#plus he paid a fine which doesn’t seem like a lot since he’s rich but that’s what punishment this rule violation entails so | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

makebank · 4 years

Text

secrets & suds

request: long request but to summarize jj is involved with a kook but hasn’t moved past hooking up, he gets in trouble for pope sinking the boat, and she decides to help out.

word count: 2.3k

warnings: mentions of smut but none, cussing, typos, angst, fluff

He presses a quick kiss to your cheek as he throws his shirt over his disheveled head. His skin is slightly damp and glistening and some of his tufts of hair plastered to his forehead. “Gotta bounce, see you tomorrow?”

You beam at the blond from across the room and send him a smirk, “You always do”. He rushes out of your house just before dawn. JJ was always good about making sure to leave before your parents woke up, specifically your dad. You never minded the class division, but it was easy to say from your spot on the kook throne. You take a moment to regain your breath then toss yourself back onto your silky king size bed. Your satin pajama set lay wrinkled off the side of your bed, you knew he was going to love ripping off the matching outfit as soon as he saw you.

For some time now you and JJ have had a little arrangement. And by arrangement that meant he came over most nights to fool around. Sometimes you’d get him to watch a movie or cuddle, but it was always interrupted by your parents waking up or his friends texting him for something. You weren’t exactly sure when you started to fall for the troublemaker, but it came with ease. He seemed so rough and mysterious, which is what amplified your want for him in the first place. But after closer observation, he is kind, gentle, and would do anything for you. Of course you knew it would never happen. He is too caught up in the division and himself to even want anything more than this. Not that you don’t love the time you get with him, but you crave more.

You sigh as you stand up wrapping yourself in your fluffy robe. Peering out of your bedroom window, you watch JJ sprint across your lawn and expertly hop the high gate.

Alternating between mindlessly scrolling through your phone and checking out your window, you grow impatient. JJ had never missed coming over without texting. You were worried something happened or maybe he was just bored of you. It was getting late, so you send a single text hoping he was okay and try to lull yourself to sleep.

The next morning you wake up and for a moment your fears weren’t there. Slowly blinking your eyes open, it all comes back to you. You reach for your phone hoping for some relief. To your dismay no new messages were from him. You jump out of bed and rush to take a quick shower. Some slight snooping wouldn’t hurt.

You definitely weren’t close with any of JJ’s friends, but you did know where to find them. You enter the Wreck looking overwhelming overdressed in your designer shoes and this season’s newest sundress. You find a vacant booth and make yourself cozy until a curly haired girl you recognize as one of his best friends comes to get your drink order. After she introduces herself, it clicks. Kiara right you had a class with her freshman year of high school. Hm small world. She comes back with your coffee and asks what you’d like to order.

“Have you seen JJ lately?” you awkwardly ask. She shoots you a confused look before settling into a glare. “What’s it to you?” You stumble on your words, “Oh… nothing. He just normally mows our lawn on Wednesday mornings, but he didn’t show up. Just thought I’d ask”. She seems semi satisfied with your answer and doesn’t press for more detail. “Well, he’s busy. Not that it’s any of your business anyway. So do you want something to eat or not?” You weren’t sure why she was being so hostile it's not like you two ever had any direct problems. Maybe she was just being protective of her friend. You weren’t going to take it to heart.

You slump down in your seat resigning to the fact you weren’t going to get any answers from her. “No, I think I’m good with just this. Thanks”. She huffs whatever and walks away. Just as you're about to leave you see a frantic boy rush up to the counter to Kiara. You knew it was Pope from the pictures JJ has shown you. He looks like he’s on the verge of meltdown.

“I can’t believe JJ covered for me. Ten thousand dollars is a lot of money. I feel so bad! What do I do?” He’s running a mile a minute and Kiara tells him to lower his voice. She brings him into the back room to comfort him away from eavesdropping ears. However, you heard it all and can’t comprehend what happened that he would owe that much money. Nonetheless, you conclude that you’re going to find a way to help him, wherever he is. You drop a couple twenties leaving a hefty tip and rush out of the restaurant.

Walking down the street you bump into the three bozos that rule your side of the island. They ogle you and shout their vulgar ‘compliments’ at you. You scoff but are well accustomed to their barbarian-like nature. As you strut away, you overhear Rafe yelling at Topper. “Dude, get over the boat! You won’t even hit on y/n with us. That Maybank kid will have to pay one way or another”. What was with today and perfect timing? You thought you were going to have to dig a little deeper.

You walk home to think of a plan. You had lots of money, but your parents would notice if you took that big of a chunk out without something nice to show in return. There was no way you could get that much, but you could find a way to get fifty percent. That would be enough to get the authorities off his back and give you time to talk down the Thorton’s. You decide you could easily sneak a couple thousand without your parents noticing, but you were going to have to figure out a way to come up with the rest.

It dawns on you after spending all your childhood watching teen rom coms. A car wash! Everyone was always searching for one after a storm. Plus, it wouldn’t take much but a simple tweet and an instagram story to have people lining the block. You immediately text the girls’ group chat to set the plan for tomorrow.

You wake up with a spring in your step ready to put your plan into action. You frown a little knowing it was another day with no word from JJ. You hope he’s safe and just taking time to himself.

Putting on your skimpiest bikini and shorts you gawk at yourself in the mirror. It’s not like you had a problem with showing yourself off, you just knew the attention you were in for today regardless. You were doing this for JJ though, you wanted to help him out and show him there’s a lot more to you than having money and pretending to be perfect.

You greet all your friends and start setting up. As cars start to line up, you can’t help but giggle to yourself thinking of the stereotypical ‘Cherry Pie’ or “Milkshakes’ playing in the background of every car wash scene. You get to work flirting and scrubbing cars as you all work for every dollar. The nice thing about Figure 8 was that they were willing to spend whatever. Just as you were about to head to another car you hear someone shouting your name.

You whip around to see a red faced and furious JJ. “You’re alive!” You try to lighten the tension. “What the hell are you doing y/n?” You frown in confusion. “What do you mean? A car wash?” He doesn’t seem satisfied with your sarcasm. “You're half naked out here and all these guys can’t keep their hands to themselves,” he remarks annoyed while flailing his arms. You grin for a moment realizing he’s jealous, then it dawns on you, “First of all, you just disappeared off the face of the earth for days. No text or anything. Second, since when you do you care about what other guys say to me?” He crosses his arms over his body clearly irritated by your logical retort. “It’s none of your business. And I don’t care”. All the energy drains from you at the impact of his words. “Fine. Then keep not caring and leave me alone.” You swivel around stalking off to another car leaving him alone. Even if he didn’t want you, you were determined to finish your job and then move on.

You turn over your shoulder to see JJ storming off in the other direction. Your heart aches at seeing him actually leave. At least you knew he was breathing now. The next car pulls up with Pope in it. “What was that all about?” Your eyes widen at one of his friends catching you. He chuckles, “It’s okay I know about you guys. He tells me everything”. You soften knowing you weren’t a complete secret. “I’m not sure. He’s upset with me though.” He sends you an empathetic smile, “Don’t worry. He’s dealing with a lot right now. He’ll cool down eventually.” You nod your head, “Yeah, I heard about that. That’s actually what this is all for,” you admit sheepishly. Pope’s eyebrows raise with confusion. “My mom had me bring the car, because she said it was raising money for the high school”. Yikes. “That’s my bad. I kinda said it was for whatever people would listen to, so people would come”. He laughs, “Quick thinking y/l/n. You want some help?” Now it's your turn to laugh. “I’m sure we could find you some short shorts somewhere.” He parks the car off to the side and grabs a sponge to contribute.

The rest of the day goes by with a breeze while joking with Pope and the girls. The last car drives off and you all plop on the curb for a break. You dry off your hands and start counting the money. You could almost cry happy tears. You raised over four thousand dollars. You thank everyone and promise to buy them mimosas at brunch tomorrow. For spoiled rich kids, they sure knew how to help someone in need. Pope pulls you into a side hug, “Thanks for doing this for him”. You smile squeezing him back, “thanks for helping”.

After putting on some real clothes you stalk off to the Thorton’s. They promise they’ll leave JJ alone about the couple thousand left so it can be paid off slowly, now that they have a down payment for another boat. You breathed a sigh of relief knowing you did all you could.

JJ was relaxing at John B.'s when he got a call. After hanging up, he’s elated and full of energy. He yells to the pogues, “Guys they said I don’t have to serve any time for the boat!” They all jump up excited and ask how. “They said over half of the debt has been paid, so they said I’ll have to sign up for some payment plan. But this means it won’t be on my record or anything”. They all join him in a group hug congratulating him. John B. pipes up, “Who paid it?” JJ stops for a moment considering that it wasn’t just magic, and the only person he knew that had money that knew was Kie. “Did you have your parents do it Kie? I seriously can’t thank you enough,” he picks her up into a giant hug. She shakes her head once he lets her down. “No, I wish I could’ve though. Sorry man.”

Pope is smirking thinking about his day yesterday trying not to blow his cover. JJ notices. “What do you know, Pope?” He just shakes his head not budging. JJ throws his arm around his neck putting him into a choke hold wrestling move. Kie and John B. are enjoying watching them fight until Pope taps out. “Fine! It was y/n. That’s what the whole giant parade of cars getting washed was”. JJ freezes speechless. He turns on his heels and instantly busts out of the chateau.

Meanwhile, you’re getting into comfy clothes preparing yourself for a lonely movie marathon tonight. Just as you settle into your thousand thread count sheets, your door swings open making you jump. “JJ you scared the shit out of me. What are you doing here?” He crosses your abnormally large room beelining to you. He grabs your chin and pulls you into a kiss. Your hand naturally falls to his arm as you allow him to passionately lead your lips. You pull away gasping for air. “What was that for?”

He sits down next to you. “I am so sorry. I’m sorry for disappearing and not texting you. And I’m really sorry for being such a dick yesterday at the car wash. I didn’t know you were doing all that for me. Either way though I shouldn’t have acted like that. Thank you for what you did. It means a lot. I’ll repay you I promise”. You smile rubbing your thumb against his hand. “I forgive you. You don’t need to repay me, we worked for it. You were right though, it wasn’t my business”. He shakes his head, “I wasn’t right. I like you a lot. I’m stupid for not saying it before. I just didn’t know how to tell you about all my issues and thought I’d scare you off.”

You lean over kissing him on his cheek to soothe his obvious tension. “You can’t scare me off. And I really like you too. You can trust me with your secrets, but I’ll try not to meddle anymore if you don’t want to tell me.” Grabbing your arms to scoot you closer, he brings you in for another long and deep kiss. “Don’t worry. You can know all my secrets now,” he winks as he pulls his shirt off easing you back onto the bed.

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#jj maybank #jj maybank x reader #jj maybank x you #jj maybank fic #outerbanks #obx #des writing #rudy pankow #jj maybank x y/n

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popatochisssp · 4 years

Note

Hello Poppy! I hope you slept well! Here is the reminder you requested to create a mob au hc post like the cowboy post. Have a wonderful day!

Thank you, it’s finally time! I’m gonna put it under a cut immediately because having twenty skeletons makes every post with all of them automatically a long one!

Full disclaimer-- none of the boys are bosses, that falls on the monarch(s) of their universes... but that doesn’t mean they don’t have their own roles to play~

(Warnings: mentions of crime, drugs, violence, sex, brief sexism [probably not the way you’d think] and ableism, plus all the usual mob-tropes I may have forgotten to mention)

Sans (Undertale): He’s a...humble purveyor of items, quality goods produced economically in order to pass those savings on to the crafty consumer who might not want to pay full, exorbitant price for ‘name-brand’ luxuries... Yeah, he’s the ‘you wanna buy a watch?’ guy and he spends most of his days (strategically) wandering around the city looking for customers to hock knockoff, lookalike watches, wallets and bags to. The fuzz know him by name but can never seem to find anything to hold him on, so he’s mostly just a harmless nuisance to be shooed along elsewhere if there’s been any complaints. (He’s real good at making friendly conversation with the law enforcement and keeping all eyes on him, and frankly, if there were any real shady business going on somewhere nearby... well, the cops certainly wouldn’t know about it, too busy hustling him along down the street, now would they?)

Papyrus (Undertale): An upstanding citizen, unlike his brother who’s always in some little trouble with the law or other. He is gainfully employed at a fitness center, and he commutes there by car, because paid for his license to operate one and practiced his driving skills and saved up until he could afford a very beautiful, shiny car of his own! It’s a very nice vehicle...so nice, even, that he doesn’t like to drive it for...recreational outings with friends, in case the paint might get scuffed. That’s why his friends let him borrow their cars when they go out, and let him drive very fast (but safely!) all over the city, even at strange hours or by ‘suspicious’ locations. He’s certainly never seen anything suspicious going on, he just waits outside, and if he happens to keep a First Aid kit in his glove-box, that’s just taking precautions, isn’t it? Accidents happen, you know! (He’s the best getaway driver in town and he knows it, but plausible deniability--the less he ‘knows,’ the better.)

Sky (Underswap Sans): Just your average, ordinary businessman, running a nice little bar for average, ordinary folks of all kinds. Well... he co-owns the place with a buddy of his, Grillby, but Grillbz is a free spirit and a real man about town, so really most of the ‘running’ is down to him. And he loves it! So many people (monsters and humans) to meet and chat with and serve... human food and alcohol, of course. Monster food and alcohol isn’t legalized yet to serve to humans, and a black mark like that against his little establishment would be just awful. He adheres fully to the rules and regulations set forth by human governmental agencies, no magic in anything he passes across the counter, skeleton’s honor! ...Total bullshit, obviously-- he’s running a speakeasy for humans who want to partake in a little monster food or booze, because it’s not harmful to humans and that makes it an even stupider regulation than prohibition was. Grillby taught him most of the menu and cooks on the rare occasions he’s in, while Sky handles the liquid menu and keeps an eye-socket out for snitches and inspectors trying to catch him in the act. He’s never missed a rat yet.

Paps (Underswap Papyrus): He works at his brother’s place. In the back. Only part-time, though, Sky’s got it mostly buttoned up there, so Paps has a lot of leisure time to wander around the city, hit up his favorite joints, chat with friends--and strangers that can become friends, he’s a friendly sorta guy. And if he’s ever seen sharing a cigarette or two with one of those friends, of course it’ll be a totally normal tobacco cigarette, and no exchange of money or anything else incriminating about the interaction. ...Doggo is the one that does the deals, he’s got the Dog Treat supply and a client base that’s steadily starting to include humans--but since Dog Treats are classed as Monster Consumables and illegal to distribute to humans, in spite of being non-addictive, only mildly affective, and non-irritant to lungs, things get a little more convoluted. Paps hits up Doggo at Muffet’s (a wholly monster establishment) for the Dog Treats and a client list, ‘refurbishes’ the Treats to resemble cigarettes, and then meets up with anybody who prepaid for their order real casual-like to fence ‘em. He gets a little cut of the profits, and a discount when he’s picking up for pleasure instead of business--like a (slightly) more illegal girl scout cookie racket.

Jasper (Underfell Sans): Him? He’s just an average joe in all respects. He’s got a little auto shop, spends his days tuning up cars and bikes and such as the like, and most evenings out having fun with anybody else who’s out looking to have a good time--food and drink and maybe a little gambling, but small games, low stakes, for charity, yanno? Nothing illegal, he’d freely assure anyone concerned about the law. Yep, he’s a perfectly normal, law-abiding citizen...as far as anyone can tell. If he does a little work on the side, when specifically requested to, by perhaps one of his monarchs or one of the parties they’d approved to ask for his...services... Well, he’s certainly too quick and clean about it to leave any hard evidence behind, and he’s always far away from...whatever may have happened...with too many witnesses all in agreement that he was there and couldn’t have been anywhere else, unless he could somehow make it across town in the blink of an eye. (His side-gig is as a hitman. He keeps his shortcut ability very tightly under wraps to make for perfect alibis, and takes his targets out with magic bullets which he can disappear afterwards. If he’s ever somehow implicated in anything, he’s happy to point out to the nice officers that he doesn’t even own a weapon. They’re free to look, but all they’ll find is a set of knuckledusters he keeps on his person, purely for protection--and look how shiny the brass is, never even been used, officers! Guess they’ve got nothing on him, after all...)

Pyre (Underfell Papyrus): A law-abiding citizen. He must be--surely one can’t get more law-abiding than a lawyer...right? He actually does keep his (lack of) nose clean, but studying the convoluted mess that is human law doesn’t leave time for much else--even when your studies are funded by royalty and you’re given everything you need to open up your own practice as soon as you’ve passed the bar. Still, his skill and knowledge in arguing the law is very valuable and his services are in high demand, so he’s well-compensated for his chosen career and lives his life outside of it both comfortably and legally. His clients...are innocent until proven guilty and it would be an extreme failing of his duty to give any of them anything less than his best in the courtroom, regardless of their character, their associations, and what they happen to have been accused of. (Yeah, he’s a mob lawyer, used almost exclusively by Asgore and Toriel to protect them and anyone they send to him and all of their collective...interests. He respects the law, but values justice above it, so in spite of having a lot of clients who are definitely criminals in one way or another, he has no trouble sleeping at night.)

Mal (Swapfell Sans): He’s an accountant, nothing more, nothing less. ...For Toriel, of course, so he’s paid well for his services. And he has quite a head for numbers and figures, so he plays the stock market and does quite well there, too, smart investments and reading the writing on the wall, and all that. It’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for his very healthy finances and his lavish lifestyle--fur coats, fine suits, fancy cars, shiny gold pocket-watches-- it’s all expensive and almost over the top, but hey, he is the money-man and all the numbers check out. It seems that he’s just very good at handling and investing his capital, it’s no wonder the monster-queen herself hired him on... (He is, of course, running several money laundering schemes at any given time, taking all the less-than-legally-obtained money earned by constituents of the [former] Empire and layering it through official channels to make it look legal in such a convoluted, complex web that it doesn’t raise any significant red flags. He’s got his claws in a lot of pies, and he takes what he needs off the top to live a little luxuriously, with Toriel’s knowledge and permission-- a perk for the necessary service he provides.) Whatever else may be true, it’s a simple fact that he’s very, very good at his job.

Rus (Swapfell Papyrus): With the lucrative career his brother has, the lucky SOB doesn’t have to work a day in his life if he doesn’t want to, but he’s using the safety net to pursue his passion in art. Subjective as it is, it’s hard to say if he’s really any good, but people seem to like what he produces well-enough--not a household name, but people passionate about the subject might recognize his work and his pieces sell with at least moderate success. For all that it’s probably not going to make him famous or rich(er than his brother), he’s dedicated to his craft and regularly makes bulk purchases of his supplies, canvas and reams of paper and paint and ink and the like, to keep up his steady work and art sales. He seems like an altogether normal and down-to-earth sort of guy, nothing suspicious about him at all. (He’s a counterfeiter and works in tandem with his brother--they even hit a Bureau together to lift a set of plates for the one and only active crime he was involved in--and his art is just a really good cover for why he needs so much ink and paper and other supplies on a regular basis. He does love and care about his art career, that part’s not fake, but he’s also got a good eye-socket for detail and steady hands to replicate it, and if fake human money that looks really real can help monsters, he doesn’t really see why he shouldn’t.)

Slate (Horrortale Sans): He’s...been through a lot. All monsters have, really, but he was hit kind of especially hard and... Whatever Gerson, or Undyne, or whoever’s running things now up on the Surface are getting involved in...he doesn’t really want any part of it. He gets regular stipends for some unspecified ‘service’ he performed for the Queen, Underground, and while no human (alive) knows what that was, it’s apparently enough to live off of relatively comfortably without being employed himself. He has a nice little place with his brother on the outskirts of the city and he lives there quietly, peacefully. He rarely goes into town, just the occasional walkabout, stopping at restaurants or scoping out the architecture. (Part of his one concession to being left out of whatever illegal, mob-type business may or may not be going on: he needs a good mental map of the city and at least a few landmarks that he’ll definitely remember, because he’s the emergency evac should...anything...go especially south. The house phone doesn’t ring too often in the middle of the night, but when it does, he needs to know where he needs to be, and quick.)

Papy (Horrortale Papyrus): He’s, ah... not involved in any ‘business’ either, but he does spend a little more time out of the house, at the local hospital. He was allowed to make a study of human medicine and become a nurse by Very Special Exception--mostly due to some friends (or at least one) in high places, and some very backwards human attitudes about parts that constitute a ‘man’ and how a skeleton without any parts could perhaps be allowed into nursing--and he’s proven himself a valuable member of staff and even made friends with all of his coworkers. He’s happy at his job, and with his life, and returns home to his quiet, peaceful house every night with a smile. (He has a go-bag ready by the phone for those late night calls, though, full of healing items and medical equipment he may have subtly nicked from the hospital, just so he has everything he needs to treat a monster or a friendly human that may have gotten hurt...somehow...and for reasons they have no need to specify, can’t risk going to a doctor.)

Ash (Undergloom Sans): Just a poor street musician...or at least, that’s what most people figure, ‘cause he doesn’t dress too well and the trombone he plays while sitting out on the sidewalk looks like it’s probably the nicest thing he owns. He gets a couple bucks from time to time, but rarely any second glances, and that... That works in his favor. You’d be surprised how much people talk about when they think nobody’s listening (or at least...nobody important) and he can pick up a lot of interesting information of what’s going on in the city just by setting up in the right spot and waiting for folks to talk business. He’s pretty quiet when he’s not tooting the ol’ horn and great at blending into the background, and that’s made him the guy to go to when you want to know something--like how much somebody else knows, or if there are any plans in place for say, a raid or a sting or some kind. (Law enforcement is the worst about keeping proprietary information ‘proprietary’ when they think their only audience is some nobody monster bum sleeping on a bench...) He’s also got something of a whole information network going on with the actual homeless people in the city, since he gives great tips about places who are hiring or somewhere to get a meal or a bed for the night and he always gives his earnings from busking to those who need it more than him. He’s paid for the service he provides and he’s got a home to go back to, it just seems right that the music-money goes to help somebody else.

