A video of one of them filmed without consent finished online? Wayne's lawyers at their front door. Don't even dream about making some article pointing out his kids are attractive (for other teens or for adults for the adult ones), he will find you. Don't even try to say any racists or bigoted about his kids, he will ruin your life.

Some of them are very satisfied with this (Jason, all ages, and Cass, for examples). Some did dreamed of the spotlight sometimes (Dick. He is a performer, he was soooo annoying as a teen because he wanted to be famous!). But Bruce stood his ground.

In the end, Dick is a bit famous because of his position as "the heir", as he is the one stepping in Bruce's place to do damage control when Bruce dissapears. Tim is known because of his takeover bs he did when Bruce was gone in time (reminder that he is not the CEO). Bruce still doesn't let anything too personal or unprofessional about them exist.

[saylorsaysstop]

Sleeping Together | 18+

also shout out to @joyful-enchantress because after she commented on my Grayson post earlier, this all came to my mind. 🤪

**underneath the cut**

DICK GRAYSON

Dick talks you through it. He wants you to be vocal and makes it his top priority that your needs are met first

"Tell me what you need, baby." - "That's it, just like that, baby. You're close, aren't ya? Yeah, look at you. Come on, grind a little harder. I know you can do it."

Giving head is a sport for Grayson and he excels at it. He eats you out like you're his last meal

The man is an acrobat. He's flexible. All the positions he can get the two of you in should be new entries in the Kama Sutra

Dick loveeeees head in return. He won't ever make you do it or ask, but he loves that you're so eager to pleasure him

"I've been good, haven't I? No other reason to explain why you're gifting me that hot mouth of yours, sweet girl."

Dick isn't afraid to moan either. He knows when the noises start coming out of his mouth, you get off quicker

Let's go back to that acrobatic thing. He may or may not figure out ways to suspend you in the air... He may or may not be such a kinky man that he's got a separate room in your house where he plays sports with you... I'm not admitting it, I'm just saying

Loves for you to suck him off when your head hanging off the edge of the bed. He also loves to eat you out simultaneously

Dick Grayson is a boob man. Both hands on deck, he squeezes and teases your nipples by plucking them between his fingers. Loves to suck on them until they're stiff peaks. Likes to push two fingers into you while he bites your nipple, stroking until he hits that sweet spot. You're a goner after that

Loves for you to take what you want

"Atta girl, ride it just like that. This dick belongs to you, right? Act like it. Pleasure yourself... Yeah, go ahead and play with your clit. Wanna see you come. You're so pretty when you do."

Dick treasures loving on you after sex. He rewards you for your good behavior and a job well done with baths, massages, you name it. He ensures you're taken care of and reminds you that he loves you dearly

JASON TODD

Jason likes it rough. He loves it when he sees your marks on him, whether it be teeth or nails. He collects each one like it is a kill

Ropes? Knife play? Any sort of bondage? Jason Todd is your man

Loves to bind your hands above your head while he rails you deep into the mattress. Loves the idea of you being helpless and unable to take it anymore. Gets him off real quick

Loves some dirty talk

"Take this dick like a good girl." - "You're soaking wet, babe. All this for me?" - "Not gonna waste a drop of this cum, you hear me? You won't let a drop leak outta this cunt - my cunt. You got that?"

Jason likes to get right by your ear while he grunts with each thrust, nipping your earlobe in between before trailing his tongue down your neck and sucking on your collarbone

"Gonna mark this pretty neck up, baby."

You two go at each other until you're a panting mess. Clothes strewn all over the place. Jason and you stare up at the ceiling, laughing like teenagers as you calm down from the high

"I think that was my new personal best. Ten orgasms. Ten!"

Yeah. Jason likes to place bets on who can give the other more orgasms in one night. Right now, he's winning

Jason loves your butt. Loves to slap your cheeks as he bends you over his lap as a warm-up. Carresses and bites the plump skin when he's kissing his way down your body before he hikes your legs over his shoulders and feasts

Likes to feel you breathe against him. He loves to feel your chest rise and fall when he's on top and you're panting for every breath while chasing your orgasm

He's a man who likes to edge that's for sure

"Uh-uh... That wasn't it. You can do better than that. Moan a little louder, that's it..." - "I'm being mean? No, you just need to work harder to come. You wanted this." - "Atta girl. I promise I'll let you come after this."

Jason's aftercare is you two taking a hot bath together where he can just hold your back to his chest and actually talk. You're his safe space

TIM DRAKE

Tim, albeit quiet, is a delectable switch. One day he's all soft and endearing, the next he's plowing you into next week (and blushing when you mention it afterward

He does a lot of studying on sex. What positions feel the best for you, different ways he can go down to ensure he has you screaming his name for all of Gotham to hear

Gets a little possessive during sex, especially when he's losing himself in it

"You're mine, do you hear me? Mine, sweetheart. Mine." - "No one else is going to claim you. You belong to me."

He likes it when you pull his hair, especially when he's going down. Feeling you guide him further into you is like a bolt of electricity shooting down his spine

Tim loves to get you relaxed before sex too, especially if he knows it's going to be a long night. He'll run you a warm bath, pamper you with sweet-scented lotions, and get you nice and ready before he unleashes. Fun fact, those nights are when you know he's gonna get rough

Tim won't admit it aloud but he loves a good missionary position or where you two lay facing each other. He loves to caress your face and kiss you softly as he takes you

"Lift your leg, sweetheart... That's it. C'mere. Let me watch that gorgeous face of yours when you fall apart for me, yeah?"

Like Dick and Jason, he VALUES aftercare so. Freaking. Much! Takes a warm cloth to the mess he made between your legs and kisses along the heated skin, telling you how much he loves you

[firesnap]

Rambling about bad c!Crime takes in 2024.

I think the struggle with being a c!Crime fan during peak DSMP was having to deal with the people who would unironically use "vilbur" like it was a badge of honor and the ones who legitimately thought c!Tommy was 8-years-old at the beginning of L'Manberg.

Like, I don't need to rehash a lot of this. A hundred meta essays were about how Tommy was not responsible for Wilbur's mental health, that he was a front row audience member watching Wilbur's decline and begging people to intercede because he was a damn teenager with zero tools in his kit for "help my brother is frightening me and he's ten feet from me but I think I've lost him in this cave."

But you can still see people go "Ok Tommy helped make Wilbur worse."

No. Just no Tommy's worst behaviors didn't impact Wilbur because Wilbur was so far into his own spiral at that point that it just didn't even phase him if Tommy called him insane. You can't put that on Tommy. When Wilbur came back he even said he could recognize the man he was back then was frightening and beyond what Tommy should have had to see.

But, saying Wilbur acted on violent delusions on Tommy or emotionally abused him or isolated Tommy on purpose... Girl this isn't exile arc and you're not getting c!Crime.

Wilbur and Tommy at their best were moments were like... Tommy with a shield in front of Wilbur, Wilbur with a hand on Tommy's shoulder saying to be better than Wilbur ever was, Tommy and Wilbur running through a small nation and dancing on beaches and laughing at how fucking much the other one sucked with every bit of affection in the world tied behind those words. It was a loop of I'd die for you, I'd die for anything but especially you and Who the fuck ever asked you to die??

At their worst they were a negative feedback loop that fed each other. Tommy was possessive of Wilbur, from even the early L'Manberg days, to the point where Wilbur often neglected other relationships to give Tommy attention. He was angry at Wilbur for falling off the pedestal that Tommy put him on. Wilbur was just as dependent on Tommy being always behind him and took advantage of the fact that Tommy wouldn't leave. He dumped his own fears and paranoia and self-hatred at Tommy's feet and then assumed that this person younger than him could sort through it.

And if you can't handle hearing how they fed the worst parts of each other, then maybe you aren't really here for that dynamic. Maybe you've made something else up in your head that you like more. And that's fine, man. Do whatever the server is gone. Just don't act like your personal version is what canon gave us.

Also, something something it's totally fine to dislike Wilbur's finale btw, but as imperfect as the execution was, it was right on board with what they were telling us about c!Crime from right when Wilbur was revived to Wilbur telling Ranboo that, essentially, Tommy would never leave him and Wilbur knew that wasn't healthy. They needed to break the cycle to save themselves and whatever brotherhood was between them.

They were about acknowledging they were tied to each other in fucked up and unhealthy ways, but needing that sense of brother so much that they were both afraid to do anything about it.

[sarahowritesostucky]

📖"The Carter Academy for Omega Excellence" Pt 10

Rated: Explicit

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Bucky Barnes

Tags: age gap, boarding school au, a/b/o, dub-con/non-con, spanking, feminization, dumbification, sexism, misogyny, prostate milking, discipline, D/s elements, hurt/comfort, mentions of past self-harm, predatory behavior, teacher/student, bathroom use control, humiliation, omorashi

Summary: Bucky Barnes is young, confused, and conflicted—a real "rebel without a cause" type. His parents ship him off to Steve's reform school to help him get straightened out into a "proper young omega."