Yrus (Undergloom Papyrus): He works as a nanny for the Queen! Not too long ago, she might’ve opted to just stay home and look after her newly adopted child herself, while Asgore handled business with the humans, but... They’re freshly split now, and Toriel wants to be just as involved in things as Asgore as much as she wants to s l o w l y ease into being a full-time mother again. Yrus is the solution, already fond of little Frisk and a very warm and trustworthy soul who stayed bright even in the gloom of the Underground. He happily takes the job when asked and splits his time between supervising and caring for Frisk, and tutoring them in all the important subjects (math, history, magic, et cetera). He finds he has a passion for teaching and thinks he might go into that someday, when Frisk is older and Toriel has a little more time and confidence to no longer need him as a buffer. (Whatever it is, specifically, that takes up so much of Toriel’s time and keeps her out so late that he sometimes has to wait around well past Frisk’s bedtime for her to come back and ask after them... Yrus couldn’t fathom a guess and isn’t going to ask any questions. That would definitely be out of his scope as a simple child-minder and even if he knew anything, it would be an extreme violation of the family’s privacy for him to tell tales, which he’s happy to point out to anyone with a lot of questions for somebody so close to two of the Dreemurrs.)

Brick (Horrorfell Sans): He’s on his brother’s payroll. It seemed like the best way to kill two birds with one stone: he’s a big, scary-looking wall of bone who isn’t well suited to a regular-joe sorta job, and his bro’s a very high-profile guy who needs somebody big and scary-looking to stand next to him and be a deterrent. Nepotism, maybe, but they’ve been looking after each other their whole lives already and it’s something Brick knows he can do--he’d do it for free, but if King thinks it’s better (and safer) to have it as his job description, he’s probably right, so Brick’ll take the paycheck for it. King’s also very likely the only one who could stop him if he...lost control...somewhere out and about, so sticking close to him makes Brick feel better and hey, maybe they’re actually killing three birds with this stone of an arrangement. Still, he mostly just goes about town with King, standing around and watching his back and staring people down when he needs to while his brother carries on with his conversations and business. He hardly ever has to do anymore than that...almost never. (One of his favorite places to go is a little hole-in-the-wall craft shop, where King always pretends to take longer than he needs so Brick can peruse the yarn and try to pick up a little sign language from the nice old deaf lady who owns the place.)

King (Horrorfell Papyrus): Yes, yes, he’s very high profile--he did lead monsterkind for a time, getting everyone up to the Surface and settled there--but he’s since stepped down. He’s retired, and anything his successor may be involved in... surely, he couldn’t say. He and Toriel are barely in contact and the money he receives from her on the regular is a gift of goodwill, mostly for medical expenses (his leg, and his brother’s...well). All he does these days is collect for a charity, a pet project of his, Monster Reparations. Lots of people give such generous donations when he goes around to ask for them, maybe impressed a little by his fame, but he can’t feel too terribly about using it for such a worthy cause... (It’s a thinly veiled protection racket and the people and businesses who buy into it tend not to fall victim to ‘mysterious’ criminal activity. Toriel may be officially calling the shots now, but King, as the monster who put her back there, is in a very unique position of power in having her ear, an unofficial underboss totally off the books. Some ‘donate’ more than necessary when he comes collecting, hoping to earn preferential treatment, and sometimes they get it and sometimes they don’t--it’s entirely down to King’s opinion of them personally. ...The old woman who runs the craft store pays about half the going rate, and the immigrant who imports the miniature trees he likes gets a heavy discount, too. The deli-owner he overheard hurling discriminatory epithets at a customer, however, pays triple. You get the idea.)

Merc (Horrorswap Sans): He’s a researcher. Highly confidential, he’s sworn to secrecy and even mentioning that he’s being funded by Elder King Shroomba is pushing the boundaries of what he’s allowed to talk about. Still, he has his own facility, and several assistants, monster volunteers and sometimes human ones--but they have to sign papers swearing not to talk about what goes on in the lab, too. From what they are allowed to say, the gist is just that it didn’t seem like anything sinister was going on; not even a blood-draw... Merc seems pretty happy to leave at the end of every day, though, and whenever it comes up, he talks very fondly about being able to finish the project. (He’s researching DT, specifically how it can be used to enhance monster physiology and make them more resistant to damage from intent. Merc’s misadventure with DT destabilized him, but from 1HP he’s now more durable than ever, and his second attempt with his brother had less dramatic but still noticeable and successful results. The king wants that safety net for more monsters, especially ones who are on the front lines of...potentially less than legal dealings...who could really be at risk. Merc is reluctant, but with the stipulation of informed, willing volunteers for DT extraction and infusion, he can’t bring himself to turn down the resources and funding to research his own condition and bring the possibility of being normal again ever closer. He still has a hard time with the idea of ‘enhancing’ monsters, but the fact that it’s at least being done safely, willingly, and with a whole team behind it this time helps a lot.)

Ell (Horrorswap Papyrus): He’s in a wheelchair but not letting it keep him down, and he’s running a modest little newspaper stand on the corner--papers and magazines and cheap books--nothing all that special but boy, what an inspiration, good for him that he’s got a job and can run the place by himself! All kinds come and go from his stand, and sometimes he closes it up for a little bit in the middle of the day to take a...er...roll, with some people who must be friends of his, but he’s never gone too long, so nobody says anything to the poor guy about the inconvenience. He’s a dedicated businessman, or trying to be; won’t even let people help him with those heavy-looking boxes of deliveries he gets, and for a fella with no legs, he seems to be doing his best! (...The whole thing is a low-key smuggling operation and he is making bank off it. There’s a system of code-words in place related to the publications he sells for a ‘customer’ to indicate whether they’re buying or selling, and what--magic consumables, stolen/hot items, imported goods, the works--and where and when they want things to go down. There’s even hidden compartments in his custom-built wheelchair for some of the riskier stuff, because he knows no cop in their right mind would force a guy with no legs out of his chair just to search it with witnesses around. And that’s presuming any law enforcement were to even catch wise to his set-up, which he kind of doubts: he’s sly and subtle and even if he weren’t, he knows people see the chair before they see him. Why not take advantage of that?)

Pitch (Horrorswapfell Sans): He makes his living as a boxer, and a subsequent minor celebrity. Pretty much any match he’s in is an exhibition match--not just a monster, not just a little guy (...relatively), but a short skeleton monster who’s blind, wow! You don’t see that every day, that’s a spectacle! Plenty of ‘ooh’s and ‘ahh’s in the packed stands every night the sightless skeleton scrapper is in the ring and nobody can figure out how he bobs and weaves so well that he hardly ever gets hit. He loses some matches, that’s to be expected, even for a ‘normal’ fighter, but hey, people love an underdog story, so when he wins, it’s an uproar every time. (For his part, Pitch hates most of his ‘fans’ who think of him the same way they probably think of a silly little dog who learned a funny trick, but the fame in general, and the thrill of the fight... Those are enough to keep him in the ring. Just... maybe not quite enough to keep him fighting clean. He’s as dirty as sportsmen come and he and a few other monsters regularly play his own odds with the bookies: he’ll subtly use magic to cheat and stay in longer, or go down when he could easily keep fighting, whatever’s more profitable with the over/under from match to match. If he’s going to be a circus act doing what he loves, he may as well get hazard pay for his dignity... and y’know, a couple of idiots who think being able to fight is a ‘trick’ because you’re blind aren’t nearly so annoying when you’re being driven away from them in a luxury car, to your expensive house in the hills decked out with all the amenities.)

Nemo (Horrorswapfell Papyrus): He’s got a place he looks after, keeps things running. Just a small joint, nothing fancy, a little cabaret variety show type place--singing, dancing, drinks on tap, that kinda thing. After dark, some of the...performances... might get a little more risqué, stuff that titillates like burlesque and striptease, but rest assured, his permits are all in order and everything’s on the up and up. Nothing illegal whatsoever going on here, just a bit of singing and dancing and everybody having a good time. (Most of the performers are sex workers--monsters, but some humans too--and patrons can negotiate private shows or off-the-clock ‘meetings’ at their discretion. Nemo opts to not know too much of the details of what his dancers do when he’s not looking, for legal reasons, but he makes sure they have a safe place to do it, are paid for their services, and don’t have repeat problem-patrons if any slip through. Being one of the gentlemen running such an establishment in the city that doesn’t happen to touch or steal from or mistreat the performers, his place is the place to get hired if that’s your line of work. He’s mostly just happy to be able to provide the job security and the job safety for a group that really seems to catch a lot of hell up here on the Surface just for how they make their money.)

Sunny (Gastertale Sans): He’s a busy guy, bouncing around from place to place, job to job... Being so scattered, you might think he’d be having money troubles by now, but while he may not be the type to stick with one thing and stay there for a good few years, nobody who knows him would say he’s unreliable--he’s the type of guy that you can give him a call anytime and if you need help, he’ll be right over, and he’ll get the job done well, too! Of course he lives with his fancypants brother, and the King and Queen probably spot him a loan or two now and then, since they’re friendly, so all in all, no one really wonders how he makes enough money to live so comfortably. The answer’s right there in their face...isn’t it? (Yes and no. He is the kind of guy you can call anytime to get a job done, and he will do it well, but the money he gets from Asgore and Toriel is less of a ‘loan’ and more of a ‘payment for services rendered.’ He’s a cleaner, the guy you call to make things go away, things that aren’t supposed to be there: stains, papers, weapons, evidence... He’ll get rid of it for you, and if you need a convincing coverup or an alibi for...whatever it is that you weren’t there doing, he’ll take care of that, too. If somebody’s calling him up for his special brand of help, they probably just want to put it all behind them and forget all about that nasty business. He’s happy to facilitate--after all, what are friends for?)

Aster (Gastertale Papyrus): Like his brother, he gets on well with the King and Queen. (They both feel like they’ve known the monarchs much longer than they actually have...somehow...) But in any case, unlike his brother, Aster is very well-organized and thoughtful, so he’s a natural choice as an...advisor, of sorts, when monsters surfaced and it was...decided that perhaps there would be some...activities and...ways of doing things that...should remain unknown to the humans. Not unknown to Aster: he keeps track of everything, reminding the monarchs of little details they may have forgotten, pointing out things they may not have noticed, making educated suggestions for courses of action with likely positive outcomes based on past experiences... He’s the linchpin between Asgore and Toriel that makes them terrifyingly more efficient than they would be without him, a consigliere-equivalent who certainly isn’t a boss himself, but he has the bosses’ trust and their ears and that makes him a person of great interest. But...no one can get anything useful out of him: he’s loyal, above all, and much as he values truth, he also realizes that perhaps not everyone deserves to know the full truth of everything, especially not those who might use that truth to bring some sort of harm or misfortune to his friends...or to monsterkind at large. ...And trying to directly seize his extensive notes on the private and personal business-doings of the Dreemurrs is an even more doomed endeavor--he writes them all in a strange jumble of symbols that no one’s ever seen, and the code-breakers never have it long enough to decipher anything useful before its back in his hands, reclaimed quite speedily after unlawful seizure of private property containing confidential information. Lots of well-meaning law enforcement have their sights set on him as some sort of criminal white whale, but the simile is all too accurate-- they’ll never catch him, and even if they do, there’ll be nothing to hold him on. He simply has too many friends (and family members) in very high, very useful places.

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clareisa · 5 years

Text

Not That Innocent -「Kang Hyunggu/Kino」 - smut

Request (anon request): something about pentagon kino this comeback era has me feeling hot in so many ways. could you write something about him maybe showing his dominant side? like he doesn’t care about fucking you while the other members are at the dorm and insist on making you as vocal as possible so you know who you belong to 🥵

A/N: well, Kino is a wild card. Hope I wrote this as good as you imagined, sweetie.

Genre: Romance, smut

Words: 4,3k

Warning: This contains NSFW content. Do not engage in my works if you are underage. Read to your own discretion

- gifs are not mine, credits to rightful owners

- English is not my first language, so please, excuse my mistakes

You and Hyunggu was the cutest couple human eye could ever see. Always smiling at each other, complimenting each other and being glued to each other’s bodies all the time. You were so adorable and innocent around people that everyone thought you two can’t be doing any dirty things. They just couldn’t imagine such softies as you two doing anything like that. Sure, you were adults, but still. Hyunggu always got teased by his members for it since you both were kinda shy about PDA and they never saw you making out or simply just kiss longer than a peck.

He never told you that it was bothering him and he always just laughed or brushed it away with a simple shrugging of his shoulders. It wasn’t bugging him a bit at the beginning since he knew you two had a very satisfying and rich intimate life. But he never felt the need to show off and be loud. Plus, he loved when there was just you two and he didn’t need to worry about anything. Just loving you and worshipping your body was enough for him.

But these last days his members were teasing him way too much. Especially after this comeback. Saying how dark and sexy he is in the music video but he is not able to do it with his own girlfriend. But as always, he ignored their stupid teasing words. The only thing that was bothering him about the teasing was how some of them were talking about you. Especially Hongseok and Wooseok. The two men never hid their attraction to you ever since you got to know them. Always inconspicuously flirting with you and walking “accidentally” around half-naked every time you were in the dorms.

But Hyunggu always calmed down when you told him that the two fine men never got any effect on you. Hearts in your eyes always showed just when you were looking at him. Just he could make you blush, make you feel save and loved.

Today you were on a sleepover in your boyfriend’s dorm. You came on the time and the door was opened by smiling Hoetaek. He greeted you warmly as he slipped back his messy dark blue hair. With a smile helped you with the bags of food you brought. There was a lot. When you entered the living room you could already see Yanan and his girlfriend running around and cleaning the mess after the guys living there, making sure everything is clean, pretty and ready for the movie night which should start very soon. When she saw you she smiled like if you were an angel.

“Y/N! Oh my God! Finally another woman. I would become crazy if I would be here with just the guys.” she chuckled and hugged you tightly, laying your head on her shoulder. You giggled and hugged her back. She quickly became one of your best friends since she started dating Yanan a couple months ago. You were happy that you finally won’t be the only girl at sleepovers. It was hard with 9 men around.

“Oh come on. I see that you are doing great. And you have the best helper.” you giggled when Yanan hugged her from the back, making her jump a little in surprise. She slapped his hands around her waist in a loving manner but he didn’t move, not wanting to let her go.

“You should go to your man. He is walking around at least an hour already, worrying where you are and repeating on and on that he already need to see you.” she winked at you. Blush immediately painted your cheeks. She and Yanan was the only one who didn’t tease you simply because they were both sweethearts. They were teased because of the same reason as you and Hyunggu but much less because Yanan always embarrassed them by his savage remarks or his girlfriend simply hit their heads.

“Of course. Where is he?” you asked, excited to see your man.

“In his room. Waiting for you.” Yanan smiled and pointed to the direction of Hyunggu’s door. You nodded and with a wide grin on your face, you started making small happy steps to the direction of your boyfriend’s door. Hongseok appeared on the scene and when he saw where are you going he whistled.

“Be careful tigress! Your baby boy might not be prepared for that dress.” he grinned when Wooseok was suddenly standing next to him, just nodded, “He is too shy. But I know what I would do with you.” the maknae laughed, winking at you. Today they were even bolder than before and you once again tried to act like you don’t mind and you don’t understand what they mean by their flirty remarks.

Soon both of their heads was hit from the back by Yanan, “Shut up, you act like boys in puberty.” he frowned at them and gave you encouraging smile. You muttered thank you and continued to walk through the dorm.

You were always telling to Hyunggu that you didn’t mind them and their teasing. But it was the opposite. You liked them as friends but when they started teasing your boyfriend and flirting with you, you honestly felt uncomfortable. You sometimes wished they could hear how good is Hyunggu making you feel every time when you were alone. That would shut their mouths. But you knew Hyunggu wouldn’t be comfortable with it.

You slowly and soundlessly opened door to the Hyunggu’s room. He was sitting on his bed, his back facing you, legs crossed. You tiptoed behind him and wanted to scare him but you stopped when you saw what he was doing. He was looking at all of your photos you two took together. Some of them were just you which you and some of them you didn’t recognize. He probably took them when you weren’t looking. You almost melted when you saw his smile from the side. It was that stupid innocent smile of a man completely in love. A lot of people were jealous of you having him. He was always looking at you as if you were the only thing in the room. Girls around were scoffing at you two sometimes. Even if they had boyfriends, they never paid so much attention to them like Hyunggu did to you.

You quickly covered his eyes from the back and leaned down to his ear, “Guess who?” you giggled as you felt his frozen form to relax.

“Hmmm.” he hummed like if he was thinking hard, “The love of my life probably?” he chuckled in the sync with you. He was cheeky all the time but you loved it a lot.

He gently took your hands down and turned to you with the brightest smile you have ever seen. Since he was still sitting on the bed he hugged you, his hands were around your hips and his head resting on your breasts. He didn’t think about it at that moment but you froze for a moment. Your cheeks became hotter as you felt his head brushing and finding the best position in the middle on your soft sensitive chest.

“Hey, baby.” he said in a cute voice and before he looked up with his big maroon eyes he kissed your belly through your dress. You couldn’t stop the wide smile appearing on your face. This man was too precious. You kissed the top of his head and caressed his dark silky locks. He quickly grabbed you by your hips and sat you down on his lap. You hid your blushing face to his neck as you hugged him around his shoulders.

“You are finally here.” he whispered happily. Hyunggu was overwhelmed with happiness when he could finally hold you in his arms and smell your light sweet natural scent. He was so cute... too cute sometimes.

“Y/N? Are you okay?” he asked when he saw you looking to the wall, far away from the current situation.

You looked up and force yourself to smile, “Yes, of course, I’m okay, baby. I was just thinking about something.” you said and get back to the position you were before, now resting your head on his warm chest. You could hear his heart beating faster in his chest as you caressed his sides.

“About me?” he asked in hope. You hesitated for a moment and wasn’t sure if you should tell him about your worries regarding his two group mates and this evening.

“Well... kinda yeah.” you chuckled awkwardly, not really knowing what to say. Your body was filled up with tension and the man holding you lovingly immediately felt it.

“You know you can tell me anything, princess. We are not hiding any of our worries from each other. Remember?” his voice calm, as the kiss on the path in your hair.

You sighed heavily and looked up. Hyunggu looked at you and his sweet smile calmed you down a little. “You know... the teasing of your band members is getting worse and worse. I’m worried that it might hurt you.” you were saying while looking into his eyes and drawing small circles on his chest with tips of your fingers.

“Don’t worry about that. It’s nothing. It’s just a stupid and childish thing to do. I don’t mind it at a-” he didn’t even finish the sentence when you interrupted him in a cold tone of your voice, “But I do. I’m so tired of it.” your face without emotion.

Hyunggu looked down at you with a shocked face, “Babe...I didn’t know...” he didn’t know what to say.

“I’m just so tired of it already. I don’t care about their stupid remarks about my outfits or their weak attempts of flirting with me. They think I care about their sweaty half-naked bodies? Sometimes they really seem ridiculous to me but that is not the problem. I hate how they are mocking you. It was just stupid in the beginning but now I can’t stand it anymore. And if I would say something against it I’m sure they will just laugh and tell me to calm down because they are just joking.” you needed to stop to take a deep breath, “But that joking is going too far. I don’t like it Hyunggu.” you finished and looked straight to the eyes of your shocked boyfriend.

Silence filled the room and space between you two. Hyunggu was still processing all the things you just said, not knowing how to respond right at that moment. He took a deep breath and took your hands into his. His warm touch created goosebumps. He put his palm on your cheek and smiled when he felt the hot skin of your face.

“I didn’t know it makes you this angry. I thought you just ignored it and didn’t pay attention to it at all.” he said. You nodded, “Yes, at the beginning but it crossed the line. I just want it to stop.” you said strongly.

He sighed and nodded, “Okay, I’ll try to talk to them.” he smiled a little.

“No, Hyunggu. They won’t stop. They won’t stop until you’ll prove them wrong.” you said trying to suggest him the dirty idea that could shut all the stupid remarks and mocking.

“What do you mean by proving them... wrong?” he asked, careful with his words. You playfully rolled your eyes at him with a smile. “You know exactly what I mean. baby.” you smirked and pecked his lips quickly. He closed his eyes, thinking.

“Please, Hyunggu. I know you like the most when we are alone. Me too but...” you leaned close to his ear and your voice dropped down by one octave, “I just want to show them that we are not as innocent as they think.” you breathed out to his ear, your warm breath sending shivers down his spine. “We... w-we can’t, baby. Everyone is just behind the wall.” he said nervously.

“Please...” you unbuttoned slowly his dress shirt and exposed his toned torso. “Please...master.” you whispered needily as your cold hands touched the hot skin of his chest.

You suddenly felt him nodding. “You are right. You are absolutely right, baby. They always piss me off. How stupid they are. They are making fun of me not knowing how good you are being treated in our bed.” he said firmly. He looked at you and took off his shirt completely. “You are right, I’m gonna show them how to take care of girl right. And remind them that you are mine and only mine.” the tone of his voice dropping making you bite your lip.

He laid you down on his bed. When he saw you all excited but still shy by the thought of others hearing you, all his blood started rushing down to his length. The confident smirk on his face was obviously telling that he can’t wait to finally prove everyone that he is the best at making his girl scream and loving her the way she deserves. He leaned down, supporting himself of his elbows as he was above you, exploring every inch of your face. He didn’t see fear, shyness or regret. All he saw in your eyes was lust and excitement. He took your chin to his palm and from there, his fingertips started tracing your jawline, going down to your neck making you gulp. His fingers stopped at the neckline of your dress that was already quite low.

“Do you like this dress a lot?” he asked with a wicked smile. You already knew what he was planning so you shook your head ‘no’, making the man growl. His hands grabbed the neckline of your dress from both sides and with licking his lips he tore the fabric apart easily. You moaned thanks to the air hitting your half-naked body now covered just with the pastel pink lacy set of underwear.

“Fuck, baby. You look so pretty... so innocent. Like a sweet candy, like a pretty doll just for me.” he said when he threw the tore fabric of your dress to a random part of the room. “Only your doll, master.” you innocently blinked at him making him chuckle.