Wait! I haven't read an earlier part of this fic! Story Masterlist

Part 10 Expedient Action

Steve watches as the kid’s lower lip trembles, his stubborn little cleft chin moving along with it, and he hums sadly. “Do you remember the last time you were happy, Bucky?”

The boy shrugs, won’t meet his eyes. “Dunno,” he eventually says.

Steve nods, having expected as much. Slowly, he curls his fingers over the top of the towel at Bucky’s waist. Bucky’s stomach sucks in with tension when he realizes that Steve intends to pull the towel off him, but he makes no move to try and stop it. Steve lets it fall to the floor, then looks at Bucky’s lap, eyes briefly considering the state of the omega’s rigid little prick, before sliding to the side to look at his leg. Sadness fills him again at seeing them, even though he’d known they were there.

Right along the top of Bucky’s left thigh are a series of pale lines. Scars, lined up in a tidy little row that begins at his hipbone and ends several inches before the knee. Most are white, but some are pink, still in various stages of healing from the recent past. Months old, but not years. Steve grabs Bucky’s hands when he tries to cover himself. “It’s okay, Buck. You’re not in trouble.”

Bucky whines and tugs his hands away. “Leave me alone,” he groans, sounding miserable. Steve has no doubt that he is, though that doesn’t mean that he’s not aroused, as well. Steve could smell his slick as soon as he’d gotten out of the shower, and it’s only intensified since then. Understandable, after what they’d witnessed from the doorway of Parker’s room. (Steve really needs to give Natasha a good bonus this semester. That woman knows how to get a task done.)

With the towel discarded, Bucky’s scent is rich and unimpeded, that pleasant mix of loamy earth and spiced verbena combining to arouse Steve’s senses. Virtually all omegas smell nice at bare minimum. Even ones pregnant by other alphas still smell good, if not particularly arousing. But again, he’s reminded that the notes of Bucky’s scent stand out to him more than what he’s accustomed to, pulling at all the baser instincts that live in the back of his brain.

He tries his best not to let his enjoyment of it show, but there’s only so much a man can do. He’s wearing his own special brand of compression underwear at the moment. Made for alphas, thank god, or else there’d be a very different situation at the front of his slacks right now. The bloody things are tight as fuck, but they do a good job at concealing all but the most aggressive of boners. And for an alpha who spends his days surrounded by hundreds of teenaged omegas reaching the peak of their sexual maturity, they are a godsend.

Steve rests his hand on Bucky’s leg, right over the scars. Oh Sweetheart, he thinks mournfully. Who did this to you? He lets his thumb trace one silvery-thin line, probably one of the oldest, and hushes Bucky’s whimper when it comes. “When did you start doing this, Honey?” he asks, being careful to keep his voice as gentle and as coaxing as he can. “Shh. It’s okay.”  Poor thing’s just embarrassed as all get-out, and Steve isn’t trying to scold him. “When, Bucky?”

“I dunno.” He shrugs and won’t meet Steve’s eyes. “Couple’a years ago, I guess. I don’t do it anymore. Not … not much.”

“That makes sense,” Steve observes. He’s baiting Bucky, and it works.

The kid peeks up at him. “It does?”

“Sure. Your heats mature at about fifteen, sixteen. That’s when it gets harder. Without a safe and consistent partner with you each cycle, you’re not going to be very fulfilled.” He watches as Bucky frowns down at his lap and thinks about that. “Has that been your experience?” he prods gently. “Feeling unfulfilled?”

“I … no.”

He arches an eyebrow. “Want to try saying that like you mean it?”

Bucky grimaces. “I mean, I didn’t use to think so. It just was what it was, y’know? Most kids don’t have a heat partner, so I figured I was just bein’ oversensitive. I at least had Brock. … Once in a while, anyways.”

“Hm.” 

“I thought that was good,” he says, looking to Steve for confirmation in a way that is pitifully naïve. “Nobody else pairs. Unless they’re dating. And even then, people have lives. They can’t just stop everything for a week every single month. That’d be ridiculous.”

“Right,” Steve says, hating this. He wants to growl and bundle Bucky up and make him see how neglected he’s been, how he deserves so much more. “You felt like you had to make due on your own.”

“Yeah. Sometimes I could get a hookup, at least for the second day of my heat. Those are usually the worst.” Bucky looks away, evasive. “And … I tried some things.”

“Suppressants?”

“Yeah. But before I figured out how to get a doctor to prescribe ‘em, I used to steal Ransom’s credit card to buy some of those supplements you see in the infomercials. You know: with the testimonials and everything? People saying how good they work?”

“How well they work,” Steve corrects under his breath. “Those are expensive.”

“Hundred and fifty bucks plus shipping, every month,” Bucky confirms. “Well, at least until Ransom noticed it on his credit card statement.” He colors a little and admits, “I also tried those things they sell over the counter at the pharmacy. Those, erm, those things that you can take. That you stick up your—”

“I’m familiar,” Steve drawls. “So, you put multiple things in your body without knowing what was in them.”

“Well I figured they couldn’t sell ‘em on tv if it wasn’t safe,” Bucky defends. “And besides, everybody does it.”

“Not exactly winning me over, here, kid.”

“Look, you don’t understand!” he snaps. “You’re alpha. You don’t get it. Heats are stupid, they're not fun. They just get in everybody’s way, and these products help. They help quality of life. They help make it less of a problem.”

Steve holds back the actual growl that wants to come at hearing such a tragic pile of tripe. “Did you ever stop to wonder why it’s always your natural biology that gets labeled as the ‘problem’, hm? Always something to be fixed, rather than something you’re entitled to? Something you deserve to have accommodated?”

Bucky blinks a few times in a row, mouth working. “Well … no. That’s just how it is.”

“Oh is it?”

“It is if you want to make it anywhere in life. Get into a good school, get a good job, work your way up at some company.” He blithely rattles off the examples, speaking like this is all pre-determined truth, and Steve is the only idiot who hasn’t been clued in. “People won’t hire you if you need all that time off of work and stuff. You’ve got to make yourself as good as a beta employee, at least. Otherwise nobody’ll hire you.”

Steve nods solemnly. “Yeah, well that’s where I take issue. I think omega rights—true omega rights—demand that society value omegas for what they naturally are. And that means allowing them the space and time they need for their cycles, not treating it as something inconvenient, not expecting people to use a bunch of drugs to try and force themselves into some, some …” He makes a frustrated gesture. “Some employable box.”

“Well yeah, I guess. But—”

“Omegas deserve to have their contributions as mothers and homemakers valued, too,” Steve asserts, then narrows his eyes at Bucky when the kid rolls his eyes. “You scoff, but the omegas who consistently rank highest in self-reported life satisfaction are those who choose to take on domestic roles. The only thing career omegas consistently rank highest on is level of  antidepressant usage. It’s a trend we’ve seen increasing ever since the seventies.”

“Right,” Bucky snaps. “Back in the good old days when we didn’t have any rights.”

“That’s not true,” Steve says sternly. “Omegas had all the same rights as other designations, it was culture that was different. There was a place carved out in society for them. Omegas’ natural affinities were valued. Those who did work were able to find jobs that fit their lifestyles and needs. Now, employers expect you to change yourself for the job, just like you said.” He shakes his head sadly. “One could make the argument that that’s equality, but it sure as hell ain’t fair. Betas and alphas have society shaped to fit their needs, and omegas simply have to try and force themselves into difficult spaces just to get by. I don’t think it’s right that the way we do things is geared towards what alphas and betas naturally need, and nothing that’s naturally omega is accommodated for anymore. Do you?”

Bucky doesn’t answer, but his posture slumps with uncertainty the more he considers what's being said.

Steve softens his tone to something more gentle. “That’s why I think the erasure of gender roles is unhealthy, Buck. Not because I’m a sexist who hates omegas and doesn’t want them to be able to do anything, but because I think you guys deserve so much better. So much more.” He watches Bucky’s face, the growing doubt in his features, and figures it’s time to stop with the proselytizing. He's given the kid something to think on. That's good enough for now. It is bedtime, after all. “Just think on it a bit,” he advises kindly. “You’ve had a lot of experiences, but there’s still a lot for you to learn. Try and do it with an open mind, okay? You might come to see one or two things a little differently.”

Bucky grumbles unhappily, but Steve can tell when his point is getting through. Most students start to come around to considering the school's curricular viewpoint by the one week mark. After a week of constant offers to have his needs fulfilled—and constant refusal of those offers—it’s pretty obvious that Bucky is nearing the turning point. Steve decides to end this little talk on a positive note. He gives him one final pat on his legs. “Okay, Hon. Time for bed.” He stands up and observes the way that Bucky seems to physically stall, unable to quickly process Steve’s sudden departure. 

“You’re leaving?” he blurts.