Hyunggu took your hand in a swift move and placed it on his chest. He slowly was dragging your hands further and further down, stopping at his prominent v-line. Your breath was shaking once again as you were closer to the part of him that you needed the most at that moment. Seeing his already huge bulge made your core squirm. Before you almost started drooling your boyfriend captured your lips in a heated kiss. His lips were needy, moving eagerly against yours. As he literally shoved his tongue to your mouth, you couldn’t help and release a first loud moan and tug at the hem of his sweatpants.

The kiss was getting sloppy. Your mixed saliva all over your lips and some even going down your chin to your neck. One of your hand went to his soft hair and started tugging, making him growling into the kiss. His wet lips moved from your mouth right above your collarbone and started to suck harshly on the sensitive skin. A needy whimper escaped past your lips and the hand that was in his hair went over your mouth. But Hyunggu didn’t like it.

“Moan, whimper, scream as you do normally, baby. Like if we were alone.” he chuckled, amused. After you nodded he came back to your neck and started creating more and more marks. He felt so powerful, like a wolf marking his territory. And your sinful whimpers was music to his ears. He was sure that they could hear you already. That was making him even more ambitious this evening. After leaving your neck bruised his now soft kisses were going down between your pretty breasts he loved so much. He loved to give them attention. They were pretty, tasty and his actions were making you crazy which was his favourite part. Hyunggu tugged at your bra making it grind against your already hard nipples underneath the fabric.

“Take it off.” you breathed out. “That’s not how you ask for something, baby doll.” he said firmly. “Please, take it off, master.” you whimpered out this time. “Good girl.” he smiled at you proudly.

He skilfully took off your bra and immediately started sucking harshly on one of your nipples. He kept the second one occupied by twisting it between his fingers. Your moans were loud and unstoppable at this point. It felt too good that you forgot you are in the dorms with other people. As he was doing the perfect job on your soft sensitive flesh, he started sliding your panties down to your legs. You lifted your bum for a moment so he could easily take them off.

He broke the contact and looked at you from above. He couldn’t believe how beautiful you were. Lustful eyes, messy hair, swollen lips, a bruised neck and a slight layer of sweat covering your heated body. It was like the artwork to him. He swore in his head that he never saw such a beautiful view in front of him.

He leaned down once again and connected your lips. This time slower, gentler and sweeter. One of his hands was holding your cheek and the other was exploring your body like for the first time. He loved touching every inch of your skin. The way he could feel your pulse on your neck or you shaking when he grabbed your hips. To contrast to his sweet kiss, his still clothed hips started to grind harshly against your now bare core. As you felt his arousal for the first time he broke the kiss knowing you’ll release the cutest moan.

“You like it, baby?” his arrogant smirk appeared on his face as he was smoothly grinding on you in a wave motions.

“Fuck, baby doll. I need to feel you so bad.” he moaned out slowly losing his mind in you. “Then do it already!” you whined loudly making sure everyone will hear it.

He stood up with a smirk and took down his pants along his boxers. His hard member bounced a little from that move and your eyes glued down between his legs. Perfect length and girth, stretching your core so deliciously every time. It was fair like his skin and veiny, only the tip was a pinkish colour making you lick your lips in anticipation.

“Spread legs for me.” Hyunggu’s gaze was dark and needy, ready to fuck your soul out of your body. Of course, you obeyed his words like a good girl you are. You slowly opened your legs wide apart not trying to squirm under the cold air hitting your sensitive core. Your boyfriend didn’t know how but you always could take his breath away. He almost drooled from the view of your tasty looking pussy all soaked and ready for him to destroy it.

“You look so beautiful.” he chuckled climbing above your body once again. He couldn’t help himself and look down between your thighs again. “I’m sorry, doll but master need to have a taste.” he gulped and quickly positioned his face in front of your leaking pussy. He spread your folds apart and spit a couple of times “Mmmm so pretty, just like my doll.” he chuckled before he buried his face between your folds.

“Fuck, master!” you screamed out feeling his tongue entering your hole. He was moving fast in and out with his wet muscle while his nose was grinding against your clit making you moan in bliss. He moved a little up and started teasing the bundle of nerves of yours with his tongue. At first, just gently licking like a kitten.

“Please, more, master...ughhh. I need more of your tongue!” you didn’t hold your moans back. You saw him smirk. He gladly played with your wet folds and after that started sucking on your clit hard while still making his magic tongue work around it. He moaned out into you thanks to the taste of your juices. You grabbed his raven hair and pulled powerfully. You knew he loved it and it made him work even harder on you down there. You were already so close to cumming and he knew it. Your high pitched moans and fast hard breathing was his favourite sound in the world.

“Okay.” he said when he stopped his actions. You whined from the loss of the contact but became quiet when he slapped both of your inner thighs. “Pretty dolls don’t whine. They stay still and look pretty for their master. Am I right... doll?” he lifted his eyebrow. You gulped, your breath shaking. “Now, my pretty doll...” he leaned down, his face in front of yours, “Master is gonna have fun and you will use your pretty voice to show him how you love it. Clear?” he asked in darl voice.

“Yes, master.” you smiled sweetly, excited for the next step.

With a smile, he started grinding on you again. But now he makes sure his member was sliding between your folds, lubing himself. He slowly started sucking on your neck as he positioned the tip on your entrance. “Be loud for me, babydoll.” he whispered and shoved his entire length balls deep in one swift move.

“Fuck, Hyunggu!” you moan-screamed loud. An animalistic loud growl escaped his lips as he felt your hot tight walls hugging and swallowing his dick perfectly. You were always so tight for him and he always stretched your needy cunt so well.

“Shit, babydoll! Your little cunt is so tight for me every time.” he looked into your eyes, almost slid out and against shoved himself roughly in a couple of times. You screamed out of his name every single time. His hips slowly started moving in a more smooth and regular pace. His body was rolling as he was fucking into you. Your wetness was covering his member and leaking down your thighs and down to your ass. All the mixture of your juices and his saliva were making dirty noises of two bodies connecting, echoing through the room.

“Look at that tiny little cunt swallowing my dick so hungrily. Can’t you get enough, doll?” he asked you and sucked at your nipples for a moment. You couldn’t get out more than just desperate moans and whimpers. Your head and body in the fire thanks to how good he was making you feel.

“I asked something you something, you little cockslut!” he growled and spanked your chest. “Mhmm! Yes, master” I can’t get enough of your cock, I can’t get enough of you. Please, please harder!” you moaned out, tears or pleasure forming in the corner of your eyes.

“That’s my pretty little doll.” his wicked smile was back as his thrusts became sharper, faster and much harder.

Suddenly your back arched and desperate sob left your mouth along with his name, “Hyunggu!” you couldn’t stop it. This made him proud and even more desperate to make you cum, “Found it, doll.” he chuckled and started hitting the same sensitive spot over and over, each time harder.

“Master! Master, fuck! I-...I’m so c-close!” your voice tired and your throat hurting.

“Come for me, doll! Come all over master’s cock. Don’t be shy, beautiful.” his encouraging hot words were echoing in your head and pushing you even closer to your orgasm. “I’m so close too! I’m gonna paint your tight walls with my seed, babydoll. Would you like that?” he asked and bite your neck to tone down his own noises. You couldn’t form a sentence as the familiar feeling in your lower belly was coming. You just nodded fastly. Soon his thrusts become sloppy and less regular. You could feel his cock twitching inside, ready to cum. With a loud moan, you reached your high... but it was different. The pleasure took all over you and by the way how Hyunggu stopped his action you knew something was off. You looked down and saw just your shocked boyfriend.

Hyunggu couldn’t believe this happened. You cummed like this for the first time. You squirted all over his dick, your and his legs. “Fuck, babydoll. You are so beautiful.” he was breathless. But the twitching in his own member made him come back to the earth. He slipped in once again and started abusing your sensitive walls. Your whines were so cute. “Just a moment, doll.” he moaned out very close to his own orgasm. As he knew it was coming he slipped out and pumped out his cum all over your pussy, painting the pretty rose with the thick whiteness.

“All mine... my beautiful innocent doll.” he breathed out with smile looking at him marking his territory. He then laid down next to you and kissed your lips sweetly. Lust disappeared from his eyes now full of tenderness. “Let’s go to shower, love. Maybe we just didn’t see the beginning of the movie. “ he kissed your nose and helped you to the bathroom attached to his room. You both relaxed in the shower and changed into clean clothes. Well in your case you just stole your boyfriend’s big hoodie.

As you walked to the living room everyone stayed silent. Everyone, except Yanan and his girlfriend who was smirking at you both, were speechless and couldn’t even look at you two. Hyunggu calmly sat down on the big couch and sat you down on his lap.

“Sorry for being late, guys. I guess we lost the track of the time,” he smirked at his band members. “Right, love?” he kissed your lips sweetly and then covered you both in a soft blanket. You almost burst in laughter when you saw Hongseok’s and Wooseok’s red faces and their slight erection which they were trying to hide with pilows. They finally get to know you two are not as innocent as they thought.

#Pentagon #pentagon scenarios #pentagon imagines #kino #pentagon kino #kang hyunggu #pentagon hyunggu #pentagon smut #kino smut #hyunggu smut #pentagon reactions

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chromemist · 4 years

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A Chance Encounter

4/16/20

Series: Miraculous Ladybug

Pairing: Lukanette

Warnings: Fantasy AU, minor character death by dragon fire, mentioned poaching/kidnapping.

My birthday fic for @quickspinner ! Happy early birthday! I hope you enjoy my take on happy dragons and mermaids! This is influenced by Quick's fic 'The Sky and the Sea'. Set when they first meet. At least a, my interpretation of it. If you enjoyed this, please go give Quicks fic some loving too!

This was supposed to be an easy trip to the Golden Kingdom. With their reinforced cargo hold laden with piles of gold, paintings, jewels, and other such treasures, they had expected pirates. Pirates were everywhere nowadays. It had become a real nuisance trying to get their little kingdom’s bribe for military aide to the large empire. Multiple attempts with scouting ships had found one way around the continent to be easier. It seemed that many ships steered clear of a dormant volcanic island. At first it was thought to be used by the pirates as a place to maroon others.

Oh, how the captain wished that was true now, as he watched his men scramble for weapons. swords, bayonets, and pistols... Anything to try and scare off their unwanted guest. The large unwanted guest that was currently making their ship dip dangerously low with the extra weight of a dragon. A dragon that was currently completely ignoring his frightened men and was staring at their prized acquisition, laying with her hands chained together in her tank while the sun bounced off golden scales.

'Take the sea devil and leave, please!' the captain pleaded to the dragon in his mind, not daring to speak and gain its attention. The mermaid had been more trouble than worth it when she'd been caught and given to him as a last minute addition to the bribe. Unfortunately, at that moment, a stray bullet bounced off a scale and grazed the sensitive membrane of a wing. With a loud roar, the dragon turned its head and opened its massive jaw. The last thing the captain saw was blazing red shooting from its mouth.

***

It was shaping up to be just another lazy day for Luka on his isolated mountain island. He lay sprawled on an outcropping of rocks, letting the sunshine warm his dark scales. He yawned wide, his forked tongue flopping out as he scrunched up his eyes. He really should go hunting though. It was about time for his next big meal. Although, the local mer clans (pods or schools, they're called pods or schools and he should remember that so his mother doesn't thwack him over his head again) were scheduled for their hunting later today. He could just wait and drop in for his tribute of the hunt; an exchange, plus any gold they found sunk, they offered for his protection of this area.

Not many boats came this way anymore, which was both a blessing and a curse. On the one claw, it meant he was keeping his word and doing a good job. On the other claw, no new treasures for his hoard.

Luka grumbled as he flipped over, letting the sun warm his other side. His poor hoard was lacking. He already had his prized piece; a blue gem his sister had recognized from pictures she'd seen while traipsing around in human form. Apparently, it was cursed, she'd told him. And that's why she should have it, according to Juleka, since she already had bad luck. He had chased her out of his den after that, and she was lucky she was kin or she wouldn't even be allowed back on his island.

Luka tilted his large head and squinted up at the position of the sun. Yes, just about hunting time. He gave a great sigh as he rose up, stretching his wings and tail first, before rolling his rear up to stretch out all four legs. Luka flapped his wings a few times before squatting. Preparing to jump off and begin making his way down to the hunting grounds, he came to a complete halt. A scent wafted by his nose on the breeze as it fluttered through his mane.

He knew that smell. Loved it, coveted it, his very being sang for it. Gold. Luka tilted his head again in the direction of the wind, flaring his nostrils in order to get more of that rich scent. A lot of gold by the smell of it. Luka rumbled deep in his chest as he took off from his perch, following the scent on the wind. He rose up to cloud level, letting his light underbelly and wing membranes camouflage his aerial approach.

As the scent became stronger, Luka spotted a ship. It looked large enough for him to land on. The only problem was a large ship meant more men to run it. He thought to himself, 'Well, that's fine I suppose. As long as-'

He cut off his own thoughts as the ship grew closer, and the inhabitants on the deck grew clearer. Men were milling about, doing whatever it was they did. That's not what caught his attention though, and set his blood boiling. Sunlight was bouncing off a large glass container set on the ship. And inside that container was a bound mermaid.

'Capturing one in MY territory?' He thought angrily. Steam rolled out of his nostrils as his anger rose. 'These men think they can steal from me and get away with it?' Nevermind that merfolk were not a part of his hoard, but they were still his to protect. These men would never live to see the sun again.

Luka tucked his wings and let gravity take him down. Pointing his head towards the boat and letting out a great roar, he came screaming out of the cloud bank. He couldn't hear past the wind whistling in he ears, but he could see the men scrambling around deck. As he got closer, Luka opened his wings, letting them buffer his decent. He couldn't sink the ship, nor could he pick it up. So, he settled for rapidly flapping his wings until he alighted on the deck. He could feel the ship toss and dip with his sudden weight

All around him men screamed and ran. 'Useless fools.' He thought, paying them and their weapons no mind for the moment. He swung his head around, trying to find the glass container. Gold and red flashes caught his attention and he turned, and immediately froze on the spot. His vision zeroed down to only her. He couldn't feel anything hitting his tough scales. Luka rumbled curiously as he looked at her in her container.

The most beautiful mermaid he'd ever seen. Bright reds and golds in the shades of some of his most precious treasures. Extra fins, spines on her tail, back, and arms. Hair as dark as the sky on a moonless night, and eyes as blue as the sea itself. She was exotic, not like the colorful merfolk inhabiting the reefs in his area. More like his mother, beautiful and dangerous. She stared back at him with wide, pleading eyes, raising her bound hands to the glass.

It was at that moment he felt a sharp pain in his wings between the bones. Luka let out a roar, turning his head to where the majority of the men were gathered. Without hesitation, he opened his muzzle wide. He felt the burning rising up his throat from his belly right before the fire exploded from his mouth. Normally he didn't care to kill. A dead human couldn't warn others to stay away from him. But these men, who had stolen and chained a mermaid. These men he relished in burning.

Shutting his mouth and swallowing the remaining fire back down, Luka turned back to the mermaid. He could hear the remaining men screaming and scrambling, but he once again paid them no mind. The mermaid was now huddled at the bottom of her container, wide eyes staring up at him. Thinking she was afraid of him, he lowered his body and tucked his wings, making himself as non-threatening to her as possible. He cooed and rumbled lightly in his throat as he inched closer to her.

'I won't hurt you. I promise, I want to help.' He vocalized, even knowing merfolk didn't really understand his language, and vice versa. He hoped he could portray that in his body language enough. He brought his nose right up against the glass and stared at her. She hesitated a moment, before she uncurled herself and floated closer. She put her chained hands back on the glass, right on the other side of his nose.

Luka looked at her a moment more, just admiring her. Up closer he could see red flecks splattered across her nose and cheeks. The sun brought out the lighter streaks of blue in her midnight dark hair. And her eyes... Still the richest blue he'd ever seen. Not even his most precious gem could compare.

'You're so beautiful. Breathtaking. I could sit and look at you for hours and never tire.' He cooed at her. She tilted her head curiously, feeling the rumbling vibrate into her water, but not understanding. Luka pushed out a wistful sigh. For once, he wished he could use his energy to shift into his human form to talk to her. But that form was useless to him on a burning ship filled with gold, angry men, and a very pretty mermaid.

He shifted his eyes from her, to the open ocean, and back to her. She followed his gaze before looking back at him, confusion written on her face. Luka tried a different approach. He rose up to his full height and pried off the top of her container. The men began screaming again, not about the fire now but him setting the mermaid free. Luka stretched his wings out on either side of him and brought them forward, hiding his head and the mermaid from view. He watched through the rolling water as she huddled down at the bottom, her spines flaring. He simply stuck his nose into the container, hovering just above the water. He jerked his head in the direction of the ocean while still looking directly at her.

The mermaid regarded him for a moment, before slowly lifting herself off the bottom. She clicked and chittered at him, pointing to herself and then to the ocean beyond his wing. He had no idea what she was saying, but her motions made her message clear. Taking a deep breath, Luka plunged his nose into the water, just far enough for her to reach and get a good grip on the ridges of his snout. Retracting his snout, he brought the mermaid up with his head. Water rushed off them and to the deck, but he paid it and the men no mind when the beautiful blue eyes he'd started to fall in love with were staring right back at him even closer now.

Luka's eyes closed halfway as he rumbled at her. 'I wish I could keep you, but I can't. Please be safe my beautiful one.' Her eyes widened and her claws tightened on the edge of the scale she was clinging to. As quickly as he could, he lowered his wings and flipped his head, tossing the mermaid as far into the ocean as he could. He watched as she flew, shrieking and clicking tail-over-head until she hit the water and sank.

Luka looked longingly at the point where she submerged, before turning his attention back to the boat. Now... About his gold...

***

Hours later found Luka slowly making his way back to his island, a corner of a large sheet clutched tightly in each claw. All the treasure from the ship had been laid on the sheet by the remaining men. When the fires had been put out, the last of them had gathered all the gold and jewels from below deck and offered it to him, in hopes that he would leave them in peace. Luka had pondered, briefly, about letting them go. But seeing the now empty container out of the corner of his eye sealed their fate.

After carefully taking off and flying a few feet from the boat, Luka had circled back around and let loose the fire within him. He made sure, this time, to cover the entire ship. He watched as some of them jumped into the water, snorting as he knew that would be hopeless. They were too far from any land. They'd be picked off by exhaustion or sharks.

Luka breathed a sigh of relief when his mountain island came into view. He picked up his pace, just a little, very eager to get his newest treasures settled. As he reached the opening to his den, a flash of gold caught his eye from far below near the edge of his island. Had he dropped some into the water in his haste? Luka would have to go down later and check. If he could smell the gold still, maybe he could fish it out somehow.

Landing carefully on the ledge, Luka began dragging his newest additions in. All of a sudden though, a noise rose up from over the clattering of treasure. He rose to his full height and tilted his head, trying to discern the sound.

Splashing and shrill crying, not uncommon sounds of the merfolk above water. That's what he heard, and hope flared up in his chest, smoke flowing out his nostrils. The flash of gold, was it her? Did she follow him? Excited and hopeful, he dropped his treasures, not caring that they were now scattered all over. Luka took great leaps, making his way back to the outcropping. He skittered to a halt, his wings spreading to buffer him and he gripped the edge with his claws. Dust and pebbles rained down the edge Luka peered down into the water through the dust and, yes! There she was!

The beautiful mermaid he'd saved was in the shallows of his island, slapping her tail, screeching, making all kinds of ruckus to get his attention. Pure joy flooded through him as he rumbled down at her.

'Beautiful one, you're here!' He emitted a small plume of fire and smoke, before launching himself off the ledge. She looked up, her actions and vocalizations quieting. Those clear blue eyes he'd fallen for watched him as he landed in the shallows in front of her. Luka folded his wings, then lowered his body into a laying position and stared at her.

The mermaid regarded him a moment before inching her body forward. She clicked and chittered at him as she moved. Luka raised a brow, before shaking his head and rumbling deep in his chest. The mermaid peered up at him a moment again before opening her mouth once more.

"Can you understand me now?" She asked in the Common Tongue. Luka smiled the best he could and nodded his head. The mermaid sighed in relief, then raised her still bound hands up to him. "Do you know how difficult it is to swim with your hands bound?" She demanded, eyes slightly glaring up at him.

Luka bowed his head, cooing sadly at her to show her he was sorry. He really should have thought of that. He had just been so distracted by her pretty eyes...and dark hair...and colorful scales...okay... He was distracted by all of her.

The mermaid regarded him a moment with scrutinizing eyes before nudging on a lip ridge. "Open up please?" Curiosity piqued his interest, so he did as she asked. She lifted her hands up to a large front tooth and wedged the sharp tip between the cuff and her flesh. "Bite down please?" She asked, closing her eyes and turning her head away.

Luka did as she asked, gently biting down, his sharp teeth cutting through the metal easily. He made quick work of the other, cooing sadly as the cuffs fell into the shallows, revealing the reddened skin underneath. She turned her head back, watching him as he poked his forked tongue out, lapping gently at the wounds.

She giggled, pushing on his snout gently. "It's okay. They'll heal soon. So." She said, sitting up straight, her voice taking on a firm tone. "Can you shift forms? It's a little hard to talk like this. And I'd really like to know the name of my rescue dragon."

Luka nodded and closed his eyes, gathering his energy. He'd honestly been hoping for this. As much as he hated the human form, it would allow him to communicate better with her. A tingling sensation flowed over him as his magic seeped into his limbs and scales, morphing them into skin much like hers. Luka shuddered as the tingling faded, signaling his transformation was complete. When he opened his eyes, he was sitting in the water, knees almost touching her tail.

"Hello beautiful one. My name is Luka." He raised his hand up, holding it open and vertical. The mermaid looked at it, a blush rising on her dappled cheeks. She slid her hand up and pressed it against his.

"I'm Marinette. It's nice to meet you."

Both smiled at each other as their fingers twined, linking them together.

#lukanette #marinette dupain cheng #luka couffaine #dragon luka #mermaid marinette #quickspinner #birthday fic #look i made it happy #miraculous ladybug

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moonraccoon-exe · 5 years

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Disney’s Tangled but it’s a Corqi

This has been sitting in my drafts for literal MONTHS, being finished little by literal over M O N T H S, and just got to finish it now lmao

Sorry for the size, but Tangled gives me Feelings and Corqi even more, so this had to happen, inevitably ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I’m going to put the whole thing under cuts, UNDER reblogs, because even if you put a “Keep Reading” line on a post, it doesn’t work on mobile and honestly mobile users will MURDER ME for the size, so you’re welcome, making this comfortable for you.