Steve offers him a gentle smile. “Would you like for me to scent anything? Maybe a blanket or a pillow?” Right now there’s only a sheet and a single, thin blanket on the bed. He thumbs backward at the room’s cabinet of nesting supplies. “The nurse said you’re mid-cycle. The urge to nest must be waxing rather than waning at this point, yeah?”

Bucky seems surprised by the offer, but after a moment he nods shyly. “Maybe an extra blanket wouldn’t be so bad.”

Steve turns and goes to grab a blanket out of the cabinet and scent it, taking Bucky’s compliance as a significant win. “Good girl,” he murmurs, and is doubly pleased when Bucky makes no snippy remark at the gendered praise. He doesn’t face Bucky as he scents the top edge of the blanket with his wrist and then his neck. He doesn’t want to push his luck and make the boy so embarrassed that he’ll revert back to his pattern of disrespectful misbehavior. It’s always a balancing act, with new students, but once you get the right combination of domination, kindness, and familiarity? That's when things begin to smooth out.

Bucky takes the blanket with a bashful, “Thank you,” when Steve hands it over, and Steve gives him a quiet rumble of praise for being polite.

“You’re welcome, Honey.” Bucky moves like he’ll get under the blankets, but Steve stops him with a hand on his shoulder. “Hang on a sec. You forgetting something?” Bucky blinks vacantly up at him, and Steve can’t help but chuckle. “We don’t sleep naked, do we?” 

Bucky looks back down at himself, like he’d forgotten he was naked in the first place. “Oh.”

Steve fetches him a pair of underwear from the room’s dresser. The students’ nighttime briefs aren’t dissimilar to what they wear under their uniforms during the day, but they consist of one piece rather than two, and the padding’s a bit more … thorough, meant to help deter wandering hands at night. Steve finds himself unable to look away as Bucky puts them on, sliding them up his legs with shaky fingers and whimpering near subvocally when his leaking prick gets covered up by the padding. His hands fist the bedsheets at either side of his hips, and for a second his face gets red and his eyes go unfocused.

Oh Jesus. Steve grinds his teeth at the display, unhappy to feel his own cock pulsing insistently against the seam of his slacks. Bucky’s tortured, straining efforts to not touch himself are near-pornographic to watch, making that warm, sexual urge swirl up harder in Steve’s belly than before. He shifts in place and flexes his hands as he tries to think of something to counter the pulsing in his dick—picturing his grandparents fucking is his usual failsafe, in times like this. He doesn’t want his scent to grow so strong that it affects Bucky right now. Not when they’re ending the night on such a positive note. 

The thought of Nana and Pawpaw doing the nasty does the trick, and Steve retreats to the doorway. He hums in approval as he watches Bucky climb into bed and get settled. He nests only the barest bit, almost tentatively, tucking the scented end of the blanket up alongside his pillow and draping the rest of it over his body. He curls up on his side and nuzzles his cheek against the pillow. Steve waits with his hand poised to flip the light switch. “You have everything you need?” he checks, giving Bucky one final chance to be honest about his needs.

But he simply tucks his face into the scented blanket and closes his eyes. “Uh huh.” His still-damp hair is stark against the white pillowcase, and Steve’s heart gives a fond twinge at the sight.

It does dry curly.

“Okay,” he says quietly. He flicks the lights off, knowing that by tomorrow morning, he’ll have a punishable offense to address with the boy. “Goodnight, Bucky.”

“… Night, Steve.”

Despite the excellent performance of composure that he’s managed to maintain with Bucky for the past few hours, all that time with the omega really has taken its toll. Steve is relieved to get back and shut himself away in the confines of his office. It feels like a sanctuary right now. It’s a deep mental and physical relaxation that hits him as soon as he sinks into his desk chair and inhales the professionally filtered, pheromone-free air of the room. 

“Ahh," he sighs, rubbing at his temples. "God save the queen. Fuck."

Compared to other alphas, he’s got excellent control of his reactions and is able to mask a great deal (an invaluable skill when one works with hordes of hormonally-peaking teenagers), but the end of the school day always provides a bit of relief—today more than most.

He opens his laptop and leaves it to boot up while he goes over over to pour himself a drink. He pulls out one of the cork-coated lowballs that he keeps in the freezer (because he prefers his drinks on the rocks, but whether he likes it or not Peggy’s had an influence on him these past twenty years, and he knows it’s blasphemy to add ice to a 30 year old Scotch). He eyeballs a finger of the liquor—okay, maybe closer to two fingers—and brings it back to his desk to sniff it and swirl it around. 

It’s a vintage that one of Peggy’s relatives gifted them years ago, worth quite a bit of money apparently, and it’s been Steve’s one petty protest amongst the many bigger ones of his soon-to-be ex-wife. He’s only begun making use of it since their divorce proceedings intensified over the summer, with Peggy’s obstinance against fair division of assets reaching damningly selfish levels. Steve never thought of her as someone who’d go for the nerves in a divorce just for the hell of it, and it’s upsetting to see that nastier side exposed. It feels like all his good memories are slowly being tainted by it, made ugly and ruined, like paint thrown over a fine portrait of the woman he’d once admired. Steve’s not a heavy drinker, but he’s nearly made his way through the entire bottle these past few weeks.

At his desk, he peruses current events on his newsfeed and a few academic articles of interest, being sure to sip steadily despite his leanings as a teetotaler. He wants to feel a bit of a buzz by the time he dares to brave his inbox. The little icon tells him that he’s got dozens of unread emails waiting in there. Not unusual for a weekday, but there’s one from Peggy that he purposefully puts off for last. And surprisingly, there’s one email each from the personal accounts of both Tony Stark and Harlan Thrombey.

He clicks on Stark’s first, expecting the email to contain more demands for the accommodations he wants for the upcoming parents’ weekend. Sure enough, Stark doesn’t disappoint, asking Steve to please arrange for a 2-minute slot for one Ms. Pepper Potts to speak during that coming Sunday’s evening ball. It’s during said ball when the school has its traditional slew of scheduled, “spontaneous” rounds of toasts over betrothal announcements. Steve’s happy to agree to a slot for Ms. Potts, just grateful that it won’t be Stark himself making the speech. Thank god for small favors. 

Stark also has a footnote jotted in, as though it’s a nothing, requesting a black Rolls Royce Phantom to pick them up afterwards to take them to their hotel in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In the distinct manner that Steve’s learned only multi-millionaires ever really have, Tony blithely throws out his specifications for the car’s interior temperature (73 degrees Fahrenheit, precisely), a fully-stocked bar, and a selection of snacks and juice boxes that sounds suspiciously catered to a certain omega's tastes.

Smirking and shaking his head, Steve spends a moment researching the costs of this additional, last-minute amenity. He tacks an extra two grand onto the price and shoots the email back with an inflated invoice that brings him no guilt. Academia is little better than a break-even industry, after all. And besides, Stark can afford it.

Normally, Steve would save any email of Peggy’s for last, but given his growing obsession with interest in Bucky’s case, he decides to save Thrombey’s email for last.

Peggy’s email is also very typical of what Steve’s come to expect from her: curt, concise, and infuriatingly presumptive.

📨Peggy: Asset Divisions Update

Steven, it reads, My solicitor will be in touch after this next weekend with an updated proposal for division of assets. I did not find your last offer acceptable. Mr. Jorgensen is out of the country on account of an emergency this week, which is the reason for the delay. I do apologize and hope you will understand. In the meantime, I look forward to enjoying a pleasant and uncompromised parents’ weekend with our two schools. I’ll be in touch soon, in regards to those preparations. Cordially, Peggy.

Steve sneers at the ‘cordially’. “More like cold as ice,” he grumbles, grabbing the glass of scotch to toss back the last few sips. Parents’ weekend is going to be hell, having to be in such constant proximity with her. 

Thrombey’s email is long and flowery, in the distinct manner that only novelists ever really have. He rambles on, bemoaning the state of his grandson for several long paragraphs before getting to the point. Finally, he lays out the issue, and it is a doozy:

📨Thrombey: Expedient Action Required

—has come to my attention that the boy has been engaging in a form of online prostitution. Something called only fans.”

Steve’s jaw drops as he feels the blood drain from his face. Oh no. Bucky wouldn’t … would he? Shit. He totally would. Steve’s eyes flick back to the email.

—can imagine my horror to find that for a monthly fee, subscribers have access to his nude photos. I hadn’t the stomach to look myself, but Ransom assures me it’s all him on the webpage. There are even videos, and Ransom says that James’ face is visible in some of the footage. His face! This is outrageous! 

“You’re telling me,” Steve mutters. 

Thankfully, the Academy’s structure seems to have put an end to his production. There’s been no new footage uploaded since the week before his enrollment. My lawyers are working on having the account erased, and I can only pray that nothing comes to light publicly before then.  Now more than ever, an intervention is required for my grandson. His eligibility for a good marriage will be out the window if word of this pornography spreads, his prospects ruined. I want you to put your full efforts into seeing him matched up with a suitable Alpha as soon as possible. I don’t care who it is, what nationality they are, if it’s a triad, if there’s no notable family name—nothing. All that matters is that you find him a decent mate with no record of mistreatment. Do be thorough in your searching, but do not drag your feet! I’m sure I needn’t explain how damaging this will be to my family, if word gets out.  I am counting on you to take expedient action, H. Thrombey

At the bottom of the email is a link. It’s to an OnlyFans page. Steve’s heart rate picks up and he hesitates for a long moment, knowing that he shouldn’t look. Harlan’s lawyers are handling it. 

But his morbid curiosity wins out, and he clicks on the link. It leads directly to Bucky’s personal page, and Steve experiences a very unpleasant combination of sensations: his dick filling with blood at the same time that his stomach turns from seeing the images that are on the page’s banners. It’s Bucky’s body, that’s for sure, with his face cleverly turned away or artfully clipped from the shots. Below the title page and summary are links to “Exclusive new hot videos!” with 3 second thumbnails of Bucky’s ass moving, his back arching, his hand moving over his—

Steve looks away from the computer screen, furious and aroused and mortified. “Goddammit, Bucky,” he hisses, angry that the kid has done something so inherently damaging—not just to his reputation like Harlan is thinking, but to himself, to his soul. Steve’s stomach churns something awful at knowing that this stuff is available for any creep with a credit card to purchase … and at his own reaction to even the barest glimpses of it. He peeks up again, this time reading the titles of the videos: 

“Hot O-on-O action!”

“Omega dominates Alpha Slut”

“Horny Teen Twink in Heat”

His jaw ticks angrily. What fucking awful, typical titles. He looks down at his cock, which is visibly pressing against the seam of his slacks. “Fuck,” he groans. He can’t jerk off to porn of Bucky. He can’t. It’d be beyond unethical. Even if the kid was his mate, Steve would still feel the moral obligation to—

Oh. Well there’s an idea. 

His brain stalls on the thought of him as Bucky’s mate, his Alpha, in charge of him and giving him what he needs … and taking what he wants. Mortifyingly, a growl builds up in his chest as he glances once more at the thumbnails of Bucky doing lurid things. The kid’s got such tight, smooth skin; such a perfect, pretty shape. Steve’s mind slips into editorial mode, imagining what it would be like if Bucky was his, the omega’s ass moving under his hips, his back arching in his bed, his quivering hands smacked away from his cocklet while Steve rails him from behi—

Jesus fucking Christ. Stop!

His hand is halfway to his pocket when he realizes that he’s reaching for his wallet, contemplating buying a subscription just so that he can see. Disgust floods his chest, extinguishing the growl, and he snaps out of it. He pushes away from the desk and stomps over to grab the bottle of Scotch and bring it back, dumping himself back in his desk chair and heedlessly pouring another fill. 

And so what? he thinks. Who cares if he finishes the whole fucking bottle? He might as fucking well. His wife, the woman who agreed to be his life partner, who placated him with endless promises of “one day” and then went ice cold and bitter and reneged on everything she’d ever claimed to want with him, is putting him through the wringer just for shits and giggles. And now come to find out, his newest pupil, a boy for whom he’s got way too much personal interest, is selling himself on the internet—For $9.99 a month?!!! The videos seem to cost extra on a pay-per-view basis, but even still, what the ever-loving fuck?!

Steve’s whole body stiffens as something else occurs to him: Harlan’s email said that Bucky’s face is visible in the videos. Bucky’s stepfather reported that to Harlan. Which means he's seen the videos. Which means … 

Steve’s jaw ticks as he glances back to the computer screen, to Bucky’s homepage and the free lurid teaser photos that don’t show his face. “Are you fucking kidding me?” he hisses, angry. That Drysdale guy had been a prick during the tour of the campus, and now Steve knows what a fucking pervert he is, too. Because the only way he could know that Bucky’s face is shown is if he bought the subscription and paid extra for the videos.

Steve closes out the browser window, not wanting to see any more of it. The warring disgust and temptation to be one of those creeps who pays money to view omegas degrade themselves is just too much. He yanks his wallet out of his back pocket and chucks it angrily at the couch, missing by a country mile. He takes a gulp of the Scotch, exhaling harshly at the burn as it goes down. “Fuck.”

Pornography for omegas carries a heavy social stigma—far beyond what any beta or alpha porn star would ever face, and deeper in the nature of its contempt and consequence. Omegas who do porn make big bucks, because they’re making an even bigger trade-off. Engaging in any sort of sex work virtually erases an omega's chance of mating. It hadn’t merely been upper crust snobbery in Harlan’s email, but common sense as well. People from all walks of life treat omega sex workers as an untouchable caste, damaged goods, not worthy of real relationships. 

It’s one of the few holdovers from the old days, even though porn isn’t what it once was. It’s easier to make than ever. Amateur is in. Omegas who would’ve once been exploited by large production companies now work from home, in control of their own content creation. More and more of them are choosing get rich quick schemes over mating, turning to platforms like OnlyFans and giving away their most sacred gifts to any scum bucket with a credit card. Ruining their lives. 

Steve loosens his tie and takes another gulp of liquor before setting the glass down heavily. His hands go resolutely back to his laptop with what he knows he has to do. It sickens him that he even has to do it in the first place. He considers himself a man of morals, a man who lives by his word. But in this one thing, he’s let himself become a hypocrite. He navigates to his internet bookmarks and opens the subfolder marked “Meditations.” It’s his porn stash. Favorite videos he’s saved for lonely nights. Nothing too wild, but virtually all of it involves omegas. Watching A/o porn has been his guilty pleasure for … a while.

He used to avoid it on principle, but these past few years have been different, his desires harder to ignore, the urge to bond, mate, and breed pooling in the back of his brain and the pit of his belly, winding him tight with a tension that he doesn’t like. At first, he’d just chalked it up to being a horny bastard, but that wasn’t it. The unrelenting tension came with a hollow, forlorn ache that refused to go away. Even after a good jerk off session imagining himself in one of those videos, it never went away for long. It’d taken Steve a long time to figure out what that ache really was. For the first time in his life, he felt unfulfilled. 

He only hesitates a second before right clicking on the folder and pressing delete, a grim sense of rightness settling over him at the action. He should’ve done it long ago. He shouldn’t have compromised his values in the first place. Of course he’d made all sorts of excuses for it: the porn was amateur, it was self-made, the omegas were getting off and enjoying themselves, he wasn’t paying for it, maybe the Alphas in the videos were actually their mates.

And then of course, the lamest excuse of all: that he deserved to watch it, because his erstwhile wife was ruining everything. 

He closes out the browser window and frowns at his reflection on the screen. “Lame,” he mutters. He opens Harlan’s email back up and begins drafting a response, assuring the man that he has nothing to worry about, that Steve will find Bucky a suitable match in no time.

He uses one of the school’s proprietary databases that tracks eligible bachelors, typing in search parameters for sex and nationality (any), net worth (≥ €2,000,000) and age (25-45). Alphas live longer than other designations, so he isn’t worried about being too picky on the age range. Just so long as it isn’t some young sap who doesn’t know what the hell they’re doing. Bucky needs a firm hand and lots of attention. He needs an Alpha who can handle him with gentle dominance, who’ll know when to be indulgent and when to put their foot down.

Steve can’t say why he picks €2m to be the cutoff point for a prospective Alpha’s net worth. Maybe he likes the idea of Bucky being given an easy, comfortable life. And if he sets the search results to list from lowest to highest net worth, well … maybe it’s because he doesn’t like the idea of Bucky being smothered by ludicrous levels of wealth (like Parker’s undoubtedly about to be). 

The list of possibilities starts with a landowner in rural Scotland, and ends with an Israeli shipping magnate based out of Cairo. Steve scrolls through the profiles, dismissing anyone he deems unworthy of being Bucky’s mate. Too ugly, too ugly, too fat, too old, too many divorces, too ugly, too ugly. Nobody seems good enough. Steve finds flaws in every profile he sees. And underneath it all, the thought remains: he could be Bucky’s mate.

He shakes his head like he can rattle the idea loose, thinking: don’t be stupid, Rogers. He’s the headmaster here. Taking a student as a mate would be a violation of his professional duties. Not illegal, hell, not even technically against the rules, but certainly embarrassing, perhaps bordering on … unseemly. Parents entrust him with their omega sons to train them up and secure good matches for them, not to mate them himself. 

… But Harlan’s email had specifically said that nothing else mattered. Not race, nor gender, nor pedigree. ‘All that matters is that you find him a decent mate with no record of mistreatment’.