Also making it like three parts so it’s easier for you to read, because you know me, I’m the 10k+ nerd, and this is 20k+ so yes.

Do I regret spending literal months on this to post and find 10 notes, 5 of which are myself?

Yes.

Does that mean I’m not going to post?

Fuck no, I spent a lot in this so if I get one note, fuck it, I’ll just love it myself lmao

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hookedontaronfics · 5 years

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Last Call - Part 3

Rating: Mature/Explicit Pairing: Taron x Reader Previous installments: Part 1 | Part 2 Warnings: Cursing, plenty of sexy times so get your cold showers ready A/N: Back by very popular demand, I finally decided to write a fitting end to what was supposed to be a simple One-Shot! After some at-length discussions I realized that I really did leave you all hanging. Plus I’m sure you’re all just some really thirsty people out there in need of a bit of quenching! So I truly hope you enjoy the conclusion to this wholly unexpected trilogy! X

You had just gone on your work break and decided to step out in the back alley to enjoy the rare sunshine. While winters in Seattle tended to be milder than most of the country, it rained a lot and you were grateful to feel the sun on your skin that day. Seattle could be gorgeous when it wanted to be. Your phone rang, and you grinned at who was calling. “You rang, boyfriend of mine?” you grinned.

“I did indeed,” Taron said happily on the other line. “Only to wish you a happy six months, of course.”

And what a six months it had been.

Ever since that fateful weekend in Seattle, when you’d not only met Taron at the bar by mere chance but also fallen for him hard, you two had kept up your relationship long distance. You had been apprehensive about how that would work, but Taron had made every effort to make you feel wanted and loved and not alone, whether it was video chatting until one of you passed out or him flying in for long weekends, which he did often. You had come to really rely on his companionship despite your initial hesitations.

You had also quit your job and left your shitty boss behind at Taron’s encouragement, and you were so much happier for it now that you were working somewhere you actually felt appreciated. Sure, the work wasn’t nearly as interesting, but the job paid well and you were able to make headway on some of your debt too. You missed your former co-workers but still kept in touch, stopping by the Paramount when you knew your ex-boss wouldn’t be in.

“T, that’s so sweet of you,” you grinned, feeling warm and fuzzy inside and wondering at that. You weren’t usually the one to get mushy over any boy, but here Taron had completely affected that.

“I would never forget. It’s been incredible, hasn’t it?” he said, and you could practically hear the grin in his voice.

“It really has been, but I’m missing you like mad,” you replied, taking a seat at the picnic table that someone had managed to drag there years before. You picked at some of the chipping paint and sighed into the phone.

“I always miss you too. The minute we have to say good-bye is always agony. But the times we get to say hello, well, those are always so sweet. And if you just turned around, you could probably experience one of those hellos right now.”

You whipped around so hard you nearly toppled off the back of the picnic table bench, gasping as you saw Taron walking toward you, holding a massive bouquet of flowers and a bag from the deli across the way. You ran straight into his arms, making him chuckle as he held you as tightly as he could without crushing the flowers.

“How did you…?” you began.

“Do this?” he smirked. “It was really simple. I just called your boss and asked when you’d be on break. I had already flown in earlier today and have been biding my time and believe me it was so difficult to not just scrap my whole plan and come running into the store for you earlier.”

“This is the best surprise,” you squealed, accepting the beautiful bouquet of your favorite flowers. He knew you so well by now.

You both sat down again at the table, pulling out croissant sandwiches from the bag. You had never expected to be having lunch with Taron in a Seattle alleyway, and the strangeness of that wasn’t lost on you. But it also felt like something both sweet and secretive, something the rest of the world didn’t get to see. Your relationship had been kept so under the radar that you weren’t even sure Taron’s family or friends knew about it. He’d been begging you to come to London just to visit and experience the city, but finding time in your schedule to do that had been difficult, especially after having just started a new job.

“So I have some good news for you,” you said to Taron, watching him take a massive bite of his sandwich. You had to shake your head; the man really enjoyed his food.

“Yeah?” he asked with his mouth still full, making you laugh.

“I just became eligible for vacation time so… I’ve put in for a week at the beginning of March so I can finally see London with you,” you said excitedly, and Taron nearly choked on his bite in his haste to reply.

“That’s amazing, love!” he grinned happily, managing to lean across the tabletop to steal a kiss or three from you. “You will love it there, I’m sure of it.” You both spent the rest of your lunch break making cute excited plans for London, and you wished so hard you didn’t have to go finish your shift, but Taron promised to be waiting for you at the apartment as you’d long ago already given him a key. Sometimes you had to work during his visits so he could come and go as he pleased while you were busy, and it seemed to work out well for the both of you.

You could hardly wait for the minute the clock hit 4 p.m. and you (safely) tore across the city as quickly as Seattle traffic allowed. You wanted to spend as much time with Taron as you possibly could around your weekend shifts, as his visit had been totally unexpected. Maybe, just maybe, you could get away with calling in sick tomorrow.

You let yourself into the apartment and called out “Babe, I’m home!” but didn’t get a response. “Taron?” you asked again, walking in. His duffle bag and jacket were sitting on the couch, so he’d definitely stopped in. You kicked off your flats, dropped your purse on the coffee table and padded your way barefoot to your bedroom, finding Taron crashed out on your bed. He looked so peacefully sweet you didn’t want to disturb him despite how much you wanted to spend time with him, so you crawled in next to him as he stirred slightly and then sweetly slid an arm around you.

“Mmmm how’s m’girl?” he mumbled sleepily, nuzzling into your neck.

“I’m very good now that I’m snuggling you,” you said sweetly, getting rewarded with the most adorable smile. You appreciated the way his lashes laid against his cheeks when his eyes were closed and the way the stubble covered his strong jaw. He had let his hair get a bit longer and the little curls made you feel so weak. Or maybe that was just Taron himself. You’d dated a lot of guys over the years, casually and seriously, ones both cute and broke and handsome and rich, but none of them had ever captured your heart the way he had. If there was ever a fairytale story, well, this one was yours.

“I suppose we shouldn’t lay around all day,” he chuckled.

“I really wouldn’t mind that,” you grinned back, gasping slightly when he finally opened his eyes and gazed straight into you. You shivered slightly, and with his arms around you he had to have felt that.

“And who would I be if I didn’t take my lady out for our six months?” he giggled lightly at that. “First food, then I get my dessert,” he said, waggling his brows at you, his voice full of a lust for you that always made you feel special. He certainly had a healthy appetite and you were more than happy to keep him fed.

“Oh fine, I guess,” you laughed, but you really did enjoy going out with him. Hell, you would be willing to spend time doing literally anything with him. The brief visits were always too brief, but he had made them often enough that you both had favorite places to share a meal together. Taron was craving Southpaw, a laidback wood-fired pizzeria, which suited you just fine as well.

You were seated at the eatery, thankfully flying under the radar, dressed casually as the pretense had long gone between the both of you. Occasionally when Taron visited you’d dress up and go to a fancy restaurant together, but some of your favorite moments were just the quiet easy ones, sitting on the balcony sipping wine together as dusk fell. And of course you had begun to wonder what that might feel like in London, and quite possibly for the rest of your life.

“What are you thinking?” Taron asked, having caught your far-off stare.

“Just… the future,” you said softly, taking a sip of your wine.

“In regards to what?” he asked sweetly.

“You and me, babe,” you smiled and he grinned in such a pure way, the adoration in his eyes plain as day.

“Well, you’ll be coming to London in just a couple months, and then I’m sure you’ll fall in love with it as much as with me,” he grinned. “And we have time, and we’ll figure all of this out. But I’m crazy about you.”

“I’m crazy about you too. Or maybe just crazy. Because that’s something I meant to tell you earlier, and I chickened out. I think we need to start this whole moving process now, because I’m not just visiting London in March. I only booked a one-way ticket. I’m not coming back here, not without you.”

He blinked several times, trying to process this, before the grin spread across his face, lighting up his eyes too. “You did? Really? You’ve never even seen London. I wouldn’t want you to be miserable there.”

“I could be happy literally anywhere as long as I have you. I know that sounds a bit corny or cliche, but I think it’s true. I’ve been happy here in Seattle, and the vibe fits me. But that doesn’t even remotely compare to how I feel in my soul when I’m with you. So if the choice is to be happy here and alone, or miserable in London but at least fully with you, then there really is no contest here. And I doubt London will make me miserable anyway. It can hardly be worse than 5 p.m. rush hour traffic in Seattle,” I said, making him chuckle, but also having to dab his napkin at the corners of his eyes.

Our pizzas arrived then, making my mouth water with how good everything smelled. I was definitely going to miss this pizza, that’s for sure.

“You are crazy, you know that?” Taron teased you lightly. “But I love every bit of that crazy.”

“I may be crazy, T, but at least I don’t eat pineapple on my pizza.” You enjoyed giving him endless shit over that, but he would never change his ways no matter how much you tried.

“Mmm, well, at least I still get laid,” he shrugged, making you giggle.

“Is that so?” you smirked lightly at him.

“Prove me wrong,” he said, raising an eyebrow and giving you a dead stare. Shit, he had you there; you could barely wait to get your hands on him. But he also underestimated your ability to live up to a challenge.

“Alright. I accept your challenge,” you said, grinning a bit wickedly when he frowned at that. You knew he was already trying to come up with some way out of this.

“We have to agree on terms first,” he finally spoke up.

“Well, what have you got in mind?” you asked quietly, fully aware of the way he was looking at you, hunger in his eyes.

“I’ll only agree that pineapple is unacceptable on pizza if you can resist me for a night,” he said. “And I get to do whatever I want to try and break your resolve.”

“Oh holy Jesus, that’s a bit much, isn’t it?” you asked, a bit breathlessly.

“Well you did start this,” he smirked, picking a piece of pineapple off his pizza and popping it in his mouth before slowly sucking the juice off his finger. You’re not even sure he had meant that to be sexy but you blushed and had to look away for a moment. This night was going to destroy your willpower and you knew it.

“Fine, I accept your terms, you pineapple-loving bastard,” you said, both of you laughing over that. You ate quickly, the low buzz of tension hanging in the air around you as you finished your pizzas and wine, paid the tab and headed back to the car. You had driven to the pizza place and realized just how much leverage that gave Taron as you slid behind the wheel, your heart already starting to thrum in your chest and he hadn’t even touched you. You were seriously going to have to get a grip if you were going to last the night at all.

You knew failure was going to be the inevitable outcome, but that didn’t mean you couldn’t give it one hell of an effort first.

You carefully put the car in gear and pulled out into the streets, and Taron seemed preoccupied with flipping through the radio stations until he settled on something playing Bowie. You were all too aware of his very male presence in your car. You wanted him, but now you had to keep yourself from wanting him, and you somehow felt like this had all been a trap even though you were the one who set it up in the first place. He eventually slid a hand onto your lower thigh, and you managed to bang your knee into the steering wheel, nearly smashing his hand against it in the process.

“Jumpy, are we?” he just smirked, staring at the side of your face as you blushed hard.

“No, not at all,” you hissed slightly, and Taron just chuckled, the sound low and sexy. He knew he could play you like a fiddle, and he was going to bide his time doing it too.

You made the drive as carefully as possible, always mindful of Taron’s hand on your leg, but he didn’t move it any higher, instead only giving you a reassuring squeeze or drumming his fingers in beat to a song, which was just cute. You had started to finally calm yourself down by the time you pulled into your apartment parking lot, but the night was definitely still young.

Taron suggested putting on a movie and you had no other ideas to suggest, so you cuddled in with him as he picked something you had both already seen before. He pulled a blanket around you both and leaned his head cutely against yours as the movie started.

“Happy six months, love. I really am so grateful for you,” he said, kissing you on the forehead sweetly.

“And I’m so grateful for you, too,” you smiled back, always a sucker for his soft, vulnerable side.

“Just imagine where we’ll be in another six months,” he grinned happily.

“Your place in London, probably doing much the same as we are right now,” you giggled softly.

“And maybe we’ll be so much more than that too,” he whispered softly, his green eyes glowing in the reflected light of the movie. You stared up at him, feeling your heart leap a bit into your throat as you tried to assess the meaning behind his words.

“Are you suggesting what I think you are?” you asked.

“Of course I am. You’ve been the happiest part of my days since the convention. And I know this long-distance thing hasn’t been ideal, but we’ve only kept growing. I don’t feel the need to keep us in a holding pattern for forever to know the outcome. I already know how I feel about you,” he said sweetly, reaching up to caress your face. You felt butterflies in your stomach as you gazed up at him, so happy and in love with this man it was beyond your comprehension.

He leaned in and captured your lips in a searing kiss, leaving you burning all the way to your toes. You gasped when he pulled away, only to trail those kisses along your jaw and down your throat, nipping softly at the skin there, his own breath sounding a bit shaky. You let out a moan and then realized very quickly where this was going.

“No, no, no, you can’t get me that easily with all of your sweet promises for the future,” you grinned, pushing him away slightly and leaving him pouting at you slightly. “I know what game you’re up to here.”

“And damn if it didn’t almost work,” he winked at you, resettling into the couch and focusing back on the movie. You did the same, and just when you thought he wasn’t going to make another pass you felt his hand find your waist under the blanket. You couldn’t help but smile as he sought your skin under the hem of your shirt, but you were already keyed up so when his fingers made contact with your belly it still made you suck in your breath sharply.

“Alright there, love?” Taron asked innocently, as if he had no idea what his hand was getting up to.

“J-just fine,” you stammered slightly, determined to not let him have an effect on you as he clumsily undid the button on your jeans. How he could look totally nonplussed at the action was beyond you; it’s what made him such a brilliant actor, you thought ruefully. The fact that his face gave none of this away, as his fingers slid beneath the waistband of your jeans and drew fire down below, was a rare talent indeed. You thought about stopping him then and there since what he was doing was really rather obvious, but you also thought about testing your own resolve, and you also had to admit you just really needed him to touch you. The weeks between visits, even when you used video chats to get yourselves off, still always felt far too long to wait.

He gently rubbed you through your panties, genuinely surprised to find you already so wet for him, and you couldn’t resist at least pulling him down to your mouth to kiss you, both of your heavy pants mingling together. He pushed your panties aside slightly and his fingers found your dripping slit, running over your folds slightly and turning you into a moaning mess as your head fell backwards and he attacked your throat with more of those mind-melting kisses, leaving you pretty much helpless under his ministrations. The movie was long forgotten at this point, even though you were still pretending to be interested in it and not what Taron was doing, slowly pumping his fingers in and out of you, drawing the sensations out as his lips set your nerves ablaze.

“You’re going to beg me at some point, love,” he whispered in your ear, and you moaned loudly at that, knowing full well you wanted him moving inside you, to feel his cock filling you to the brim, leaving nothing of you untouched. Sex with Taron always left you feeling turned inside out, but it was also the headiest experience you’d ever had in your life. And somehow it just always kept getting better.

He added his thumb to circle your clit, and you felt the edge rushing straight up to meet you, but somehow he kept you tantalizingly on the edge. He was right, you were going to beg him and soon if he didn’t stop this sweet torture.

Just as you were about to open your mouth to surrender, he pulled his hand away completely, and you groaned grumpily at the loss of contact.

“What do you think you’re up to?” you whispered, watching him.

“This was just a good bit in the movie,” he said cheekily, leaning forward as he stared at the TV screen and ignored you completely.

“Taaaron,” you whined slightly, you body still completely turned on and needing release.

“Yes?” he asked, arching an eyebrow at you. “Just say the magic words,” he teased. “Pineapple belongs on pizza.”

“I’m not saying that, you ass!” you laughed, tossing a couch pillow at him, which he easily deflected.

“Then at least tell me I’m the best boyfriend in the world,” he grinned.

“You’re the most annoying boyfriend in the world, that’s what. Leaving a lady all shook up,” you huffed, and the corners of Taron’s eyes crinkled up as he smirked at you.

“Oh alright then,” he said, turning off the movie and scooping you up off the couch in one swift move, carrying you straight to the bedroom and dumping you on the bed. You instantly were throbbing all over again for him as he fairly yanked your jeans right off your body and tossed them aside without a second thought.

You were already soaking at this point but he chose to leave your panties on for the moment, pushing your shirt up and dropping wet sloppy kisses on your stomach as he hovered over you.

“Oh fuck,” you gasped softly, arching your back slightly, your need for him growing by the second. His hot breath against your skin ignited something deep and wild inside you as you struggled to not just grab him and toss him to the bed yourself. He slowly and painstakingly pulled your panties down your legs, gazing at your core with hunger in his eyes. He hooked your legs over his shoulders and then leaned in, licking from your folds to your clit as you fisted the sheets and let loose the loudest moan you could. If the neighbors heard, well, let them be jealous, you thought with a giggle before Taron’s tongue shut you up again.

And god, was he talented with that tongue, sucking your clit and lapping at your juices and eating you out like a man deprived. You felt like a balloon about to burst, the threads of your dawning orgasm drawn back so tightly that it was almost physically painful, until with one great shout you were coming hard, your legs and entire body shaking as you were quite lost to the pleasure streaming through you. You were so lost that you didn’t even notice Taron tossing his own clothes aside, grabbing a condom and sliding it on, and then nuzzling into your neck as he waited for you to calm down enough for him to slide himself home. When he joined your bodies you both groaned in unison. You wrapped your arms around his neck, the familiar weight of him pressing you into the sheets a welcome feeling.

You felt yourself tearing up slightly, even as he waited for your permission to move.

“Everything alright, love?” he asked gently, taking in your absolutely shattered expression.

“God, beyond alright, T. I’ve just never felt so in love with anyone before,” you whispered softly. “Being with you just really feels like coming home.”

“Bringing you to London really will be coming home,” he said sweetly. You stared up into his face, feeling every bit of your heart falling into pieces, but then being put back together, stronger than before, because it was only beating for one man.

He leaned in and kissed you slowly and sensually, and began thrusting his hips into you, awakening the blooms of pleasure in your core once again. The lust soon took over the sweetness of the moment, and you both got lost in each other’s arms as he pounded into you, needing his high just as badly after having made this night all about you.

His thrusts were quickly becoming sloppy as you felt your body spiraling out, the orgasm softer and slower but just as sweet as Taron spilled into you, his guttural moans filling the room. He eventually collapsed to the sheets next to you, pulling you to him as you both laid there for a long moment, trying to catch your breaths. Everything about this moment felt right.

“Well now I’m fucking dead, so thanks for that. Remind me to never challenge you again,” you giggled softly as he sweetly stroked your hair.

“Oh, but I so enjoyed trying to break you,” he chuckled back, his eyes fairly twinkling at you.

“Mission…accomplished,” you said weakly. “But I’m still never going to order pineapple on my damn pizza so we’ll always have to order his and hers,” you joked.

“That can be arranged, darling,” he grinned before turning more serious. “I meant what I said earlier. About the future. That wasn’t even part of the game. You know that, right?”

“Of course, T. That’s why I’m emotional right now,” you smiled, still fighting off the tears that threatened to overtake you.

“I can see our entire life together now, and it’s a very happy one,” he said, kissing your forehead so sweetly you ached inside. How did this man find you, and change everything about your life? Before it was aimless, without much meaning; you hoped eventually you’d find someone to sweep you off your feet, but you hadn’t realized how hopeless you’d been feeling until Taron had walked into that bar that day.

“I think I’ll be very happy living out your vision,” you replied, your eyes alight with all of the love you felt for him. You ran your fingers through his curls, feeling everything just falling into place.

You hadn’t realized it then, six months ago, that Taron would truly come to be your last call. You would never again be left wanting, hoping, or fearful of the future. He was the only person you wanted to be with; the person who understood you, who satisfied you in every way, who had softened the bitterness around your heart. Taron had left you so full of life and joy and hope and love that your glass would never feel empty again.

~Fin~

#taron smut #taron imagine #taron x reader #taron egerton #taron fanfiction

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cartoonfangirl1218 · 6 years

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Winner’s Curse Ch. 4

Uma walked confidently across the cracked and potholed cement street that led to the decaying apartment buildings from the docks.

Uma surveyed the familiar surroundings that somehow looked more shabby and depressing than when she had left it.

The place has never looked well-kept, but the building foundations were staggering and leaning sideways, store stalls looked abandoned even as store owners slept in front at their desks, and random pieces of junk and rotten food littered the streets without anyone even scouring for scraps.

Even the weather was different. The Isle was usually gloomy, and cloudy but there also seemed to be a permanent electric tension in the air as if the sky was about to erupt into a lightning storm at any second.

But the people were the most changed. Instead of adults slouching by the alleyways, glaring and spitting at anyone who got in their faces, no one was there.

People were staying inside their stores and looked away when Uma glanced at them as if they were afraid of making eye contact with her.

The kids were even worse. The kids that usually ran around causing mischief and trying to beat each other had all disappeared from the dirty street corners.

It was sickening to see how the Isle has changed. No one was independent or trying to be evil. They all were weakly submitting in fear to the Coven.

Unfortunately her pirate crew also seemed to have suffered from the power structure changed. When she met them last week after Harry rounded everyone into her mom’s Fish & Chips shop, they had been happy to see her return but none were as united and motivated as they had been when she had left. Some like Zeke and Rosita had gotten in more fights and were as irritable and murderous as Harry. Others just looked haggard and starved like Bonnie and Big Murph. While others were just fidgety and nervous having been the victim of constant harassment and robbery from “Authority” VKs.

While she had been glad to leave this hell hole and see how the Auradon half lived, she felt better to be back among the people who understood the bitter realities of life.

She had stayed in her mother’s old cave in Atlantica. It had been long abandoned since her mother’s deportation to the Isle and no one wanted to go near such an evil place so Uma remained undisturbed and undetected. And even though she couldn’t really hang out among the crowds in Atlantica she did sneak around to see the place. It was a total tourist trap with disgustingly peppy signs and squealing children on water rides as tourists complained to mermaids about the plant-like taste of their kelp tacos.