All Steve can think about is how that could be him. He could be Bucky’s Alpha. He could take care of him, provide for him, have a family with him. Pieces of an imaginary life layer up in his mind like paper mâché, one on top of the other, slowly congealing into a picture that makes the yearning in his gut that much worse. He imagines Bucky as his omega, living in the Pendergast Street cottage together, a scar on Bucky’s neck; holing up in the house’s nesting closet with him each month, fucking him through his heats, getting him pregnant, watching him give birth and nurse their baby inside a bundle of blankets that have Steve’s scent on them.

He’s always wanted kids. Peggy had, too, or so she said. They’d talked about it infrequently, but they had talked about it. How one day they’d mate an omega and live a blissful family life, have a traditional triad marriage. But that was the problem: they’d only ever talked about it. And on the rare occasion when they had, Steve was always the one to bring the topic up. He hadn’t realized that, hadn’t realized how often Peggy’s only input wound up being an obfuscating ‘one day’. 

The day when she finally nutted up and said that she’d changed her mind, that she didn’t want an omega mate in their marriage, didn’t want babies, was the day Steve finally uttered the word that’d been sitting on the back of his tongue for months: “Divorce.”

He still wants to have that intimacy with an omega: bonding them, sharing their heats, getting them pregnant and watching them grow, seeing his child in their arms. He thinks of Bucky in that role, imagines how the boy would take to it, what their first time would be like, if he’d instinctually know to go ass up in the bed or if he’d need to fight it a little, have his alpha toss him around and hold him down before he could accept a knot. If he’d get quiet right before coming, or shriek and thrash and dissolve into agonized tears.

“Fuck,” Steve groans, letting his hand slide over the top of his thigh and into the crease of his groin. He palms himself there, gripping his dick and giving a few short tugs from over the material of his slacks. He looks down and stares at the hard line his boner makes, imagining Bucky being here and seeing it, putting his hand there, how much smaller it’d be than Steve’s, how much less experienced. God, Steve wants to guide him through that, teach him how to touch a man, watch the nervousness and arousal play out on his face as he learns how to please an alpha for the first time. 

“Fuck, Honey,” he breathes, thinking about the little noises Bucky would make, the little protests and growls, and the slick that would drip down his thighs and betray him. Steve wonders how the kid touches himself, thinks back to that first day in his office, when he’d asked him how he liked to make himself come. Bucky hadn’t gotten around to answering before he’d lost control of his body, wetting up his underwear in submissive release and going a fascinated shade of red once Steve cooed at him over it. 

He’s never had a student release like that before. Not that easily. And he’s just so fucking pretty, even his anger is pretty. Steve grits his teeth at how he can feel his self restraint slipping. He thinks of Harlen’s email: find him a mate, anyone will do. Well if anyone will do, then why the fuck shouldn’t he put himself in the running?

Bucky is low hanging fruit, so fucking ripe for the picking, and Steve just knows he could get him to bend so beautifully with only a little bit of tender care. He could have him happy and content in no time, releasing at the barest show of dominance, just like before. He can still hear that warbling, humiliated whimper that came right after Bucky wet for him, the way his big, confused eyes had looked to Steve for help … 

“Goddammit.” He hastily undoes his belt and fly. He shoves his pants and underwear down to free his dick, wrapping a hand around himself and squeezing tightly at the base. His knot is already dark and aching, halfway to being erect after less than a minute of touching himself. He wrings his fist up under the head, forcing the skin over the tip and jacking off with it, guts coiling tighter at the tiny, wet sounds it makes. “Shit, shit, shit.”

He takes his hand off, not wanting to come too fast. He slumps back in the desk chair for a moment, panting, and remembers two things at almost the exact same second: He needs to check the surveillance in Bucky’s room, and he’s got a pocket masturbator in his desk drawer. Well, fuck.

He all but lunges for the drawer, yanking it open and cursing when he sees it. He grabs the toy and holds it to the tip of his cock, moving his hips to push the head through in tiny, teasing little pulses. Oh god, it feels amazing. He pulls it off and reaches for his laptop, opening the school’s surveillance mainframe and navigating to the dormitory views. He clicks on the camera for Bucky’s bedroom and toggles the night vision to on. At first it doesn’t look like much is happening, but then he catches the slight movement of Bucky’s body beneath the blanket … and he moans all over again.

“You little fuck,” he breathes, grabbing the masturbator to slide it all the way over his dick. “Ughn.”

Bucky’s touching himself from underneath the blankets. He’s lying in the same position that Steve left him in, only now his eyes are clenched shut tight and he’s panting open-mouthed into the pillow, his one shoulder angled in such a way as to suggest that he’s got his hand reached behind him. His arm moves in tiny, barely-there pulses. Steve realizes that, unless Bucky’s got the longest fingers known to mankind, he’s using a toy on himself back there. 

“Nnh.” He squeezes the silicon sleeve over his cock, dragging it up and down in time with the motions of Bucky’s shoulder, imagining that it’s Bucky he’s feeling around his cock, imagining that Bucky’s feeling him.  “Naughty boy,” he grunts through a grin. He knew Bucky would be jerking off once left alone, but this is even better. Steve regrets not watching the feed from the moment he left, as he’d love to know just what the toy looks like, and where Bucky was hiding it. Somewhere in his luggage, obviously. New students are always searched when they arrive, but clearly the boy managed to get something past bag check. Steve almost feels admiration for the sneaky little shit. 

He pushes the unmute button and listens to the audio. At first it’s just the quiet rustling of fabric on fabric, the stirring of Bucky’s body against the sheets as he pleasures himself, but then a tiny, breathy moan breaks through, and then another. Steve’s hips flex into his stroking hand. “Oh, Honey.”

Bucky’s face is pinched and he’s biting his lip—probably trying to keep quiet. The notion makes Steve smirk. Omegas are very vocal in their sexual pleasure, prone to keening and squealing and making all sorts of warbling, debased noises when they’re feeling good. It must be the most exquisite torture for Bucky to try and stay silent like this as he fucks himself on whatever toy he’s managed to sneak in. Steve watches it with a tightening belly and aching balls, twisting the rubber sleeve over himself again and again, bumping down hard against his knot on every stroke. “Fffuck.”

In the frame, Bucky’s voice catches on a single, high pitched noise as he comes, his body going rigid under the sheets and his hips pulsing harder than before. He whimpers and turns his face further into the pillow to muffle it, but Steve is already right there too, jerking himself hard and fast with the sleeve until he shouts and starts to shoot. His knot blows inside of the rubber, which isn’t as good as the real thing, but still feels fucking amazing. He keeps his dick fully buried and squeezes the toy hard over his knot, milking himself until his hand cramps and he lets go. The toy pops off his cock and falls to the floor, and Steve goes boneless in his chair as he shivers through the long wave of his orgasm. 

When it’s finally over and he looks back at the computer screen, it’s to see Bucky carefully rearranging himself under the blankets. Whatever it was that he’d used to fuck himself, he seems to be keeping it hidden between the mattress and the room’s wall. Steve plays idly with his knot while he waits for it to go down, deciding that the kid gloves need to come off now. It’s time Bucky learned just what it means to be taken in hand by an Alpha. And with the development of the online porn and Harlan’s request, there’s no longer need or time to play things slow and easy.

Tomorrow, Steve’ll finally do what he should’ve done from the get-go, what he’s been wanting to do ever since Bucky trounced into his office with a bad attitude and false bravado. From here on out, he’s going to take proper care of that boy. Starting tomorrow, he’s going to handle Bucky’s education himself. And if things progress from there? Well, Harlan said anyone will do.

Story Masterlist

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[fizzyginfizz]

what do you think of hermione and ginny’s friendship

Ooooh. At which point in the series? So many places for peaks and valleys in that relationship.

I tend to imagine Hermione and Ginny as character foils. Introvert vs. extrovert. Detail-oriented planner vs. impulsive seat-of-the-pantser. Canonically bossy know-it-all vs. youngest child who doesn't like to be bossed around. They have few interests in common - save for Ron and Harry - and some of their default behaviors track with a specific pet peeve of the other.

Does that mean it's an impossible friendship? Not necessarily… but I don't believe a friendship between these two is going to be bump-free.

I'm currently writing from a Ginny POV and a recurring issue I see is Hermione doesn't openly advocate for the inclusion of Ginny. To be fair to Hermione, she's in the awful position of being the person in the middle if Ginny wants to be included and Ron wants a social life separate from his sister. At best she stays neutral, but when it has to go one way or the other, Ginny's wants (and company) are sacrificed in favor of Harry or Ron's. Ginny's going to have different reactions to this at different points in time.

But beside that, I think the true quality of a potential Hermione-Ginny friendship is going to be based on their willingness to adapt certain triggering behaviors and be empathetic and vulnerable with each other. Can either listen as well as they talk? ***

I'm writing during the PoA timeline at the moment and neither is particularly comfortable being open and vulnerable - so I find delicious opportunity to play with that in scene-work. I'm not the sort of writer who is here to judge the kind of friendship they have… I'm here to stick them in a room together with their different motivations, characterizations, wants and strategies and see how it knocks out each time.

*** a gorgeous example of these two getting it right is in The In Betweens, during the HBP timeline. @honeydukesheroine writes a beautiful Hermione-Ginny friendship that doesn't sugarcoat their teenage character flaws, patterns and quirks.

[bayesiandragon]

So more of a casual nitpick, but in general it's obviously a given that SJ wasn't a pleasant person to his fellow peak lords, though the degree of unpleasantness on the scale of generally unfriendly/cold to outright awful and cruel is rather up in the air. Purely personally, I feel that the shock the peak lords express when SY greets them the first time with open friendliness doesn't necessitate an interpretation of being on the far right of that scale - honestly, SJ greeting anyone at all could have been dumbfounding, much less in an openly warm manner. Embrace the range of possibility! Just speaking from experience as a formerly highly anxious and deeply quiet teenager who, after years of quietude, one day decided to start trying to talk to people, and upon greeting my classmates after Christmas break was similarly met with literal open-mouthed shock and weeks of incredulity and consternation. The simple sudden deviation from a well entrenched years-long norm was enough to elicit that, no horrible behavior required.

[celebrities-fanbases]

One Direction

As one of the largest bands in the late 2000’s, One Direction is absolutely no stranger to obsessive fan behavior. With millions of fans constantly watching their every move, the members, Niall, Zayn, Harry, Liam, and Louis, were always cautious about how they presented themselves to the world. Crazed young girls – including myself at one point – absolutely adored the group of teenage artists as they provided a lively sense of youth and fun. As the artists peaked following their uprising, inevitable cons came along. The members of the band often expressed their mental health struggles which were caused by having a lack of freedom and personal space. 

The five mates faced much of their newfound fame in constant spotlight. Having no access to the outside world without swarms of fans surrounding them from every direction, the isolation heavily impacted their mental health. In an interview, Niall expressed, "You can't get inside the brain of a fan, and now I completely get it, but at the time, you're like, 'You're our age. Just let us out.'” The members not only had their boundaries crossed way over the line, but almost never even got the right of privacy due to constantly being around each other.

It's always important to remember that if someone speaks up about needing boundaries that we respect them. Although celebrities may seem like they are superior to us and we have to be near them at any possible chance, they are still just ordinary people with thoughts and feelings. I attached a video below which shows how many fans gathered outside one of their hotels while they were visiting. The mates come outside to greet everyone, looking clearly exhausted but still grateful. Even though it may seem like people are just there to support – which the band has expressed its gratitude for numerous times – it puts their safety at risk. It’s not only invasive to find out where they were staying and try to go there to get their attention, but it’s also disrespectful as it takes away from their time to rest and have privacy.

Not only has it been a past issue while the band was still together, it is still a current issue for the members. As we’ve all heard, Liam Payne unfortunately passed away from a tragic accident following his drug abuse. Fans all around the world have grieved this loss for weeks, as he was among the band which created the music we grew up with. As any ordinary person who has experienced such great loss, we expect privacy, sensitivity, and consideration for the loved ones. Many fans showed the beauty of the community by gathering for Payne and holding vigils to honor his legacy. They respected the public grieving of his father and allowed him to find comfort in his loss. However, many people also saw this as an opportunity for exploitation. Paparazzi used the tragedy as an opportunity to gain attention, as well as crazed “fans” who visited the site of Payne’s death just to see his father. A specific controversial incident happened when TMZ took an image of Payne’s lifeless body and published a portion of it just to prove they had it. Is that not the most disrespectful thing you have ever heard of? So many fans have felt such love for an individual who raised us with his art, just to be exploited by paparazzi not only during, but also after his life. The image has since been deleted, but insensitive fans often try to look for it just to see him at his worst. It’s truly upsetting that even in death one cannot escape invasiveness simply due to fame. Some fans have also claimed to want to visit Payne’s funeral simply to have an opportunity to meet the other former bandmates. Please don’t, as it is so insensitive! May Liam rest in peace, a true icon of our childhoods.

We all have people we look up to, but it’s important to know where they draw the line at their own comfort. One Direction changed the course of music with the bandmates' insane power over teen girls in the 2000’s. It’s not unexpected that they would have millions of obsessed fans with their youthful and attractive energy, but it is still upsetting to know that some of those fans would do anything to have access to them no matter how inconsiderate it is. As a “Directioner” myself, I urge everyone to have empathy for what they are currently going through and give all of them space, and always remember healthy boundaries!

[indelen]

The plot kicks off in earnest and the midnight hour is close at hand, it's time for honey cake (medovyk) and tea.

This is my reread of the Lockwood and Co. Books, organized by @blue-boxes-magic-and-tea, I'll make a general summary of several chapters and then post bits and pieces that jumped out at me.

Part III, Chapters 9-12:

Things continue to go pear shaped. I find it interesting how Stroud manages to thread the needle of reader sympathy towards the protagonists. The writing makes it clear that they did mess up and the house fire was avoidable. And this is not all on one person - Lockwood could have pulled rank and insist they leave but didn’t, Lucy had the chance to leave after the first manifestation but didn’t. Lockwood forgot the chains. Lucy lobbed Greek Fire indoors. All of this is bad. And when you meet Barnes you sort of agree with him to a point about them being irresponsible, but he’s so high handed and dismissive of the trio you can’t help but be on their side. The government keeps telling these kids they should listen to the government, because the government is full of adults that know so much better than they do. But if this was really the case the government would not allow children to do this dangerous work at all. You can't have it both ways! Either these kids know nothing and adults really are smarter, in which case let them go study trigonometry and pass notes in class already and, as smart adults, find some different way to battle The Problem that doesn’t involve high mortality child labor. OR. Let the kids do their job and admit you’re not operating within some perfect and fair system where the presence of an adult magically fixes everything or makes anyone safer. We meet so many adults in this universe and the majority of them are awful and take horrific advantage of children to enrich themselves on The Problem. None of them are sufficiently controlled in this universe because it is not in the government’s interest to do so. The kids sense this and revolt, if they are to die they want to die on their own terms! This is what happens when governments fail the people they are supposed to protect and when the desire to make money trumps acting in the interests of the public good.

Odds and Ends, Side A:

10/10 chapter opening. On par with “the building was on fire and it wasn’t my fault”. Reader attention fully captured.

Lucy “no I totally don’t care how I look, I swear” Carlyle maintaining if she ever came back as a ghost she’d be a hot cool ghost thankyou very much is so funny to me, just peak teenager insecurity and vanity but in a very endearing way.

There’s the thing about George – he can learn. Not just from books but in real life he can take criticism to heart if it’s laid out plainly. Even if it’s mean. This is probably his most amazing attribute. He dislikes hypocrisy and doesn’t have time for any kind of jabs or hints that are difficult to interpret. But someone lobs a criticism straight at him, he won’t dismiss it outright. In so many ways he is the most emotionally mature of the trio.

I’ve been thinking a lot in this reread about why George was so hostile to Lucy from the start and I think it comes down to the fact that he saw Lucy as someone who would make Lockwood more reckless. She is a gifted Listener, George knew Lockwood enough to realize this will make him more likely to rush off into the fray without research and Lucy being not especially academically minded would not stop him. I think he was worried that they would feed negatively off each other and outvote him. Which … they did at first, it’s true, George was completely right. Lucy goes along with whatever Lockwood says because she trusts him, because she admires him, because she doesn’t want him to think less of her. This behavior continues later too - she snarks at him plenty, calls him names, makes fun of him, sure. But ultimately she has a hard time saying “no” to him. And finding that balance of how much to go along with Lockwood’s plans and when to contradict him is I think a huge part of her arc in this series.

This pantomime of Victorian gentility is hilarious. The year is (arguably) 2013 and yet this sounds like a scene from Agatha Christie. Barnes knows Lockwood is home, Lockwood knows Barns knows he’s home but this presenting of a visiting card and “show him in” ritual has to be observed because this whole society hasn’t moved on from 1953 in six decades.

I am not the right person to give a post-colonial literary analysis of the Lockwood books but I would be the first to want to read it. There’s a lot there in terms of portrayal of indigenous beliefs, what colonial powers learn and refuse to learn from them and how they appropriate them. Barnes sees a collection of artefacts from all over the world meant to deal with ghosts and immediately dismisses them, seeing only the methods he’s familiar with as correct. He does not stop to appreciate the fact that the idea of contacting the dead and laying them to rest is an issue that in some way or another humanity has been dealing with for millennia and all around him is evidence of the fact that not one of these cultures resorted to shoving their young to act as meat shields to do it. The variety of the artifacts speaks to the idea that there may be different approaches possible, different avenues to explore. On what basis but good old-fashioned racism is this dismissal of a ghost catcher in a universe where ghosts are real and do real harm to real people? Does a country dealing with such a crisis not owe it to its citizens to investigate every possibility instead of just consigning a large proportion of their children to a very high possibility of death and telling them that they can’t even do it on their terms, no, the government and large corporations must manage how they die!