This sort of prissy complaints from rich Auradonian was exactly why she wanted to give them a taste of Isle life. If they thought their kelp tacos were hard to swallow wait till they tasted mushed apple cores.

Those Auradonians were so oblivious, so uncaring and they were supposed to be good guys.

“Uma.” Harry grabbed her arm, bringing her to a stop before a nondescript crumbling brick apartment, “We’re here.”

Harry looked toward her to take the first step forward as a first mate must do for the Captain and Uma did so.

Clay Clayton was sitting on the broken front step, sharpening a club with a knife. The smoke from the cigar dangling in his mouth surrounded his head and his foot shot out to block their entrance.

“What do you want?” If he was surprised by her return, he didn’t let on but let other puff of smoke drift in their direction.

Clay may be antisocial and one of the most vicious VKs to brawl with when it came to scraps of food, he was more or less harmless. He had inherited his father’s propensity towards drink which tend to shave off some intimidation points when he was trying to fight and he was furiously slurring his threats and unable to walk.

“I’m here for Helga Sinclair. Sykes said to meet her in the apartment here at lunch.” Uma answered, easily kicking his foot out of the way.

“Wouldn’t want to go in now. It’s not lunch for thirty minutes.” Clay grunted.

“The sooner we get it over with, the sooner we get done.” Harry said and pushed past him to open the door for Uma.

Uma wasn’t about to show it, showing emotions is one of the greatest mistakes to make on the Isle, but she was actually really excited to put this plan into action. Not only was this going to be the first step toward changing life on the Isle and eventually Auradon, but after spending six months in Ursula’s cave, studying some of the spellbooks her mom had left there, she was itching to do something active.

Harry was the only one accompanying her with stealing the bauble since it would have been overkill to bring the whole pirate crew. Instead she left Bonnie and Gil in charge of the crew and their part in the grand plan was to remind everyone on the Isle who the most fearsome gang was. And possibly pull several hits on Lars as well.

Gil had reluctantly told Uma about Lars’ actions towards him and she had decided someone needed to remind Lars of a very important rule.

No one messed with her crew.

No one.

She and Harry slowly climbed the unsteady, creaky stairs up to the second floor where Helga lived in the first apartment according to Sykes.

Uma easily opened the door as the rusty lock broke under her hand after she banged it a few times.

She was met by the image of Clayton’s bare ass in its full glory as he seemed to be pumping into Helga’s backside.

Uma’s startled squawk must have been loud enough to gain their attention because the two stopped. Clayton gave them a disgusted glare and casually zipped up his pants as Helga pushed away from to pull up her own and straighten her greasy tank top.

Seeing two people having sex wasn’t anything new to Uma.

She had accidentally walked into a lot of people “doing it” in alleyways but she hadn’t been expecting this.

These two were one of the fiercest fighters on the Isle, they were tough and intimidating. Sort of too busy with combat and brawling for sex. Apparently not.

So this is what Clay meant by not wanting to go in right now.

However the older woman seemed unperturbed, her only comment to their surprised faces was, “We’re human. We have urges. Sometimes you need a fuck and a drink to deal with life in this hellhole.”

Uma tried to nod knowingly as she watched while Helga go search for something in a leather bag next to a dusty cot while Clayton left to go through to a door leading to what Uma assumed to be the kitchen from the sound of a cork popping.

Helga’s grunt brought Uma’s attention back to the soldier, and just in time for her to catch a sea glass orb thrown in her direction.

“Here’s one of your mom’s orbs. That will be $20.” Helga held out her hand expectedly.

“Huh? What?” Uma stammered, mentally kicking herself for losing her mature composure. She had already paid Sykes $20 when she had ordered Helga’s services. Knowing how business was run on the Isle, either Sykes hadn’t given Helga her cut or Helga was lying that she needed to pay so she would get more money.

Either way, it didn’t explain why Helga had already gotten the sea glass orb her mom used to make gaudy necklaces.

“Why do you have this? Aren’t we supposed to steal together?” Uma managed to regain her normal confident voice.

Helga scoffed, “No. You hired me to take this. I did. I don’t need your help for it. I don’t work with greenhorns.”

“Well, uh. Well I need to hire you to steal something else. To steal with us.” Uma clarified.

Helga raised her eyebrow sardonically, “I don’t work with greenhorns.”

“Listen Sinclair,” Harry moved forward to help Uma make her point, menacingly wielding his hooked hand to graze Helga’s collarbone, “We need your expertise. And you’re going to give it or else.”

Helga’s expression transformed to the poker face Uma had seen her use when she quelled bar brawls at Gaston’s house. It was stony, rarely changing from its look of calm determination.

Without a warning, she twisted Harry’s hook arm behind his back, knocked him in the spine and straddled him so her knee digged into his back. Using her free hand she took out a small glock from her back pocket and placed it at Harry’s temple. She cocked the trigger.

On instinctive, Uma dropped her sea glass orb, glass shattering everywhere and cutting her skin but she didn’t care. “No!”

She wanted to go help but knew her limits too. She hadn’t had the thirty plus years of soldier training the woman had and they both knew it.

“This.” Helga shook her head pitying at Uma, not once moving her gun from Harry’s head, “Is why I don’t work with greenhorns. You take everything personally.”

Uma could have mentally kicked herself again. Never show emotion for another person.

With that rule in mind, Uma refused to allow herself to sigh when Helga let Harry get up to stand next to her by the door and she refused to unclench her fist as she warily eyed Helga.

As much as she loathed relying on others she needed Helga’s expertise. She couldn’t let her plan start if she didn’t have the proper muscle.

“Fine. No playing games or stealing useless trinkets. But I do have another proposition for you.”

“A proposition? From Ursula’s daughter, this got to be good.” Helga’s voice dripped with sarcasm even though her face didn’t change from its focused concentration.

Uma ignored the lack of respect, “I want to get into the Coven’s castle in order to infiltrate it from-“

“No.” Helga interrupted sharply, her eyes flashing with annoyance, “That’s my one condition for jobs. No magic. No supernatural. No long lost civilizations or curses longer than four letters. I’m not the one for the job.”

“I’ll pay you. I bet Sykes doesn’t even pay you as much as cut as he claims to. If you do this, I’ll pay you in full.” Uma angled, and hoping this wouldn’t push Helga to kick their asses out, “When do you ever do something a boss hasn’t ordered for you? Can’t you lead on your own or are you just a subordinate?”

Helga raised both eyebrows this time, looking as if she caught on to Uma’s blatant attempt to rile her up. Instead of kicking them out as Uma feared she would, she chose her words slowly and deliberately, “What is this plan exactly?”

Uma decided to not divulge in all the details or what Helga’s full role would be, after all, she needed her on board first, “I need you to just get us into the castle. Stand guard and get us out.”

Helga went up to them at the doorway surveyed them suspiciously. She was a good few inches on them but Uma held her glare for glare and Harry looked borderline innocent as he rubbed a smudge of dirt from his hook.

“Meet me here when you have $5,000 bucks.” Helga muttered and slammed the door in the face.

#winner’s curse #uma #harry hook #chapter four #disney descendants #helga sinclair #clay clayton #clayton #my fanfic #my fanfiction

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virtuissimo · 6 years

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Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse (Review)

Roanhorse has effectively cemented herself as a visionary in indigenous futurism with her rich world-building, her casual commentary on the powers that be, and even her dynamic and lovable characters, but I think it’s perfectly clear that this is her debut novel. She definitely gets lost in the sauce plot-wise towards the end, and there are several points where the potential for improvement is obvious. Nonetheless, she’s got me rearing for the next book already, and I will definitely be following this series.

This is the kind of book where I really think you can get the most out of it if you go in blind with very little prior knowledge of the book, and it really is a good one. I encourage yall to give it a go. If you don’t care about getting a little more detail, I’ll go into a spoiler free section.

No Spoilers

Okay, first thing I’ve gotta talk about is the setting. First off, it’s AWESOME. The setting is about 6? 7? years after an apocalypse. The explanation for it is really organic and it informs a lot of how the book proceeds.

Idk if this counts as a spoiler so it’s in its own paragraph, but basically the apocalypse was a series of natural disasters around the world plus a major flood that drowned out most of the continental U.S. except for a few walled off city states. The walls are specifically and emphatically NOT the ones that the Trump administration is gunning for—Roanhorse dismisses that quite quickly. These walls were ones that local communities decided to put up, and they are made of beautiful materials that have cultural significance for the Dine.

My favorite thing about the setting is the societal organization. Dinetah is a really interesting place because of the ubiquity of Dine people & culture, but also because Roanhorse obviously has a lot of really interesting thing to say about what apocalypse means to a people that have already had their apocalypse. They already had foreign invasion and genocide, they already had their numbers chipped away to a shadow of its former size, they already had their land destroyed beyond recognition. So what does it mean when in apocalypse destroys the society that destroyed yours? I think Roanhorse’s answer is that it did more good for the Dine than bad. They are freer and safer in an apocalypse, even DESPITE the presence of monsters everywhere.

One thing I really liked about her approach to Dinetah was the use of language. To quote a journal entry I wrote about this book: “Roanhorse makes creative use of Dine words and language. There is no glossary, and sometimes there isn’t even an in-text translation. English speakers are forced to pick up Dine words with no life preserver just as so many non-English speakers are forced to do the same in our world.” Most of the concepts, like clan powers and ghosts and monsters, have a Dine word attached to them, and you learn to recognize them as you read. She doesn’t remind you of their definition either: you either paid attention the first time it came up or you’re screwed! It was just an interesting stylistic choice, and I enjoyed the experience.

Another note about the setting that I love: I LOOOVE the references to the other citystates. I think one was New Detroit? New Denver? And there was a Mormon citystate (when I read that I screamed) and there was one called Aztlan (!!!!!) which was very exciting for me. I have complicated feelings about Aztlan because I think most people who live in this post-apocalyptic citystate would probably not be indigenous Mexicans but rather americanized mestizo Chicanos who think they have an inherent claim to the land just because they colonized it first, but I think as an indigenous author I can trust her to develop a nuanced view of Aztlan and what that means for Mexican Americans (especially consider the fact that she had several sensitivity readers mentioned in her acknowledgements). I really hope we get a chance to explore those in future books.

Oh, also: there are no white people in this book. Like, none. They reference them in vague terms, but I don’t think there was a location or scene that had a white person even in the background, and there were certainly no speaking parts for white people in this book. So basically I loved that. I do that often in my own writing but it’s so rare in mainstream fiction. There is a family that is not Dine in the book, but they are a large black family. With regards to the writing of the black characters: I noticed that her physical descriptions of them sometimes had words that I’ve seen on lists of What Not To Say About Black Characters (comparing skin color to food, particular words used to describe hair, etc.), but I flipped to the author bio and she apparently is black as well as indigenous so I guess my concerns weren’t really relevant lol. One of these characters is also gay, and I thought his characterization was a little bit weird, but it’s fine I guess.

Now I haven’t seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I’ve read a spinoff from the same universe and have heard enough about it to see the obvious inspiration that Roanhorse took from it. This is not necessarily a bad thing, of course; Buffy has a very particular energy where it’s fantastically easy to get invested. Maggie Hoskie as a hero is easy to love, and even as someone who doesn’t typically like lengthy action sequences, I found the fighting scenes thrilling. However, at the same time Roanhorse commits some of the same mistakes in writing her female protagonist that Joss Whedon so famously introduced into the mainstream, and there are a few times where it becomes difficult not to roll your eyes.

As I’ve seen other reviewers note, Maggie as a character is very reliant on the men in her life. She describes early on how her life was saved by Niezghani, an immortal godlike monster slayer, and his presence in her thoughts influences nearly every decision she makes throughout the novel. Some people have a problem with this; I personally think this is a fine set-up. The author takes great care to show how unhealthy her relationship with Niezghani is. Even when Maggie is talking about how great and powerful he is, how she should be grateful that he even gives her the time of day, we as a reader can tell something is very wrong with their relationship from the very beginning. I don’t really like the direction Roanhorse went with Niezghani (I’ll get into that in the spoilers section I guess), but I thought this relationship as a premise was fine.

I think where she slipped up a little was in putting her relationship with Kai, a mysterious and charming medicine man who helps her on her investigation/quest/whatever, as the center of the story. I guess technically we’re not certain about this since the whole series isn’t out yet, but I think it’s safe to assume this guy is endgame. The whole first half of the book is spent getting to know Kai, which I think is fine because he is a great character and truly charming. (I’m always suspicious of “”charming”” type characters because more often than not the author makes them annoying and presumptuous.) He actually seems to care about the things that are happening, he doesn’t make assumptions, he understands boundaries, and his kindness is genuine. I like Kai, okay, he’s great. BUT I think that spending so much time with him instead of ruminating with Maggie some more was a mistake.

I can understand WHY roanhorse did this: Maggie is someone who is very wrapped up in her thoughts, and 9 times out of 10 her thoughts are really fuckin depressing. I just think that a lot of time was spent characterizing Kai when it could have been done in less time and more efficiently.

The main thing about Kai is that his skills as a medicine man are very mysterious, and Maggie becomes curious very early on about the nature of his abilities. The answer to her questions, though, aren’t given until very very late in the book. In fact, we don’t understand everything about his medicine man secrets until like 10 pages from the end. I think this is way too late. First off, we don’t get to see him in action very much, and the way things go I really wish we had. Second, Roanhorse just wastes a lot of time in the beginning and crams a whole lot in the end. From a world-building perspective these sections are really cool and fascinating, but plot-wise it’s extremely inefficient that we learn about Kai in bits and pieces like this, especially since all of his secrets kind of come out one after the other all crowded at the end. I don’t know if she got the right balance in that tradeoff.

Another critique I’ve seen people have is that all of Maggie’s problems AS WELL AS the solutions to her problems revolve around the men in her life. I did think it was strange that Maggie was essentially the only major female character in the whole book. There was Rissa, but she was a minor character and didn’t have much agency in the plot. I would say that Maggie did have agency, and the way she carries herself both in conversation and in action both suggest that she is making her own decisions independent of male influence. I see where these critiques are coming from, though, and I agree that more of her story should have been herself rather than obsessing over these men.

Minor spoilers I guess: One scene that I think most socially conscious people rolled their eyes at was the decision to create a plot point where she had to get all dolled up in a sexy outfit because Reasons. And then people had that weird Oh My God So Hot moment that we are all so fond of (/s). Annoying tropes like that rear their ugly faces from time to time, but this is the only one that really irritated me.

Yea. I mean. It’s a good book. I think yall should read it. As I’ve said, the worldbuilding and setting is awesome, the characters are super cool, the action is cool and Actually let’s just get into the spoilers.

SPOILERS

Coyote was one of my favorite characters. I think Roanhorse may have wanted him to be a morally gray could-be-either-side type of character, but I really saw him as a straight up villain just because he never actually did help them in a way that didn’t backfire. I love reading him though; the sheer chaos that he brings to every scene really appealed to my gayer side. I don’t know if this is an aspect to him that is commonly seen in folktales or something, but I did think that he was a little over the top creepy about the sex stuff though. When he said that shit about Maggie jacking off to Niezghani I was just…ok he’s crossin some Lines here. Also he was constantly making Kai and Maggie uncomfortable sexually, so I don’t really get why they were always so willing to trust him. Still, he was SO interesting. Whenever he showed up I was instantly enthralled.

One thing that got on my nerves a little was that from the very beginning, it was very clear that Kai and Maggie being endgame is a given. Don’t get me wrong, Roanhorse put in the work to make them seem like a really organic and natural couple. And I guess it’s kind of respectable that she didn’t try to pretend like it wasn’t gonna happen, cuz we all knew. But I think it was a little annoying that EVERYONE, including Tah and Longarm and Grace and Coyote and Kai and EVEN MAGGIE at times were basically of the attitude that they were just biding time until they eventually hook up one day. She really didn’t have to do all that; I liked them as a couple already!

Okay but plot-wise, I have to say this, but Roanhorse REALLY got lost in the sauce there. The final battles were so complicated, and there were actually 3 different scenes that felt like they could be the final battle but then there was more (the battle where Rissa got gutted, the Niezghani versus Maggie fight, and the Black Mesa battle). I feel like she couldn’t decide on a conclusion for book one and just threw all that in there for good measure. In any case, it made the last third of the book really messy and unfocused.

I think she also had too many Reveals. Like, Niezghani revealed Kai’s identity, Kai reveals his true intentions, Coyote reveals his plan, Maggie reveals her counter-plan, and Coyote reveals the circumstances of her nali’s death. TOO MUCH. It was all so cloudy and confusing towards the end, especially with regards to Coyote’s plan. First of all, I didn’t really understand what his plan was on first read, and I ESPECIALLY didn’t understand why he took the time to explain it to her. Second off, I didn’t understand Maggie’s counterplan (I don’t think it’s explained in too many words?) and I ESPECIALLY didn’t understand how they planned to have Kai survive. (Now that I’ve had time to think about it I suppose it’s related to his fast healing situation probably, and they just decided to murk him and see if he was actually immortal or whatever the fuck.) Also Kai and Maggie had that whole conversation about their love life right in front of Niezghani………messy as fuck and also is this really the time?????

One thing I really liked about the beginning of the book was that Maggie was such an unreliable narrator when it came to Niezghani. Like, it was pretty obvious that he’s garbage from the beginning, but Maggie just idolizes this man and you have to like scream into the book WHYY??? But the only way that she’s able to idolize him that way is that he presents himself as a mentor, as an authority, and maybe not so much as a caring figure as much as someone to look up to. He is, if nothing else, RESPECTABLE. But when he finally shows up in the Maggie v Niezghani fight, he is not respectable. He is overtly cruel in a way everyone, including Maggie, can see. He is overtly manipulative. He is overtly uncaring and honestly terrible. But this portrayal of him is SO MUCH LESS NUANCED than it was at the beginning of the book. I wish Roanhorse had had the guts to make him more complicated. To make him ACT apologetic or ACT like a mentor, but to make him a hypocrite. That, to me, would have been much more interesting. I understand that trauma informed a big part of the reason Maggie trusted him in the first place, but I wanted to meet the smooth and enchanting man that Maggie fell in love with but all I saw was this horrible person who never even tries to hide how horrible he is.

Of course, as this is just the first book, we don’t really know what is to come. Since Niezghani is just chillin under the dirt, I think we can assume that he’ll be back. Nonetheless, I’m a bit disappointed that he was pacified/restrained at the end of this book. I kind of hoped that after this confrontation, Maggie would have an epiphany about all the shit he put her through, and then in following books he would be the main antagonist. They would have various run-ins, but only in the final book has she truly built up the strength to get her comeuppance. Or something like that. I just wanted Niezghani’s role to be stretched out is all. I wanted her arc of truly unpacking all of that mess to be over the course of several books, not just one novel in which she’s also distracted by her budding romance with Kai and also the monster stuff.

So yea. It’s a good book. There’s problems, as I’ve clearly stated, but honestly a lot of them come across to me as rookie errors. This is her debut novel, and I don’t think it’s that weird for her to use these tropes in ways that I as a reader don’t care for. However, I definitely think that the pieces are there for her to make excellent use of her setting and characters and pull together a really energetic and thrilling series. Looking forward to returning to the Sixth World!

#book review #trail of lightning #the sixth world #sixth world #6th world #rebecca roanhorse #trail of lightning review #indigenous futurism #scifi #indigeneity #books #my post #jub jub reads books

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wlwhc · 7 years

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Oh Dear Kryptonian

Requested by anonymous: Being another survivor from Krypton that was held captive on Daxamite, but manages to survive and fly to earth, Clarke introduces you to Kara and she has a huge crush on you? Love your blog!

(A/N): This sucks, and I’m deeply sorry. I also kind of flew away with my imagination with this.

Warning: There’s probably afew grammar mistakes? I think

Words: 3483

Pairing: Kara x Neutral!Reader (I Hope I did it right)

Glossary: Thoni Tea: I’ve been investigating about Kryptonian Vegetation since I have another request that involves Krypton flowers, and they have a weird tea called Thoni Tea, Thon is an area of Krypton, and tea was brewed from select plants on the hills on the Gorvan shore. I like to think that it relaxed the Kryptonians

Oregus Flowers: Are like giant Orchids, their juice can be used to cook, I think that it’s like an oil idk

Twellians: Is a fruit from Krypton, unlikely any other edible thing on earth, it was its own unique flavor, quite delicious.

The day you arrive at earth, body bloodied and beaten, ship crushed and little chance to survive in this unknown planet, you knew that it was finally your time to reunite with your loved ones in the arms of Rao, that was until Kal-El found you, better known as Clark Kent on that planet or Superman. The fact that one Kryptonian had found a way to survive the destruction of his planet bring tears of joy, but knowing that he was probably the only one, made you curse in every single language you knew.

You still had faith that other people in Krypton had survived, anyone. You knew that your family was long dead, you didn't come from a famous house as Kal-El, you came from a poor house that barely manages to survive on their own planet. You were a farmer, and Kal-El family came from a long dynasty of science masters and a lot of their familiar were on the council, the boy was lucky and his family rich so it didn’t surprise you when he told you that he wasn't the only one of his family alive. Kara Zor-El his cousin and the one that was supposed to take care of him but got caught up in the Phantom Zone.

That was good, two Kryptonians was better than zero.

You told him how you survive the destruction of your planet and the planet that kidnap you, Daxamite. Your family needed the money, and farming wasn’t giving them enough to survive the summer, plus your siblings needed new clothes, you didn't think twice when a Daxamite arrive on Krypton, offering a job to whoever want it one. Your parent refuse but you didn’t listen to them, the desperation of helping them was bigger than the pain you were going to get through. You heard the stories about Daxamite, thugs with an exaggerated love for parties and everything that was wrong, you heard about the slaves and the gladiators fight, you thought that you were going to be sold as a slave, but the Daxamite men actually offer you to fight for him, and in return he would send the money you win to your family, you agreed and went to Daxamite with him, but the money never came to your family’s hands, it would always end up on your captor’s belly as alcohol and harmful substances. Time went by and you grew tired of the fights, the blood and deaths, so you told him that you wanted to leave, that’s when from sleeping in a room change to sleeping on the floor of a cell. You still had to fight against whoever he wanted, luckily you were pretty good at fighting, not to mention fast and smarter than any drugged opponent.

A few years later, on your 19 name day, the planet was dying which also mean Daxamite getting wipeout of the solar system. The idea of dying wasn’t scary of bad for you, but when your captor set you free to live your last day, you knew that it was your chance to get the hell out of that planet. You manage to steal one of the ships and fly to the nearest planet that may be safe for you, that’s how you got to Earth, and right now you’re in front of Kal-El.

“you’re hurt and bleeding, you should get some rest, seems like the sun hasn’t had its effect on you yet” The Kryptonian wearing a weird costume said.

“what do you mean? I know that this sun is different from our sun but..”

“it makes us stronger, faster and it can heal us” You immediately thought about the people that lived on this planet, what if they were dangerous, or like Daxamite?

“is this planet a safe place to be?” You shyly asked. You were currently waiting for Kal-El cousin, he had said something about helping you, thank god your wounds weren’t very bad.

“you’re going to be fine kid, I’ll make sure of that” He said smiling at you. You send a little smile, you can take care of yourself, but you appreciate the intention.

“you never told me your name” He said, sitting by your side.

“I don’t have one” You said remembering that you weren’t allowed to have one since you were just a slave.

“you don’t remember your name?”

“I wasn’t allowed to have one, I know my house, I will always remember them but it doesn't matter anymore does it? They’re all dead” Kal-El frowned at this, remembering that not long ago Kara was dating a Daxamite.

“Maybe they aren’t, I always have faith that-”

“I’m a farmer, well, I used to be, I know that my family wouldn't be able to get into a ship, they’re all dead, and if that didn’t kill them, then the lack of food would” You said, eyeing the view, your ship crashed in what Kal-El told you was a forest, the trees were green and harmless, very different from Krypton, but you still liked the different shades of color, it was a shame the lack of fruit but still beautiful.

“you’re from Al house, Kara told me about that house once, I’m sorry” He knew about the farmers on Krypton, thanks to Kara. Al house was a long dynasty of workers, but never sciences or militaries, just farmers and sometimes healers, they were good at that, but they were also not very respected or well paid.

“don’t be-”

“Kal-El , there you are! I saw a ship crashing and and and I got your message and and-” The blonde that was wearing a similar costume as Kal-El was rambling non-stop, but with a big smile on her face.

“Kara, this is (Y/N) from Krypton and Al house” Kal-El seems to stop her rambling and introduces you to her. Kara finally pays attention to her surroundings and realize that you were there the whole time, her cheeks change to a pink color. You waved at her not knowing what to say and then you realize what Kal-El said.

“(Y/N)?” You asked him, raising an eyebrow at him.

“New planet, new name, it suits you” He said, helping stand since your injuries were difficulting you the task.

Kara didn’t seem to function correctly since her eyes found your figure. Even though you were bloody and beaten, you still looked ravishing for her. Supergirl’s costume would always give some kind of boost on her confidence but once you looked your eyes with hers, she almost falls to her knees.

“Great kara, you just meet them and you already have a crush on them, just great!” She thought

“Just breath, be cool, be cool, like Alex, be like Alex” She thought, but once she tried to talk, her voice didn’t seem to come out and her tongue was tight in a knot

“o-oh h-hi I’m K-”

“Kara Zor-El, yeah, your cousin already told me about you” You said wincing when you tried to walk to her, she put her arm around your waist out of instinct, you looked at her and smile. Now she’s the one that needs help to not fall.

“Y-You're bleeding” She manages to say.

“Can you take them to the D.E.O, the sun hasn’t affected them yet, I’ll go later, I have a few things I need to take care of. Kal-El said, he knew that the D.E.O had the Solar Machines, and right now, you needed them to heal, he also had a few thief to stop.

“sure thing! let’s go (Y/N)!” Kara said floating a few feet over you.

“hmm I can’t-I can’t do that” You said and Kara goes down by your side. She frowns remembering that you still didn’t have your powers.

“oh shot! , I forgot you can’t fly, don’t worry, you will in no time and you’re going to love it! it’s amazing, the wind on your face and watching the city below you-Oh and touching the clouds is the best! they’re like fluffy huge pillows and also watching the sunset when you’re up there is terrific! and-” You couldn’t stop her, she was like a kid in a candy-store, it seems like she gets over-excited easily, that’s cute. Kal-El saw how Kara didn’t seem to stop talking, but he also saw how she looked at you, and how red her cheeks would turn when you smile at her or nod letting her know that you were listening to her. He smiles already knowing how screwed up her cousin was.

“Kara” He softly said

“yeah?” Kara looks at him smiling.

“she’s hurt and bleeding, she needs to go to the D.E.O-” Kal-El said, making Kara blush and you smiled at her cute behavior.

“oh! right, sorry it’s just-I’m so excited to meet another Kryptonian!” She said playing with her hands not daring to look at you.

“it’s good to know that not everyone is dead” You send her a small smile, which she returns with a grin

“yeah” She sighs deeply.

“it’s-it’s good”

After a few weeks, you find yourself getting very close to the Kryptonian, and Kara finds herself not being able to hide her feelings for you. She needed to hold you in her arms every time you had nightmares about Daxam, she needs to kiss your pink lips when you give her those small smiles, she just needed you so much all the time, she couldn’t take it anymore but...neither could you.

You didn't know when or how, but you fall for her, who wouldn’t right?.

No, literally, who wouldn’t? almost everyone in her circle of friends had felt for her, it was impossible not to, but if they got over her, then you could do it too. But it was a really hard thing to do when the Kryptonian was always near you.

When you got lost on the streets trying to be like a normal “human citizen” she holds your hand and since that day she always hold your hand when you’re confused about something. When she got back tired from a mission she would collapse by your side on the couch, and cuddle with you, she literally clings to you and Alex would always smirk and leave the house.

Maggie and Alex were always whispering things about you and Kara and they had asked you a thousand time what you think about Kara. Even her other friend was always trying to get you to confess something about Kara. Get over your feelings for her was hard And Kara was feeling the exact same.

Today was different though, Kara was overstressed with a new villain, something about not being able to defeat him and her thinking she’s a bad hero. You think otherwise, she’s Supergirl for Rao’s sake, she’s the best superhero.

“thank god here you are” Kara’s sister came rushing to you.

“what’s wrong Alex?” You asked seeing her having a little trouble breathing, probably for running all over the base.

“Kara needs you” She said, looking with pleading eyes.

“is she hurt?” You asked worriedly.

You decide to become the new doctor on the D.E.O since you knew a lot about special plants to heal almost all the aliens, yeah you were good at fighting but you wanted to leave behind your past on Daxam for good, and do more healing that harming. So with the help of J’onn and M’gann, you manage to fill the base with flowers and plants from different planets, each one for a specifical use. And also manage to get a lot of Krypton flowers in secret for Kara, it was a surprise for her birthday but maybe you will need to show her the place before that.

“no no she’s not hurt, well, sort of” She said rambling a little.

“Alex just tell me what happened” The older Danvers sighs fixing her hair.

“she’s stresses and sad and doesn’t want to get off her bed, I need your help”

“why would I be any help?” Alex rolled her eyes, not believing how oblivious you are. If you said “Kara I want the moon” she’s probably going to give it to you.

“you’re her friend! you’re like her special person-just go see her okay? you’re my last chance” She grabs your hands and almost kneels pleading you to go pay a visit to her sister.

“Okay, I’ll go, but first let me grab some things okay?” Alex jumps happily and hugs you

“yes! thank you thank you thank you”

You arrive at Kara’s apartment, with a bag filled with a few Kryptonians goodies. Most of the plant that you found were edible, you had Twellians, that was a fruit that had a very rare taste unlikely any other kind of state here on earth, Oregus flowers, they were beautiful flowers, pretty similar to the Orchids here on earth, their juice can be used to cook. With those two you can be sure that Kara would be happy, but you also had Thoni Tea, it took you a while to make the plants grew, they weather here was really different from Krypton and you didn’t seem to found the right field to grow them, but with a help of the huge database of the D.E.O, you found out that their dessert was a perfect place to grow them.

You knocked the door, but no one seem to answer. Alex gave you the keys you didn’t want to get in Kara’s house without her permission.

“Kara? Are you there?” You also didn’t want to use your x-ray vision, so you keep your glasses on, her privacy was first. You knock once again and you heard Kara’s voice.

“come on in, I know Alex gave you her keys Y/N” You got inside her apartment, finding her on the couch eating something.

“Hey there” You called her leaving the bag on her kitchen.

“hey” She answers you, with a frown looking at her food.

“Alex told me you were stress and sad” You said, standing awkwardly in front of her.

“Yeah” She said looking sadly at the wall

“You want to talk about it?”

“No”

“Wanna cuddle?”

“Yeah”

“Are you going to say anything but yeah and no?” You said smiling at her, but she didn’t change her gaze

“No”

“Okay, but first let me show you something okay?” knowing that she wasn’t going to move, you went to the kitchen and started preparing the Thoni Tea. Kara smelled a weird but delicious smell, she kind of know what it was but she wasn't sure. You appear holding a cup of what it seems to be coffee or tea.

“What is that? it smells really good?”

“You never had Thoni tea before?” Kara gasp at this, remembering the times her mother and aunt had to prepare the tea for her when she was stress with school or having problems to sleep.

“My mom used to make it for me..h-how d-did you-” You gave her the cup of tea and she took a sip from it, smiling when the familiar flavor hit her taste buds.

“I’m good with plants, J’onn and M’gann helped me grow a few from Krypton, it was a surprise for your birthday but since you're so sad and miserable” You said, smiling at seeing her so happy for a simple tea.

“Y/N I don't know what to say” Kara was more than happy, you literally bring her a little piece of Krypton back to her life, an avalanche of memories of all the times she had problems sleeping and her mother would take her to bed and prepare her Thoni Tea. She couldn’t help but tear up a little bit.

“that’s not all” You said, going back to the kitchen

“this is not all?” She left the cup on the table and followed you to the kitchen. She gasps at seeing the Oregus plants in a pot.

“I also grew a few Oregus plants” You showed her the small plant and Kara squeal happily

“they are small but that’s just for now, they will grow a lot if you take care of them”

“they’re beautiful, my aunt loved this flowers” She said nostalgically, you didn’t want her to be sad, so you showered her the Kryptonians fruits

“I also grew a few Twellians, they’re not much but this season hasn’t been very good” You said taking the small fruits out of the bag.

“Oh my god! I love those! Y/N I haven’t found anything that tastes at least a little bit to this!” She said smiling at you, her eyes a little bit glassy.

“d-do you-do you feel better now?” You asked shyly. Kara rushed to you, wrapping you in a crushing bone hug.

“I’m going to take this as a yes” You said laughing until you felt your shoulder little wet, and her little sobs. You run your finger through her golden hair and kissed her head softly. Your heart was having trouble to keep up, seeing Kara likes this makes you feel sick, she deserves the world, all the world, the whole galaxy even! , but here she was, a sobbing mess, hidden in your arms like a scared child.

Kara needed this, beautiful memories from Krypton, but Kal-El was busy and the only thing that could remind her of her home was the hologram of her mother. But now she had you, she had you here at her apartment, she had your arms wrapped around her, she had your soft voice telling her sweet reassuring words, she had you here with her, alive. Maybe one day you will not be here for her, what if one day you decided to leave her side? what if one day a villain finds out about how much she cares about you and kills you?. Her brain was running with thousand of ideas, memories and worries.

“I thought this was going to make you happy not worst” You said sadly, making Kara giggle a little bit, her tears were of joy, She was happy knowing that She had you by her side, but there was also a little bit of sadness, knowing that she doesn't have you the way She wants it.

“Thank you” She said between tears

“I think I should apologize, I didn't want to make you cry-”

“I’m happy” She said smiling but the tears don't seem to stop.

“it doesn't seem like Kara” You said, wiping a few tears away.

“It’s just-” She sobs and sniff a little bit.

“What?” You grabbed her face in your hands, you weren’t realizing the proximity and the situation you were in, her face so close to yours, her pink lips so close to yours.

Kara didn’t even think a second, she was too overwhelmed to even think properly and the proximity of your lips to her was also making her feel a little bit dizzy

“I like you” She said closing her eyes, ready to hear your rejection, but instead, she felt your soft lips against hers, it took her a few seconds but she kissed you back, her trembling hands resting on your waist.

“I like you too” You said, the two of you were blushing like crazy. Kara giggled at your words not believing that this was happening.

“Are you happy now?-”

“Yeah” She said smiling at you, with a lovesick gaze

“Do you want to cuddle?” You asked her, the blonde keeps smiling like an idiot.

“Yeah”

“Are you still only going to say yeah or no?” You asked, which she giggles and wraps her arms around your neck.

“Kiss me” She whispers, her lips brushing with yours

“...yeah” She giggles and kisses you, forgetting about whatever was bothering her, her stress and mostly everything. She was focused on you, and your soft lips.

such a shitty end , I’m sorry

#kara x reader #kara danvers #kara danvers imagine #kara imagines #kara zor-el #supergirl #supergirl imagines #supergirl x reader #supergirl imagine #supergil x reader #neutral reader #alex danvers #krypton #dc #superman #kal-el #clark kent

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lifeanddeathsscenarios · 7 years

Text

When the Sun Crashes

I hope you have all been enjoying this story. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well!

Summary: You would always be there for your best friend. Or at least that’s what you wish you could do. But when that best friend is running to chase their dream, do you think you can keep up?

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / next

There were many things about Taeyang that you never understood and probably would never understand. Such as entering your home early on a Saturday morning.

You groaned, pulling your sheets over your head. “Five more minutes…”

“If I give you five more minutes, we’re gonna be late.” He sighed, pulling your sheets away from you.

“Why do I even need to come? I wasn’t invited.” You sat up, scratching at your bed head.

Laughing, he leaned over to help smooth your hair out. “I asked if I could bring a plus one and they said sure. So, you’re coming.”

“It’s my only free day. I wanna spend it in bed.” You waved his hand away, frowning when he caught your wrist and tugged you up. Although you tried going back to bed, he pulled you to your bathroom.

He opened the door before pushing you inside. “Go get ready. I picked your outfit for you.” He closed the door, making you stare in shock.

You turned, seeing your clothes laid out on the closed toilet seat. “Hey! What did I tell you about going through my stuff?!”

“We’ve known each other since we were in primary school. Stop pretending we haven’t seen everything-”

“Just shut up and make me some breakfast. I’m gonna shower.” You cut him off, face warm.

From behind the door, you heard him chuckle. “Don’t take too long. We’re meeting up in an hour.”

After you were sure he had been busy in your kitchen, you sighed and locked the bathroom door.

You hated how easily Taeyang could convince you. All you wanted was to sleep in. But instead, you were his plus one at a party. A party you were sure the girl crushing on your best friend had invited said best friend and his dance crew to in order to get close to him.

Of course, your best friend was too oblivious to things like that.

“Why did you change? The outfit I prepared matched with mine,” Taeyang complained as you two headed to the dance studio. He was wearing a simple white shirt with a black bomber jacket along with black ripped jeans and black converse.

“That’s exactly why I changed. Seriously Tae, you know I hate skirts. Why’d you pick one?” How he found that monstrosity, you didn’t know. It was buried under other clothing along with the hideous bomber jacket matching his own. A simple black sweater and jeans along with your black combat boots were just fine to you.

“It was in your closet. If you don’t wanna use it, why do you even have it?”

You glared at him. “My mom bought it and I don’t have the heart to throw it out.”

Cooing, he pinched your cheeks. “No wonder it was so cute. Your mom really has a good taste.”

“You’re just asking for a fight now,” you said, hands on his wrists.

“Let’s not do that today.” He chuckled, while releasing you. He rubbed at your red cheeks softly, trying to soothe the pain he had caused you. “Let’s just hurry. They’re probably already waiting in the car.”

Of course, Taeyang was correct, The other boys rushed you two inside the small van, welcoming you with a smile before starting on the highway.

“Is this the biggest van you guys have?” you complained, thighs squished against your best friend’s. “If you guys didn’t know, Tae’s got really thick thighs.”

“Hey! That’s one of my complex’s!” He pouted. “And what’s wrong with this van? It’s just that you’re here were tight on car space. It’s usually really spacious.”

“If you had known I would just make this car uncomfortable, why’d you invite me?”

One of the other dancers said, “But you don’t make this car uncomfortable…”

Their dance leader, at the front passenger’s seat turned to you two with a smile. “I actually thought you would sit on his lap.”

“HEY!” You reached out, trying to punch him. Taeyang grabbed your upper arms to restrain you.

“Please don’t kill anyone…” Taeyang begged.

“I’m not gonna kill him. I just wanted to show him a lesson…”

Their dance leader laughed. “I see why you like her, Taeyang. Girl’s got attitude. She knows how to defend herself.”

Taeyang sighed, pulling you back when you tried to hit the leader. “She’s my best friend. She should know how to defend herself.”

“Best friend huh?” The leader wondered. “Why doesn’t she dance like you?”

“That’s more of a Taeyang signature in our friendship,” you explained, sitting back in your seat.

“Is it because you’re a bad dancer?” Their dance leader turned to smirk at you.

You grit your teeth. “Why you-!”

“Please no killing!” your best friend begged as he held you back.

“Fight! Fight! Fight!” The rest of the boys encouraged.

The dancer who was driving pointed at everyone. “Don’t make me turn this van around!”

“Why can’t we ever have a normal trip?” Taeyang whined.

Luckily, the whole van arrived at the party in tact.

You weren’t sure how, but your best friend was relieved and that’s all that mattered.

“Okay, Min and I are gonna go talk to the DJ. You guys can chill or find some ladies.” Their dance leader winked.

You rolled your eyes while the other boys laughed.

“C’mon. Let’s go in.”

When you entered the hall that held the party, you deduced that Yoonji really did come from a rich family.

The hall was huge but already filled with people. Balloons and banners filled the place and there were children running around. There was a buffet table on the right side of the room while various tables of different activities were on the opposite side of the room. At the back of the room, a stage was set up for the DJ table and the special acts that the family probably paid a lot of money for.

In your mind, you were shocked at the similarity of Western birthday parties Yoonji’s family held. They must be really rich.

At the entrance, there was a table for sign-in and to leave presents. The woman manning it smiled when you all entered.

“Hello! You must be the dance crew our Yoonji kept talking about. You don’t have to-”

The dance leader shook his head as everyone took out an envelope. “We’ve already prepared gifts. Please accept them.”

You suddenly felt stupid for not preparing a gift as the woman accepted them from each boy. However, when Taeyang gave his, he smiled at the woman.

“It’s from both of us,” he said, wrapping an arm around your shoulder.

While you sputtered with a red face, the other boys chuckled behind their hands and the lady in front of you two smiled widely.

She nodded, putting the envelope in a white box. “I understand. Enjoy the party and good luck!”

You all bowed before leaving, Taeyang pulling you along with him.

“Hey,” you said as you shoved his arm off your shoulder. “Why did you do that?”

“I already planned that you would forget a present, knowing how busy you are. Plus, you are my plus one. It would only make sense that we share a present.”

You really hated how he could explain himself out of a hard spot. “Fine. But don’t try stuff like that again.”

He laughed. “Only if we stop being friends.”

Right after you had your fill from the buffet, you made a plate for Taeyang (who was practicing outside for their performance).

It was funny how, although the best dancer, he’d keep practicing whenever he could. Even now, when all the other boys were having fun decorating cookies and getting fake tattoos with sprayed paint, he was practicing on an empty stomach.

You sat back at your seat, putting the plate you made for Taeyang on the table space next to you, where he sat.

“It’s cute how you two look out for each other.”

You rolled your eyes and stared at the boy to your right. “It would be cute if you shut your mouth, Dongjoo-oppa,” you said sweetly to the dance team leader.

He laughed, taking a bit from the 2nd plate he made for himself. “Such harsh words sound like honey coming out of your mouth. If you two aren’t dating, why do you do stuff like that?” He pointed to the plate of food you had made.

“You know how he is.” You sighed. “For Taeyang, dance comes before food. Everything can wait when it comes to dancing.”

“Huh…” He picked at his food, deep in though. “Do you think that’s true?”

“Of course. Dancing is his whole life,” you said without a second thought.

“Then which do you think comes first for him?”

“What?”

“Dancing or you?”

You frowned. That was the dumbest question. “Why would he ever have to choose between me and dancing? I would never get in the way of his dream.”

“It’s just a hypothetical question.” Dongjoo rested a cheek on his right hand as he stared at you. “So, dancing or you?”

“Dancing,” you whispered, eyes dropping to the table. The answer was clear to you and, even though it hurt, it was the absolute truth.

Shaking your head, you got up. “I’m gonna go check on the other boys,” you said before leaving him.

You pretended not to hear what the dance leader said as you left.

“Funny. Taeyang doesn’t seem like he’d choose dancing.”

While you were helping two of the boys help little kids decorate cookies, a child tugged at your jacket. You looked down at them with a smile.

“Yes?”

“Unnie, can you make a pretty smiley face on this one?” the little girl asked.

“I’m not really good at it.” You laughed in apology. Kwangho and Beomseok had made many of the children’s cookies looking even more tasty with their frosting art. You had just helped children who wanted to write their names on theirs. “You should ask the oppas, they’re better than me.”

The little girl frowned. “But I want you to do it. Everyone who went to you look extra happy. Even the adults were happy.”

Even though you smiled at the compliment, you knew you shouldn’t lie to the kid. “I’m not really good at art…”

“It doesn’t have to be perfect… I just want a happy face!” She pouted. “Please unnie!”

You sighed. “Okay, okay. But remember that I told you I wasn’t good.”

The girl smiled, totally ignoring your warning. “Thank you!”

As you tried to do your best making a smiley face on the cookie with the frosting, the child watched intently. When you were almost done, you asked what her name was.

“I’m Mija. What about you, unnie?”

“Y/N.” You smiled, handing her the finished product. “It was nice meeting you, Mija.”

She squealed in delight as she took the cookie. “Thank you unnie! It looks so pretty! You did a better job than my unnie! Thank you!” She pulled you down to hug you before running off to brag about the cookie.