And the idea of “it belongs in a museum” is especially laughable in this context. Presumably he means a British museum despite the fact that all these artifacts are foreign. There’s something so on the nose about a very British man dismissing knowledge from other cultures as useless and indicating he views those cultures themselves as extinct when he himself lives on the bones of a long dead empire enforces the practicing the most barbaric shit imaginable.

There is also something so very sad about Lockwood’s encyclopedic knowledge of every gord and mask in the house. Like he never to a chance to know his parents to he memorized everything about their research to get as close to them as possible.

George is the most verbally brutal of the trio and I love that for him

Here again is that Lockwood duality. We later learn sleeps in his parent’s old room - the ultimate symbol of his attempts to play the adult. Like the suits, like running his own agency, like his many successful and unsuccessful attempts to mimic adult behavior. How successful he is really is … not certain. Lucy is not a reliable narrator and even she is clearly unconvinced sometimes, but he clearly can pull it off to some extent. But every now and then we get a glimpse into the fact that he also, in a very sad and stubborn way, clings to a childhood that was horrifically and unfairly ripped from him. The baby mobile in his seemingly adult bedroom is a neat encapsulation of Lockwood himself.

This man is incapable of staying angry at his beloved for more than like … 15 mins tops.

Please turn the cassette over to side B (see reblog for more)

[pineapplerightsideupcake]

Is it true your profile picture is a pineapple because you eat lots of pineapple in a fruitless attempt to get someone to finally go down on you?

You know that’s a debunked myth right? 40% of you people have never gone down on anyone. Which is probably why you are in my asks talking like a teenage virgin.

You also know sexually harassing a stranger will always reflect more poorly on you than on me right? Like people are going to see that rather than combat ideas, gendies sexually harass and threaten women who speak out.

More than a few radfems I know got peaked by behavior just like yours.

[quotablefanfiction]

“Yes, I am very sure the Peak lord of Qing Jing, does not have any succubus blood in his lineage.” Binghe bites out for the fifth time. “…but are you sure about that?” The Elder Dream Demon asks. To be fair, Binghe is half heavenly demon and he’s on Qing Jing Peak, but still, he’s pretty sure Shizun is human…at least, mostly sure?

Meng Mo really thinks the succubus Shen Qingqiu theory is the most likely (chp. 3)

He Was Made For Untidy Rooms and Rumpled Beds by Bluethursday (AO3) The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System – Explicit – Luò Bīnghé/Shěn Yuán #Alternate Universe #Canon Divergence #Hurt/Comfort #Obsessive Behavior #Possessive Behavior #Oblivious Character #Shen Qingqiu is just trying to relax over here… #it’s not his fault he’s pretty #his milkshake is bringing all the boys to the yard #Victorian Era seduction #necks are sexy #Historically inaccurate clothing #Teenage Binghe is thirsty #Masturbation #endgame Bingqiu #Adult Binghe is still thirsty #Explicit sex scenes #Sex toys

Shen Qingqiu kind of, sort of, does not have the same modesty standards as a xianxia novel set in some form of Ancient China? He also hates the heat, who knew right?

[genericpuff]

I’m curious about some of your recent criticism of RS’s past making medical fetish art… in one post you mentioned there being a connection/continuation between her past art and the “problematic” parts of LO and cited DDLG and medical fetishism more specifically.

Can you say more about what makes those two things problematic? The obsession with Lolita and sexualizing actual minors is one thing, but kink isn’t inherently problematic IMO.

And, just to be clear, I appreciate your critiques of her art/the sloppy way that WT is shoving LO down our collective throats even though it’s way past its peak… I’m just more curious about how her past fetish art fits into your critiques of her as an artist.

I mean, that kind of enters "separate the art from the artist" territory which I don't feel you can actually do when the artist is inherently problematic and is sowing those problems into their art. But that's a separate topic.

Kink being a factor in her work is not an issue, and frankly, I didn't bring up any of the medical fetish art as to say it's an issue as a whole, more so to point out how this has pretty much always been Rachel's M.O. and it makes it make WAY more sense as to why LO is written the way it is knowing that (and more so just pointing out how weird it is that she apparently wants to ditch her life pre-LO but still keeps the usedbandaid name).

But I think it becomes far more of an issue when we all know her work is affiliated with Webtoons, a platform that predominantly markets to children as young as 11 years old.

Like, The Doctor Pepper Show was kinky as all hell, and it didn't try to hide that, it said right in its description that it was a medical fetish comic and it made it clear it was meant for people who were 18+. LO, meanwhile, is constantly trying to play this game of tug of war between its ideas and what it's trying to accomplish and who it's meant for. On the one hand, it's meant for teenagers who can identify themselves through Persephone's struggles as a teenage girl coming of age; on the other hand, it's meant for horny adult women who can insert themselves into Persephone's relationship with Hades and fantasize about getting swept away by a rich man who will solve all their problems, which isn't exactly something you want to be advertising/normalizing to the former demographic. It's trying to be both a serious deconstruction of misogyny and purity culture but it's also flippantly reinforcing misogyny and purity culture through the fetishization of Persephone as an "eternally 19" character who settles down with practically the first guy who pays attention to her.

When it comes to kink, I think it's more an issue of Rachel dangerously toeing the line between kink and predatory. There's nothing wrong with being into BDSM or the gothic lolita aesthetic, but there are people who use those labels as a way to normalize more abusive ideals and behavior (like what abusive men try to accomplish by infiltrating the BDSM community and claiming their abuse is healthy and fun, or when pedophiles try to infiltrate the gothic lolita community with the intent of fetishizing children).

Rachel being a fetish artist isn't the issue and that was never the point I was trying to make. The point is understanding Rachel's roots pre-LO and how they influence LO in ways that aren't necessarily good for the comic, its narrative, or the audience it's selling itself to. If LO were an 18+ series on a platform that marketed it as such and was unapologetically sexual/kinky the same way The Doctor Pepper Show was, then I don't think there would be quite as much of an issue (though it would still be held accountable if it did do anything morally questionable like what I mentioned above). But it's constantly being marketed to children and young teens, and it's being used as a self-insert power fantasy by Rachel to boot, rather than operating as an actual story with anything meaningful to say.

To use an example outside of LO, at least mongie had the nerve to step away from the WT's platform when she realized it wasn't going to suit the work she wanted to put out. She wanted Let's Play to be far more sexual than what they were allowing her to do, so she left. And while I don't like Let's Play all that much either, it has PLENTY of its own issues that almost seem to be adopted straight from LO, I can still respect her stepping away from the platform when she realized it wasn't going to be a good fit for what she wanted to pursue.

And no, none of that's to say that Rachel should leave WT or that she's in the same situation as mongie lmao but the identity crisis is evident in how LO is written, it feels very much like it can't decide what it truly wants to be.

That's all my two cents though, take it for what you may. That post about her medical fetish art wasn't meant to be like "LOOK AT HOW GROSS SHE IS, EWWW!" it was literally meant to just point out that she's still using a username from her medical fetish backstory for some reason despite the fact that she's tried REALLY hard to act like she never did any projects pre-LO. Shit, there are comics she's done pre-LO that weren't even fetish/kink comics, such as Castle Castle:

That's why I'm also not sharing much further and leaving it up to others to do their own digging, I don't think there's much to gain from sharing her kink art from 2004 unless it's somehow directly tied to her identity now in some way (like the madame issue drawing showing off the bandaids and self-insert aspects). A lot of that stuff is in the past. It's just odd that she's trying to leave much of it in the past but still couldn't let go of that one username that's still affiliated with it. I also think it's frankly ridiculous that she's trying to erase practically everything pre-LO, not just the stuff that she might cringe over or might be too sexual for her modern audience, but also the stuff like Castle Castle that she really should share, IMO! Because it's neat and it shows that she didn't just come from nothing, she made so much art pre-LO that ought to be shared and seen and preserved, but it seems like she's too focused on selling the whole "one hit wonder" image these days that she never bothers to mention the work that I'm sure even her own fans would love to see.

As a final note to wrap up this long response, it's wild that it's often only the critical community sharing these old art pieces, because a lot of the time, barring questioning of her values and ideals that are present in some of her old pieces, most people really like them and have lots of good things to say about them. I think the ultimate takeaway is how sad it is that she's fallen this low in terms of quality and effort. I think she is capable of making beautiful art, but somewhere along the way, she either stopped caring or lost the drive and that really sucks to see.

[e-steamedtea]

Mild spoilers for the manga up to this point and I'm too lazy to deeply proof read.

Ciel Phantomhive is all I can think about so here's my thoughts

He's 13. He's a 13 year old kid surrounded by death and dispare. It honestly haunts me how young he is. Like I have siblings that age so when people go on about how anyone he is, what would you expect? This a kid that's pretending to be an adult. He lost his family at 10; he kidnapped, violated, and enslaved at 10; he watched his brother die in front of him at 10; and all people can say is that he's annoying. He's traumatized and a teenager. I'm surprised he's still going.