You smiled after her, but finally noticed you were alone at the table. “I can’t believe they ditched me without saying anything…”

Suddenly, the MC went up to the stage. “Good evening everyone! I hope you have all enjoyed your food and that the children enjoyed the activities that were set up. Now, we’re gonna start the real fun! We prepared many special shows for you all!” The MC smiled.

You hurried back to your seat as the lights dimmed down. The table was empty, save for the center piece and the plates of food the other boys had made themselves. Your seat was near the stage, but closer to the left side of the room.

“First, we have an amazing dancing crew! Not only are they handsome, they’re talented! Coming from the dance studio to this stage is a big deal! Everyone, please welcome Figure 8!”

While the MC left, the spotlight turned off and made the place dark. It went quiet and you held your breath.

Lights hit the stage, showcasing 8 of the boys you had arrived at the party with. When the music played and they started dancing, you smiled widely.

It was always the best when Yoo Taeyang was in his element.

You guessed that after your thoughts on the practice you had seen, the boys really put in a lot of effort. All the mistakes you pointed out, they had fixed. Not only were they dancing with the beat, they seemed like they were enjoying it as well.

You couldn’t help but laugh when Dongjoo winked at a table of high school girls. He really fixed what you had suggested.

When they finished, there was an uproar of cheers and clapping. You even heard a child from the table behind you ask if they were idols (you couldn’t help but smile at the thought).

“Wow! An amazing performance from Figure 8! Let’s give them another round of applause!” the MC said, giving the group more applause.

The boys bowewd before leaving the stage, all of them shedding their jackets off. As they headed back to the table, you clapped for them.

“You guys did great! I’m really proud,” you said as Taeyang took his seat next to you.

Dongjoo laughed, sitting as well. “It’s all thanks to you. Hey, could you come to our next practice? We have another gig and we want your opinion again.”

You frowned. ��Why can’t you just record yourselves and monitor it?”

“Because we need a change in atmosphere.” He blinked. “The guys seem more alert when you’re around, duh.”

“Just cause I’m a girl? Ask someone else,” you scoffed. “I don’t need to waste my time with you guys. Besides, there are prettier girls out there.”

“Hey,” he scolded. “You’re pretty to us. And that’s not why I want you to start coming more often. You see mistakes I can’t even catch. Plus, we need an outside view. We wanna know the thoughts of an audience member.”

“Don’t some of you guys have siblings? Why can’t you ask them instead?”

He sighed, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair. “Our siblings don’t want anything to do with our dancing. C’mon, we’ll even buy you food.”

You heard Taeyang chuckle. He knew that with you, food was always a deal breaker. You wanted to prove that jerk wrong.

“I’ll pay you,” Dongjoo offered with a smile. “Twenty dollars for each practice.”

Taeyang gasped, making you turn and slap his thigh. “Ow! I just think that it’s a good offer… That’s why I reacted that way…”

“Still,” you replied. “You know I’m busy.” With regular schooling, a part-time job, and schooling from an academy, you weren’t sure if watching them dance would fit in your schedule.

“You won’t be coming to every practice. We’ll invite you to watch when we feel like we’ve got the dance moves down. Then I’ll ask Taeyang to ask you to come. If you can’t, we’ll just schedule it to a new day,” Dongjoo explained. He seemed to really want you to accept.

You looked over at Taeyang, who shrugged with a smile. “It would be nice for my best friend to know my dance friends better,” he said.

You wanted to decline. Sure, Taeyang is your best friend and you enjoy watching him dance but dancing wasn’t really your expertise.

Just as you opened your mouth, a hand covered it.

“Unnie! He’s gonna give you food and twenty dollars! Don’t say no!”

Pulling the hand away from your mouth gently, you turned to look at the child. “Mija, you don’t understand-”

“Say yes! They’re handsome and cool, unnie! Please!” She looked at you with twinkling eyes.

Taeyang patted her head. “She’s cute. How do you know her?”

“I was helping at the cookie table.” You sighed, rubbing your temples. Children were so hard to deal with. “Mija, honey-”

“As the birthday girl, my wish is for you to say yes to them!”

Dongjoo chuckled. “A birthday girl just wasted her wish on you.”

“No,” you said. “She hasn’t blown her candles out yet.”

Mija frowned, pulling away from your best friend. “A birthday girl can have as many wishes as she wants on her birthday.”

‘Stubborn kid…’ “This wish is too big. The only way it’ll work is if you wish it before blowing your candles.” You cursed at luck for making you bullied by a little girl.

“Mija!” a voice called, catching the girl’s attention. “It’s time for cake!”

She basically lit up and ran towards the stage, where they would present the cake. She turned to look at you before she left. “I’m going to wish it!”

You watched as she stood on a chair so everyone could see her. You waved back when she waved at you enthusiastically.

“Let’s sing ‘happy birthday’ to the birthday girl, Mija!”

Everyone sang, clapping their hands to the beat while you hoped she really wouldn’t wish what she had told you she was going to wish.

After she blew the candles and was caked, she looked over to you and yelled, “Unnie! Did my wish come true? Are you gonna help them?”

You groaned, hanging your head. “I hate all of you,” you whispered.

Taeyang laughed. “She said yes! Your wish came true.” He patted your leg and you could hear the rest of his dance team members cheer at your agreement.

You sincerely hated everyone.

#sf9 #sensational feeling 9 #sf9 scenarios #taeyang #yoo taeyang #yoo taeyang scenario #best friend scenario #female reader #ff: when the sun crashes

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rpf-bat · 7 years

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Dance Alone To The Tune Of Your Death

Pairing: Frank Iero x Reader

Genre: Fluff, Romance

Summary: Request fic for @chloethebinch. “I was wondering if you could do a fic where the reader is Frank's friend and he suggests that she could be Helena in the music video and he gets a huge crush on her in the Helena dress?”

The dance studio at your college's fine arts building was empty, except for you. You weren't surprised. It was past midnight. What other student besides you was crazy enough to be pirouetting at this hour?

Maybe other people would think it was weird, but, when you were stressed, dancing always calmed you down. You slid on your ballet slippers, tying the ribbons tightly so they wouldn't slip down your ankles. You put a CD onto the stereo and hit play. A normal ballerina would have used classical music. To be honest, you should probably be using the soundtrack to Swan Lake, since you were going to be performing in your school's production of that ballet later this year. Instead, for some reason, all you wanted to dance to was your friend Frank's post-hardcore band, My Chemical Romance.

Frank had dropped out of college to be MCR's rhythm guitarist full time. At the time, you were worried he was making a mistake (and, of course, sad that he wouldn't be your classmate anymore). But, his decision seemed to have paid off. His band had been signed to a major label, and last summer, they'd traveled the country as part of Warped Tour. Part of you wondered if Frank was going to forget all about you now that he was getting rich and famous.

Don't worry about that right now, you told yourself. Just dance.

You pointed your toes and began a spin as the opening notes of 'Helena', the first track on the CD, began to play. You did a demi-plie as you let the sound of Frank's wild instrumentals wash over you. The vocalist, Gerard, was great, too, but when you listened to MCR, your focus was always on Frank. Maybe it was because you had a bit of a crush on him.

So do ten thousand other girls, at this point, you frowned, and threw yourself harder into the dance to distract yourself from your negative thoughts. You whirled and twirled across the floor to every song on the album, and by the time the last track concluded, you were panting, brow streaked with sweat.

You froze, and gasped, when you heard the sound of someone clapping.

Who the hell is in here?! you wondered, turning around in shock. Your jaw dropped when you saw Frank Iero standing there in the doorway, grinning at you.

"Frank?!" you gaped. "When did you get into town?"

"We just got back from tour," Frank explained, "so I had to come and see you."

"But, how did you know I'd be here?" you wondered. You nervously tucked a sweat-drenched strand of hair behind your ear. Great. First time Frank sees you in months, and you're in your grimy workout leotard.

"Cuz I know you," Frank laughed. "I went by your dorm, and you weren't there, so I figured this was the only other place you'd be."

"It's good to see you again," you said, stepping closer and giving your old friend a hug.

"Good to see you, too, Y/N," Frank said into your ear. "I missed you."

You blushed and pulled away.

"Your dancing's gotten better," Frank complimented.

"Oh, no, I still need lots of practice," you shook your head humbly.

"No, I mean it, you're really talented," Frank insisted. "Actually, that's part of what I came here to talk to you about."

"What do you mean?" you asked, puzzled, as you sat down on the floor and took a swig from your water bottle.

"You know my band's song 'Helena', right?" Frank asked, sitting down beside you.

"Yeah, it's my favorite song on your new album," you nodded.

"Well, the label's decided we need to make a music video for it," Frank explained.

"Wow, so this will be your second big-budget video shoot, right?" you replied, remembering how crazy it had been when you saw Frank - your Frank - on MTV last September when the video for 'I'm Not Okay' came out.

"Yeah, it's nothing like the dinky little video shoot we did with Eyeball, back in Jersey, for 'Vampires Will Never Hurt You'," Frank compared. You still remembered the day Frank and the guys shot that video. It was a couple years ago now, but it felt like more.

"So, what's the concept for the new video?" you asked curiously.

"It's a funeral scene," Frank revealed. "We're all there to bury Helena."

"That's going to give me deja vu of the real funeral," you frowned. 'Helena', was, of course, named after Gerard and Mikey's grandma, who had died several months prior. You'd accompanied Frank to the memorial service, to support the Way brothers. It had been such a sad day.

"Me, too," Frank admitted sadly. "But, the video director said he doesn't want Helena to be played by an old lady, like the real Elena Way was when she passed."

"For real?" you blinked, surprised.

"Yeah, he says if it's a young person, it's more emotional," Frank shrugged. "The idea is that, during the video, she'll open her eyes, and get out of the coffin, and start dancing towards the door, like her spirit is leaving for the afterlife."

"That sounds beautiful," you whispered, impressed. "I'll watch the video when it comes out, for sure."

"About that," Frank said, a smirk crossing his face. "I don't want you to watch it."

"What?" you said, confused. "Why not?"

"I want you to be in it," Frank declared.

"What?!" you gasped.

"I want you to play Helena," Frank clarified.

"There's no way!" you cried. "Frank, I'm just a student. This is a for-real music video, that's going to cost tons of money to make, and be on TV, and everything. You need to hire a pro. I'm sure any experienced dancer from, like, the New York City Ballet company, for instance, would love a chance to work with....."

"But, I don't want somebody from the New York City Ballet," Frank interrupted with a smile. "I want you."

"Why?" you argued. "I know how important the song is to Gerard and Mikey. I mean, it's about their grandma. If I screwed up a role that important....."

"I already talked to Gerard and Mikey," Frank assured you. "They don't think you're going to screw up. They want you in the video, too. And after seeing you dance tonight, I'm sure it's the right decision. Please, Y/N, will you do this for me?"

You looked at Frank for a moment, uncertain. His eyes were pleading.

".....Ok," you decided, heart pounding. "I'll do it." %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

The day of the video shoot finally came. You had to let all your professors know you'd be missing a week of classes, and reserve a plane ticket to Los Angeles. But, when you drove from the airport to the church where 'Helena' was being filmed, Frank was there on the steps to greet you.

"Are you ready for today?" he asked, hugging you in greeting.

"I'm nervous, to be honest," you confessed when you pulled away.

"You can do it," Frank assured you. "I believe in you, Y/N. Come on, let me introduce you to the director."

The director, Mark Webb, and the choreographer, Michael Rooney, were polite and friendly to you. There were several other dancers milling about, but Mark explained that you were the one the camera would primarily be focusing on. Your heart thumped anxiously, but you reminded yourself that you'd been practicing your dance routine for weeks. You could do this.

"You'll need to get changed into your costume soon," Michael suggested, handing you a garment bag. You took it and went into the church's bathroom to get changed.

Your costume was a black and red dress. It was sleeveless, which made you a little self-conscious, because you didn't usually wear outfits that bared your shoulders. Plus, it showed a little more cleavage than you were used to. Not a lot - it was supposed to be a burial shroud, after all - but enough to make you yank up the top of the dress, a little embarrassed, as you exited the bathroom.

"Whoa," a familiar voice gasped as you entered the chapel. You turned and saw Frank, dressed in his own costume: a three-piece suit, with a fedora that made him look a bit like a Mafia boss.

"Whoa, what?" you asked shyly, still fidgeting with your dress.

"Whoa, you look gorgeous," Frank said, eyes panning over you slowly. He'd never stared at you like this before.

"Th-thank you," you blushed, not sure what to make of this unusual attention. "You look nice, too."

"Well, I....." Frank wasn't able to finish his statement, because suddenly the makeup artist Mark had hired walked over to you.

"Your makeup's going to take a while, so we should get started, Y/N," the woman told you. "We've got to make you look nice and dead."

"Isn't that an oxymoron?" you laughed.

"I'm sure you'll be the nicest-looking dead girl I've seen," Frank joked. "Um, I guess I'll talk to you later, Y/N."

"Right," you agreed, and headed towards the makeup chair. You wondered why your face was flushing. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

It felt extremely weird to climb into the coffin near the pulpit. You lay still, eyes closed, doing your best corpse impression. The camera man stood over you, leaning over your prone body so he could capture the shot of your eyes opening.

"Cut," the director called. You sat up and looked over at him. Had you done something wrong?

"Y/N, that was very good," Mark complimented, to your surprise. "Before we film your dance, we're going to try and get some shots of the band playing, alright?"

"Alright," you shrugged. You propped your elbows up on the coffin lid as you sat and watched Frank and the other band members pretend to play their instruments. Even though it was just a fascimile of the real thing, Frank was putting so much heart into it, like he always did. You'd always admired his energetic playing style.

"Cut," the director called again. "Gerard, loving the emotion you're giving the camera, alright? Ray, Mikey, you're doing good, too. But, Frank, I need you to look at the camera for me, please."

"I was," Frank argued.

"No, you weren't," Mark disagreed.

"Dude, he's right," Gerard admitted, crossing his arms. "Your acting was good, but you kept looking over at Y/N the whole time."

"I-I did not!" Frank denied, turning crimson.

"Frank, we need you to focus," the director advised. "You can talk to your girlfriend after we're done filming this scene."

"Y/N, uh, she....she's not my girlfriend," Frank stammered. He wasn't usually a stutterer. Why would he be acting like this?

"Oh?" Mark blinked. "Well, my mistake. Let's take it from the top." %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Eventually, the guys wrapped up the scene focusing on them. It was time for your dance. The song played from a stereo in the background, to set the mood and help you sync your steps with the beat. You were nervous. You didn't want to mess up, and make the whole camera crew start over with a new take.

But, then, you thought of what Frank had told you when you got here this morning: You can do it. I believe in you.

Summoning your nerve, you opened your eyes, climbed out of the coffin, and began to dance towards the pews. You resisted tears when you thought of the symbolism of your movements - when you tilted and grasped at the 'funeral attendees', it was meant to be Helena wistfully reaching towards her loved ones, who were mourning her. You glanced at the band. Gerard looked emotional, too. But, Frank was just staring at you, looking completely riveted. The unguarded adoration in his eyes surprised you, and you almost stopped moving.

Could Frank.....like you?

There wasn't time to process this. Knowing that the cameras were trained on you, you continued the dance, taking care not to forget any steps. When you were done, everyone in the church clapped. You flushed, feeling proud of yourself for pulling off such a complicated routine. And you were going to be on national TV!

"Y/N, that was amazing," Frank said, running over to you as soon as the director yelled cut.

"Thank you," you smiled. "You, uh, you looked like you were enjoying it."

Frank's expression changed, and now he looked embarassed. "You were looking over at me?"

"I'm always looking at you," you confessed.

"Y/N....." Frank asked quietly, not wanting the rest of the video's cast to hear. "Do you like me?"

"I mean, of course I like you," you mumbled. "We've been friends for years."

"You know what I meant, Y/N," Frank said, looking at you seriously.

Your face reddened. "Why are you asking me this, Frank?"

"Because I realized today that I like you back," Frank admitted, and, suddenly, he was kissing you, in front of his band, the camera crew, God, and everybody. You were embarrassed by this large audience, but you didn't resist. You'd wanted this for so long, and it was even better than you'd imagined.

"Yes," you said breathlessly when Frank pulled away at last. "Helena likes you very much."

#frank iero x reader #frank iero imagine #helena

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maxthommusic · 4 years

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The Musou Genre Is Exactly Why We Should Want To Pay More For Our Games

I have to say: I’m absolutely loving Hyrule Warriors. It’s a musou-style game, a la Dynasty Warriors, for the Nintendo Switch (and originally, 3DS). While the main criticism of said games can be that they’re ultra repetitive (and they are), something also should be said of game intent, purpose and console aesthetic. While Dynasty Warriors has always felt too arcade-y for sitting on the couch, hyper-focused on playing a game, this iteration set in the Hyrule universe is really amazing on the oft-portable Nintendo Switch. My girlfriend and I play a round or two before bed, making it the perfect sort of mindless fun we can do together. Controls are easy to remember, objectives are simple, and the presentation is really well-done. Including characters that have a storied lineage really magnifies the intrigue of a musou and I’m actually delighted by the story too. Although the narrative isn’t quite on par with Zelda standards, the overarching plotline certainly holds up; it’s definitely more than I expected find in Hyrule Warriors, which is a great surprise.

And what brings me to this post today is to celebrate the concept of these “mindless” arcade games and to also examine how we can keep them apart of the gaming ecosystem. After playing through behemoths like FFVII: Remake and The Last of Us: Part 2, sometimes its easy to always want AAA titles that push the limits of hardware, design and expectation. However, sometimes it’s nice not being such an active participant within an interactive media.

Exhibit A: Hyrule Warriors. Sometimes the ingredients just mix well together. I’ve played several Dynasty Warriors, I’ve tried Samurai Warriors. And while I had a passing interest in some of the Gundam musou entries, I skipped ‘em due to poor reviews. However, after stumbling upon Hyrule Warriors, I’ve started doing some actual research on the genre and the fandom, and it really seems like musou is generally misunderstood.

On the podcast I enjoy, Sacred Symbols (paid patron), musou games came up recently and there was some discussion about how bloated the release schedule is. How can Omega Force keep releasing all this stuff? And on some of the reviews I read that knocked the games, one critic, in particular, mentioned that Fire Emblem Warriors is “as boring as all the other musou games.” Its a 40/100, the lowest grade by nearly 30 points. Without it (again, the shoddiness of Metacritic is exposed), Fire Emblem Warriors would be “in the green” and plainly above 70. When you do any good dive into some research on the genre, you’ll see a lot of people on the forums own several next-gen musou games. When one drops, people eat ‘em up. To claim that an entry is “boring like the others” is a bit too subjective my tastes.

One of the best comments I read was from a user who exclaimed he needed “something mindless” like “EDF” (Earth Defense Force) or Dynasty Warriors after he’d just finished Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, a notoriously bloated experience. The idea that there are different games and different genres to be played at different times is something I love exploring. It’s like the varying flavors of a fine meal, or even a diet spread out over weeks, months or even your entire year. In gaming we talk about absolutes too much: which is the best console? Which genres do you play? What’s the game of the year? What’s your Top 5? There should be multiple answers to all of these, all the time. As we witness more and more toxicity in the games industry, I can’t help but think embracing a genre like musou could be the key to expanding our perspectives.

Now I don’t mean musou explicitly. I mean find your musou. Honestly, I’ll play any genre given the right circumstances. For someone who doesn’t play sports games, I would happily buy Fifa if you told me I had a crew who wanted to play it online. I never thought I could be into Rocket League, but Playstation made it free and then I went on to get the Platinum Trophy because my mates and I had such a good time. Things are highly elastic when it comes to games and their genres. But sometimes we see them as more rigid, and the only absolute here is that they absolutely aren’t.

Exhibit B: Maneater. Here’s a $40 game from Deep Silver that’s somewhere in that AA space. A lot of people knocked it for being repetitive, but again: let’s embrace it for what it is. Intention is often ignored when reviewing games and not only do critics need to work on this, but users too. People rely heavily on other people’s impressions of a game to know if it’s fundamentally fine. Ripping on something for being too repetitive, too short, or too confusing will turn people off. I’ll be the first to admit I stayed away from Fallen Order and Control because I read they had performance issues. While I eventually ended up doing FO as a gameclub with a buddy, my experience was 100% hindered by chugging framerates and long load times. I’m still disappointed I’ll be waiting for Control until I can play it on Playstation 5, but I know my enjoyment will increase ten-fold if I can be patient. But when a game like Maneater is designed as more of a quick pick-up-and-play title, is calling it “repetitive” very fair? Should it have been reviewed through a lens of “play through its entirety as quick as possible?”

Exhibit C: Ghost of Tsushima. The new Playstation exclusive drops this Friday (7/17) and critics are mostly enjoying it. Some of the “less than stellar” reviews I’ve seen, though, fault it for some shoddy presentation in the wake of The Last of Us Pt 2. Which, again, I think is unfair. Comparing Tsushima to TLOU2 doesn’t seem very applicable. TLOU2 is in a league of its own in terms of budget, scope and talent. While Suckerpunch is well-regarded, they are by no means Naughty Dog. Even Insomniac seems to have eclipsed them a bit, growing with nearly every game they release. Suckerpunch, in my mind, sort of knows where their playground is and sticks to it. Which, again, isn’t a bad thing. It’s been some time since I’ve played an open-world game that really drew me in. Ghost of Tsushima’s aesthetic seems ripe for picking, and when a critic mentioned that it doesn’t seem to break any new ground for the genre, I kinda have to throw my hands up and go, “So?” When’s the last time you got to roam Japan as a ghostly samurai? Doesn’t that maybe count as “inventive” enough? For example, if we got Grand Theft Auto, exactly as it is, but set in London, Tokyo, or maybe even Russia, I’d finally have an interest in the series. Somewhere international sounds tantalizing. What’s more is that Japanese critics seem to be loving Ghost and a lot of that stems from it’s overall design aesthetic. Most critics, anywhere, have said it’s a really beautiful game. Sometimes isn’t a game worth playing just because it’s stunning to look at? Rez Infinite is a prime example of something that is fleeting yet remarkable. The original PS2 game may be in the package, but it’s the Area X that’s the real prize and it’s absolutely less than a 30 minute experience. But that’s the thing: it’s an experience. In no way would I ever look at what’s being offered and go, “It’s too short.” Too short by what comparison? Did I love what was offered, yes or no?