I cannot stop thinking about how lonely he must be. He's right hand is a demon. His servants are all people who have lost something or had nothing. No one there is capable of having normal conversations or social behavior (besides maybe Tanaka). I don't think he could ever just be 13 and it's kinda upsetting.

Everytime I read about someone close to him dying and the way he just moves on? I know he sad but dang does it hit hard. He doesn't know how to grieve and probably no one will ever teach him how.

He's really alone. Everyone tries, but no one is ever allowed close enough. I think he does it out a fear or as a defense mechanism. It's so much harder to feel loss if there's no one close in the first place. Thinking about Agni and Soma and how it ended and how he was like "This is why I told you not to get involved with me". So he knows he's bad news. Then there's the fact he's pretending to be his twin.

So he surrounded by people who love him because they think he's someone else. He also knows he's the "spare." Which fueled his decision.

He also definitely has self depreciating tendencies as show in the manga. When he has his break downs, we get a peak of just how terrible his mental state is. Sebastian doesn't help either so this man is really going in no actual support system.

His life is on a counter. Once the contract he has with Sebastian is fulfilled, that's it. Even if somehow he doesn't die, what would that do for him? Does he even have a will to live outside this? No matter what happens there will be no real happy ending for our Ciel Phantomhive. His story will always be a tragedy.

[danmeiconfession]

(Just a thought about the fandon's relationship with grooming, idk if it accounts for Tw but better safe than sorry)

Sometimes, it amazes me the amount of grooming that is portraited in Svsss fanfics, or MXTX in general. I will focus more on svss as is the one I've been reading fanfics the most recently.

Sometimes, is as if the writers themselves do not acknowledge it as grooming, or not even realize. Like, do they know that grooming is not limited to SA? You guys know that Grooming is not limited to SA or by age right? Especially in a Murim/Cultivation Setting where people can be like, really really old, as in thousands of years old.

I saw a lot of fics where there's roles reversal, time travel, reincarnation. Bingge goes to another universe to raise his "own shizun". Shen Yuan raising his (his- as in he was there before ascending as Peak Lord and choose it himself) disciples as a little "army" to survive the future. Shen Yuan in a lot of Kid Fic's being exploited by the Peak Lord's. Yue Qingyuan situationship with "A-Yuan" or Qingqiu do resemble grooming in a lot (at least from what I was able to read.)

Like, I know the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of is usually Csa but grooming englobes any relationship in which an Older Person (Older, not adult) creates a form of emotion connection with a YOUNGER person (Might be an adult, a Child, a Teenager, as long as is younger and - in almost every case- have a great gap in maturity) in order to exploit, manipulate, and abuse them.

I'm not complaining! Really! Is just that sometimes it is not tagged as it should even thought is pretty obvious what is happening. Or maybe not as obvious as I see.

I Just think that it's really interesting (?) of how subtle and obvious it is portraited at to the point I don't even know if the author is aware that it's grooming. Especially since it's a pretty constant topic in Svsss, as how SY views SJ, QJL whole existence, LBG whole experience with SQQ (may it be SY or SJ depending how you interpret it), Su Xiyan and Gongyi Xiao relationship with the Creep Palace Master, The unfounded allegations of SJ behavior against NYY, and a few more if you look into Ancient China Society and then back at the Sects-

It's the kind of subtleness that you don't really notice until a specific part of the characthers dynamics pokes you the wrong way. One that you can feel icked about right away not being really sure what's bothering you about those specific chatacthers.

This is a ramble that doesn't really lead anywhere, just a Pattern that I've noticed along with a few friends and felt like sharing

(I apologize if my English is bad or there's any bad structured phrases. English is not my first lenguage and trying to ramble about a 2:43 AM thought doesn't make it any easier—)

.

[henrysglock]

Kinda crazy that not even mike treated eleven like patty treated Henry, how do some people still think hentty is peak soulmatism?

Yeah folks, you heard it here first [checks notes] ignoring someone's fears and using them as a means to your own goals is true love. Pure soulmatism.

I don't want to give Patty undue shit, there's weird circumstances surrounding her in general, and even if there weren't, she's just as much of a teenager as the rest of them. I'm sure she cares for Henry, or at least some version of her did, but there are multiple times where she walks all over him/ignores his comfort and safety in a way that screams "means to an end", similarly to Mike with El in ST1.

It's not even just about the powers, though the powers are a driving factor in their relationship overall.

I cannot emphasize enough how much that rehearsal made my skin crawl, especially given that it's preceded by the good-dream church vision. You cannot tell me that Henry being cornered like that while clearly and openly in distress didn't set off some warning bells in Patty's head that hey, maybe we shouldn't go forward with this, maybe I should respect that this guy clearly doesn't want to be here/kiss me.

Call me unsympathetic, but as much as we can explain Patty's behavior with "it would have been embarrassing if even Henry 'freak' Creel didn't want to kiss her", it's no excuse for that kiss. Where's the Patty who stood up for Henry against Walter? You're telling me that that Patty is the type to force Henry into a kiss, especially after he impressed her with the vision at church? That's the guy she's going to force into kissing her? Hm. Just another one of those things that makes me raise an eyebrow at TFS/Patty as a whole.

And that ^^ whole mess just makes the attic arc that much worse. At least when Mike used El like a tool, danger was a driving force. Will's life was in danger, the demogorgon was running around, Barb was missing, there were so many time-sensitive things going on that using El was considered an acceptable move.

What's Patty's excuse? She wanted to find out more about her mother. Important, absolutely, but not time sensitive. As far as we know, there was no danger looming if she didn't use Henry's powers that night. She could have respected his wishes and done it another night. No. No, she just pushed him on.

In my opinion, until we get some other explanations that reframe Patty's behavior, what she did in TFS speaks to a lack of care towards Henry and a tendency to prioritize herself and her own goals over his autonomy...which funnily enough sparks up right after she finds out he has powers. Funny how that timing works out. Not a great look. This lack of care is exemplified by her willingness to drop Henry as soon as the situation surrounding his powers get weird, going so far as to take Brenner's side against him in the finale despite having seen the lab herself.

She was never morally perfect, nor was she ever staunchly on Henry's side, and I think it's a disservice to her character's depth to imply that she's ride-or-die for him with nothing but altruistic motivations and ~SoULmAtiSm~. She contains multitudes. She did crappy things. Cool motive, still murder.

And on a tangential note: Imagine for a second that Patty was Mike and Henry was Eleven circa ST4. Genuinely. Imagine Mike approaching a terrified El who'd spent half the scene hiding from him and the Party. Imagine him grabbing her and kissing her like that, despite her protests. Imagine Mike pressuring El to use her powers despite El asking him not to use them. Imagine him flipping sides at the very end when it's revealed that she's imperfect. Imagine him giving her over to Brenner despite everything he knows about the Man.

You'd all tear him to bits. Somehow it's different when it's Patty! Funny how that works. Nothing to examine there.

[jellieclogs]

my favorite got7 songs from every single album 

this post is actually a precursor to a huge kpop related post I have coming, but anyway I just love got7’s music and needed to have this on the record in case I die 

Got It?

i like you

girls girls girls

playground

Got Love

A

bad behavior

forever young

Identify

MAGNETIC. YEA…

take my hand SOOO UNDERRATED

Just Right

just right

nice

before the full moon rises

MAD

if you do 💋💋

tic tic tok PEAK bside 

eyes on

confession song <3

Departure

fly

can’t

home run

rewind 

beggin on my knees (BRIAN TEAS)

Turbulence

prove it

boom x3

mayday (jinyoung slayed DOWN)

my home

let me 

SICK. SICK😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 one of my top 10 favorites for sure

Arrival

shopping mall 💋

paradise

SIGN. HELL YEAH

Q <3

7 for 7 

such a cute emotional time for igot7s ☹️🫶🏾

moon u

TEENAGER !!!!!!!!!!! PEAK DEFSOUL METHINKS

to me

Eyes On You

look

hesitate

thank you *bursts out crying uncontrollably*

present: you

I legit like every song on this album. I am me is so good. party is literally a cute and fun party song. do we hear gyeom on fine ? 

also 1:31 am

come ON. this was so good live oh my god Jackson sounded SO good?;?;?(!;!3!;!:&/&:&

spinning top

1 degree. do I even need to speak

eclipse sooo good

page !!! 

call my name

you calling my name OBVI?????!

THURSDAYYYYYY

crash & burn

pray

DYE

POISON

not by the moon

love you better YUP

aura <3

breath of love

breath 

last piece

wave

we are young <3

GOT7 

nanana

drive me to the moon 😭

DONT CARE ABOUT ME!!!

yay!! i highly recommend got7 to any new kpop fans who are looking for new music!