As time marches forward, I can’t help but continually feel like games journalism is slowly deteriorating and fan expectations are completely out of whack. One look at the “price increase” debate clearly shows fans don’t understand capitalism, value, and scope. Colin Moriarity, from Sacred Symbols, very openly supports the debate that you aren’t going to see any CEOs trying to let go of their profits. The argument that games’ prices shouldn’t go up because people at the top are rich enough is completely against the entire framework of our society. The concept that businesses are meant to grow is completely fine, in my book, and as game prices haven’t gone up to reflect inflation, we could probably at least do that much for our industry, right?

I think the most tantalizing part of this argument is that not all games are profitable. As dev cycles become longer and more expensive, we need to give studios the ability to invest in smaller projects and maybe even risky ones. Without a bunch of overhead capital, we will see an industry that becomes totally stagnant, devoid of unique offerings. The big players will continue to hit hard and the money-makers will continue to roll out. So expect Assassin’s Creed, Fortnite, Call of Duty and Halo for the rest of eternity (plus whatever Naughty Dog does). For some gamers that’s probably totally cool and fine. But I’m not one of those players. I would mostly stop gaming if all I had to look forward to were games as services or check-box open-world games. These styles are popular because fans love the insane amount of hours they can pour into one investment. Publishers love them because recreating assets and scenarios gets pretty easy for the titles after a certain point. But this can’t represent the entire climate. While I didn’t love Death Stranding, I’m so happy it exists. I’m ecstatic that this game emerged and took as many chances as it did. I’m thrilled Naughty Dog was allowed to take the gambles it did with TLOU2. Even look at Dreams: every person who loves dreams should be embracing a $70 price point because that kind of experience will not exist if companies aren’t extracting profit. Because you know what else? Those money-grubbers will never let go of their profit. Our experience will diminish greatly before they see lower dividends. So consider paying in a way to ensure the industry thrives in the way you want to see fit. Which I think is the heart of the matter.

We control this industry. Don’t like MTX or DLC? Don’t buy it. Don’t want it in your face? Don’t purchase or support those games. If you’re like me and you want a wide genre of games available to you at all times, consider being pro-price increase. Also consider buying games right as they come out. Too many people pirate or wait for sales. Yet those are the same people not in favor of a price increase. Those types of consumers are already hurting the industry. Think of all the people getting fat on free content who never pay a dime for their games. Those people are also trying to weigh in on something they don’t really support to begin with. Publishers have been, ostensibly, trying to charge you nearly $100 per game for several years now with their Deluxe Editions and DLC. If you’ve ever thought this “price-gouging” was ridiculous, consider why it exists in the first place that isn’t related to the tired argument of, “they’re greedy.”

Games are a total luxury. And the people who will determine the future of this medium are the people who actually pay for this luxury. The argument that “you can’t afford it” isn’t appropriate, in my mind. While I sympathize with the notion that it sucks having to pay $60 or even $70 for a new game (especially one that might not be very good), you have to consider what these games cost to create. And if people want today’s offerings to be $20, $30 or $40, it’s simply not realistic. Additionally, we want all different kinds of games, too, right?

I do believe that’s the crux of the argument: I want to be able to play Hyrule Warriors, Sonic Forces, The Last of Us Pt 2, and Ghost of Tsushima. These games are not created equally. While TLOU2 might be a sales giant, Ghost is unproven. It’s got Suckerpunch behind it, but that’s a brand new IP coming out at the end of the Playstation’s lifecycle. If you want more games and more risks like this, you’ve gotta purchase the titles representing these decisions. I love that Hyrule Warriors and Fire Emblem Warriors both exist for me to play. If the ecosystem isn’t supported properly, we don’t get these options. We might get one huge hitter from the “Warriors” franchise instead of a handful. We might get one exclusive from Playstation in any given year. And the reason I emphasize this shrinking of the industry is because not only are publishers reaching for a price increase, but industry leaders have also come out saying things aren’t sustainable on a $60 per game price point. If you truly examine the argument, it just doesn’t make sense. I paid $60 for Killzone 3 on PS3 and TLOU2? No, that doesn’t add up. God of War (PS4) and Horizon Zero Dawn are valued the same as something like Homefront (PS3)?

The other side of this argument suggests that we could try and explore more price points... but I stand by the notion that Homefront probably did cost $60 at the time. It wasn’t trying to be a budget title. But as we’ve gone forward in time, gaming experiences have expanded exponentially. I truly believe that something like TLOU or Ghost probably do need to extract more than $60 from their users. Yet below that price point, there’s a lot more room for investigation. We need to see more Maneaters and Hellblades. Think of all the quality content Supergiant Games has made (Bastion, Transistor, Pyre, Hades) that have come out at “budget” price points... There is a great exploration of content type and price that can (and probably should) emerge as we head into the great unknown.

At the end of the day, I just love gaming. I love it. It’s my favorite thing in the world. And I want to see it thrive. The reality is that money talks. In my life I’ve seen only the benefits of paying for goods and services versus taking things for free or if they are offered at a steep discount. Great things should and do carry real value. We need to respect that value in all things. My hope is that the gaming community can see this in their hobby and start to respect it more. Because so far, anyone I’ve engaged with in this conversation, has not once said they pay full price for their games. I listed Doom Eternal on the Facebook Marketplace and people are upset I’m charging $30, free shipping, when the cheapest it exists on Amazon is $41 + shipping used. eBay is roughly the same price and Gamefly has a copy for $39.99 right now, used. I told one guy I just listed it and that I’d like to try and get $30 since it’s the cheapest I can find. He retorted, “Yeah, brand new maybe.” Doom Eternal is still $60 on Amazon, Best Buy and Gamestop. I know that my experience is in a vacuum-- all of our experiences are. But we need to discuss them so that the anecdotal evidence can tip in one way or the other. And this experience with Doom is not the first time I’ve witnessed gamers being completely out of touch with prices and value.

I used to work for a used goods store called Half Price Books. I learned full-on what the value of something is to a re-seller and the life cycle of an item getting marked down and potentially sent to clearance. For every product that sells at full price, several others go to the bargain bin. This means HPB was either breaking even or losing money on most items. Re-couping costs on those top-shelf commodities is essential to the business and it’s vital to most capitalist ecosystems. HPB can only survive thanks to the people who see an item they want, understand its value, and pay the price we initially set. Every company trying to sell you something is basically operating the same way. And what I also learned from HPB is that people don’t understand what their own possessions are worth. People would get upset a lot that we wanted to pay so little. Gamers have been facing this for decades with second-hand shops like Gamestop, EB Games and more. But what people fail to see is that most stuff is crap. And not only is most stuff crap, but if the good stuff does come around, the business officially has to make up for missed or lost sales somehow and your awesome item needs to be purchased and sold for a price point that helps the business.

Just take a look at TLOU2 versus Days Gone. Similar games, both exclusive first-party titles. One sold extraordinarily well, one did not. Playstation literally needs TLOU2 to dominate so a game like Days Gone can get a chance. While the profit numbers will show TLOU2 to be a massive hit, that money helps out in other sectors, bolstering the entire platform. The people who worked very hard on the game deserve those bonuses coming their way. They deserve the champagne glasses that say “The Last of Us Pt 2″ on them with commemorative decor. Imagine if you slaved away on something for your job and at the end your boss said, “Great job,” and that’s all you got. Don’t you want a pizza party? Or an extra check in the mail? Or even a new mug?

We gotta pay for the things we love so the things we love can continue being labors of love. Real people are needed to create the experiences we cherish so much and respecting them comes down to understanding the value of what we choose to play every day. If you comprehend the value of what’s on your big screen TV, paying more for games shouldn’t sting too much. Because if you’re anything like me, you don’t even have the time to buy every new game that comes out. I rarely pay full-price for a game because I’m so busy digging through backlog titles that have often been on sale for several months already. But when games like FFVII: Remake or Ghost of Tsushima do come along, I’m really happy to be first in line, paying the full-price of admission. I just wish more of my fellow gamers felt that way. Because I’ve heard all the other arguments; I’ve heard ‘em. I don’t buy into them at all. We vote with our wallets and whatever issues you have with the industry when it comes to “greed,” consider what you’re playing. I have had zero issues with microtransactions in my gameplay choices. If you, for some reason, are just appalled that MTX exists at all within a game, then I recommend you just check your baggage at the door. I paid full price for Persona 5: Royal which has all kinds of things I can buy on the side to bolster my experience. I haven’t touched those add-ons, I don’t plan to touch them and they, in no way, have affected me playing P5R. You can feel the exact same way and don’t need to be upset that MTX exists simply because MTX exists. The next time you see it, consider what you paid for the game you’re playing. If it was anything less than full price, MTX is a great way to try and recoup the money they lost on your discounted cost. And if you did pay full price, think of all the people who didn’t or won’t. MTX exists so Atlus can publish / localize the next Persona everywhere they intend to. It ensures we get killer voice actors, great translations, and cool spin-offs. It helps create a vibrant community, something that exists well outside the bounds of the original game even.

Really, I just want the best game possible. All the time. When I play a really awesome, beautiful game, it usually takes my breath away. I’m consumed by it; totally entranced and in-love. To me that can cost more than $60. I spent 80 hours with FFVII: Remake. 80 hours, man. I was blown away for every second too. For about $100 a night + food, drink and excursions, I can go stay on a beach for the weekend. That’s easily around $500+, if not more. While they’re completely different experiences, FFVII:R had years of nostalgia baked into the mix. I would choose to play FFVII:R over many, many other kinds of experiences. Microdermabrasion? $80+. Date-night with a new fling? Easily $100+. 30 minute massage? $40 + tip. FFVII:R gave me 80 hours of pure joy and all I paid was $60. That’s a steal.

Just consider what you’re really getting when you buy your games. And if you feel like you’re already in my camp, then please share the love. I wanna know where my crew is at; where the homies are. Because video games are incredible. And the way the conversation is breaking down about price increases, it’s hard to tell if some people actually love games the way I do too. When you really love something, you want the best for it; you aren’t cynical towards it. It’s my belief that the games industry, by and large, is not out to screw us, it’s just trying to find ways to be viable for years to come. If you don’t like the way it’s trying to thrive, don’t support those ways. But you gotta support something; saying that games need to be “cheaper” isn’t really an option. Because games have never been much cheaper than this when you factor in inflation. We got to have our cake and eat it for a long, long time. Now we gotta pony up.

#price increase #gaming #industry #money #capitalism

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auburnfamilynews · 5 years

Link

Lock him up

We’ve been patient. We’ve tried to forgive. We’ve wanted to move on. Days after November 26, 2010, a man with evil in his heart drove to Auburn and stole something from the Auburn people that had been part of where we gather, what we do, and the welcome mat to our university for almost 100 years of generations.

Time goes by, with our iconic trees being replaced by wires for the 2013 season, and then by two, new permanent oaks at the corner of College and Magnolia. One of the trees has been replaced again. And every time I look at that corner now, I long for a day I’ll never see. A day where those trees don’t look new. A day where that corner feels old again.

The sad part is that the closest I’ll ever come to seeing that corner look and feel old again is going to be if I live another 60 years. And frankly by that point in time I doubt I’d be going to games. No, what I remember as a child, celebrating in 1993, 1995, and in 1997 in Auburn after beating Alabama are memories that I know I can’t quite reach back and connect with the same way ever again. Now part of that is growth, because man has Auburn changed. Another part of that is a Pieology where a bar should be. Pieology should be put out of business and someone should resurrect Bodega immediately. But the main part of it for me are those two new trees.

Which brings me to this...

“What you’re saying today is worse than anything you said on January 27, 2011.” Harvey Updyke called into the @Finebaum Show. Paul let him have it. pic.twitter.com/JQEbooE4Jb

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) November 9, 2019

The fact that we had been subjected to hurt, insults, having something stolen from us, and had to deal with yet another attempt at stealing our joy from 2010 was hard. It’s enough to make you a little crazy and start thinking Auburn’s the problem sometimes. When people don’t let you, an Auburn person, enjoy a season, a player, trees, traditions, etc. that are uniquely Auburn and especially that year tried to steal all of it from you, it’s hard to know where to direct your frustration sometimes.

Harvey Updyke made the direction of that anger extremely easy. He encompassed the Cam Newton investigation, and everyone who wasn’t us telling us that our moment in the sun after 53 years would be taken away from us. He represented the worst offender in terms of a fanbase. And when the thought that a program that had been robbed of national title opportunities for decades finally kicked down the door, he took matters into his own hands to ensure that “order” could be restored, by reminding us that we should be allowed to have joy.

By doing what he did, Harvey also committed a crime. And owned up to it gleefully. He’s been tried by a jury, and found guilty. He’s been asked to pay restitution. He’s been asked to stay away from athletic events in the state. He’s been spotted at football games, such as the Alabama/LSU National Title game in early 2012. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison for his crimes in 2013, serving a mere 76 days in jail in Lee County.

Beyond the emotion that goes with experiencing theft of something that cannot be replaced or replicated, there is this whole thing of this man managing to avoid justice. Furthermore, this man has thumbed his nose at the law in which he was told to abide by, and has failed to pay restitution, as Harvey has paid less than $7,000 of an $800,000 bill. Harvey has managed to create a level of damage that cannot be restored, and the upheaval at Toomer’s Corner since is his responsibility. This is a man who has not served justice, a man who has not followed judges orders, and a man who seems to enjoy the celebrity that sadly has gone with committing a crime. And now, amidst being in violation of a judge’s orders, Harvey is a man who continues to use a platform given to him for reasons that I will never understand to play the role of a victim...and to insult Auburn.

Harvey Updyke should be in jail. He has willingly missed payments and hearings around this for years. Now, he has the motivated Lee County District Attorney on his tail. He has managed to use his notoriety as a way of getting to games, I’m sure having financial support, and insulting the people he hurt. This stopped being about dead trees in 2013 for Auburn University. What this has been about since the day it happened is justice.

Which leads me to the only game I’m paying close attention to today...

LSU at Alabama

Beat their ass like they stole something from you, LSU. Not because you owe us a favor, but because the only way for Harvey Updyke to feel pain isn’t going to come from the guilt he should feel for what he did, but from his beloved Tide losing a football game. And because those people cheering that embarrassing segment on Finebaum (aired by the SEC Network), don’t think that the man who committed a crime did anything wrong. It’s easy to get defensive at what I’m about to say, but they don’t represent all of them. I refuse to believe there are more people like that in the world than there are with common sense (though this world surprises me more and more each day). But for those specific folks that feed Harvey Updyke’s twisted ego, and for Harvey, a criminal, who has such a warped view of the world that today matters so much to, I want nothing but heartbreak for each and every single one of them. Beat their ass, LSU, and enjoy yourselves, your culture, and your way of living while there today, knowing that it’s all enough. There’s no need to inflict damage on them the way one of theirs did to us. The fact that you, like us, exist while they’re on top and still love who you are is more frustration to that segment of fandom than anything you could destroy over there. So again, beat their ass.

GEAUX TIGERS.

Western Kentucky at Arkansas

Chad Morris is going to be fired this year and Auburn’s name is going to get invoked in a lot of silly season talk because of it. You know why. There’s a lot of rooting interest on one side of the Auburn sphere that will find themselves rooting for Western Kentucky today so that Morris is fired on Sunday and this process picks up steam. For my part I think the train has left the station on us being involved in the talk of silly season, and it’s going to suck. Because it steals from the two biggest games of the year, both in Auburn. For that reason, knowing we’re going to get roped in on a lot of talk in November about Gus and Arkansas, I’d rather do it with the prospect of Arkansas making a coaching change, instead of it being a definite, since, you know, I’d like to enjoy and win the rest of our schedule. For that reason, WOO PIG SOOIE.

This week’s Index is a little condensed, frankly because the SEC sets this weekend up to be about Alabama and LSU every year. It sucks, the game will probably suck, and we’re invest energy into something we have no part in and should want no part of. But it’s a BYE week so cook some chili at the house, let your dog get to enjoy you being a little less scary around the TV, and maybe even use this weekend to get out and enjoy a nice, cool fall day.

With that, here’s my rooting interests (highlighted in bold) for the rest of the SEC games:

Missouri at Georgia - DUH

Appalachian State at South Carolina - Eli Drinkwitz is a guy to keep an eye on in silly season either this year or the next. Plus South Carolina is about as useful to me now as a screen door is on a submarine.

New Mexico State at Ole Miss - Look man I just enjoy watching the world burn. And Rich Rodriguez lose it in a box.

Vandy at Florida - Normally I’d root for Vandy because I feel sorry for them and because to hell with Florida. But on the off chance Mizzou can do the deal today and we finish Georgia off next week, it sure would be nice to see someone else win the SEC East!

Tennessee at Kentucky - Mark Stoops is allegedly a good football coach, so I’m told. So good, that he’s probably the right fit for Florida State. Or he’s fine to probably never have a 10-win season again at Kentucky while not getting fired. Either way, he’s not an Alabama graduate who doesn’t understand vegetables. Tennessee is getting better. Which, yeah, ok that’s fine. They still aren’t getting better quick enough to challenge Alabama year over year. Plus this ain’t basketball. And last year happened, and I’ll never be ok with it.

That’s all I’ve got for this week friends! Feel free to comment below with your rooting interests today and how they may best impact Auburn!

War Eagle!

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2019/11/9/20956497/rootability-index-vol-5

#IFTTT #Blogger #auburn #auburn fast #wareagle #AuburnFamilyNews #war eagle #sec #football news #aubu

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theliterateape · 5 years

Text

Hope Idiotic | Part VII

By David Himmel

Hope Idiotic is a serialized novel. Catch each new part every week on Monday and Thursday.

BY MID-NOVEMBER, LOU HAD BEEN LIVING WITH MICHELLE FOR TWO MONTHS. She provided half of the dresser for him and cleared out space in the bathroom cabinets and her closets for him in an effort to make her place his place, too. But she refused to let him hang any photos of his friends or family. And there was no way he was putting his film trophy on display anywhere.

“It’s tacky,” she told him.

“I’m proud of it.”

“You won that years ago. In college. Why does it matter now?”

“Because, it is a big part of my creative career. The first real acknowledgement I received. It reminds me that I’m capable of succeeding.”

“It’s not like it’s an Oscar, Lou.”

“Would you let me display an Oscar?”

“Win an Oscar. You can carry it around your neck for all I care.”

Her case: She spent a lot of time and money making her home nice and mature and professional-looking. A trophy from a university film department contest would only cramp her style. It should have been enough that she made room for his stuff in her closet. “I had to give away a lot of shoes,” she reminded him.

“You didn’t even wear half of those shoes,” he said.

“If you absolutely have to have photos of your friends and family in the apartment, you can put them on your nightstand on your side of the bed.”

“But this is our place, right? You have photos of friends and family everywhere.”

“My family doesn’t live in the city. I never see them.”

This was bullshit. She saw her parents about every two months whether she was visiting them in Las Vegas or if they were visiting her in Chicago or if there was a vacation somewhere else they’d take together. And those friends in the photographs? They all lived blocks away from the apartment. Fact was, she saw her parents and friends far more than he saw his. Michelle said she wanted Lou to call the apartment home, but it seemed she didn’t really want him to move into it.

His father once told him about a girl he dated in high school who lived in a high-rise. “I broke up with her after the first date,” he said. “I didn’t like her enough to wait around for the elevators only to have to make nice with the other tenants.” Lou loved that story, and after living in a high-rise for two months, he had even more of an appreciation for it.

What he couldn’t move into, he began to feel trapped in. They lived on the twenty-ninth floor, so he had to wait for an elevator every time he wanted to go anywhere. If he was in a hurry to get back to the apartment to, say, go to the bathroom, he had to wait for an elevator to take him up. To run a load of laundry, he had to wait for an elevator to take him down to the basement’s laundry room. When he needed to drop a portfolio in the mailbox in the lobby of the building, or pick up a frozen pizza and a pack of gum from the store, he had to budget fifteen minutes to do so, just in case the elevators were moving slowly that day. What were once quick, thoughtless, chores back in Vegas had become time-consuming errands in Chicago.

It was not only a hassle getting out of and into the apartment, but not having a job to go to each day presented a certain kind of claustrophobia for him. The apartment was a perfectly good size for a one-bedroom in the city, and it never felt that he and Michelle were living on top of each other. But where there was a specific bedroom and kitchen, the living room, dining room and office were all one large space. It’s called an open-floor plan, and it was suffocating.

He was home all day scouring the web for jobs, calling businesses, opening a LinkedIn account and joining groups, learning about networking opportunities, perfecting and re-perfecting his résumé and cover letters, all from Michelle’s tiny IKEA desk shoved in the corner of the main room. When he wasn’t staring at the computer screen, he was looking through the large windows at the panoramic view of the city and he swore it was mocking him. Like it was saying, “Here I am, Lou! I’m right here! Come and get me; make me yours! Hurry, you don’t want to miss the elevator!”

The city, and all it offered was out of his reach. By two o’clock every afternoon, he was so emotionally drained and physically exhausted from sitting on his ass, that his six o’clock scotch routine was bumped up four hours.

✶

CHUCK’S MOTHER HAD BEEN IN AND OUT OF THE HOSPITAL FIVE TIMES FOR THREE HEART ATTACKS since the first one back in June. He was sending nearly every cent he had back home to cover the cost of the rapidly growing medical bills and hardly making a dent. As a result, he was falling far behind on his own bills. Lexi was barely keeping both of them afloat.

When Chuck’s mom went in to the hospital the fifth time, he thought it best to fly out there. On his way back to Vegas, he stopped in Chicago to see Lou. He was going to stay at Lou and Michelle’s place, but realizing Chuck’s one night in town would likely result in drunken and horrific behavior, Michelle politely suggested they both get a hotel.

“That’s fine,” Chuck said. “Since neither of us has any money.”

“And she wants me to start paying half of the rent,” said Lou. “That’s about nine hundred bucks a month. I’ve been in Chicago for almost six months and haven’t even made a total of nine hundred bucks. And she wants me to pay that every thirty days?”

“It’s not right. Because it’s not that she needs help making rent. She’s pulling in four hundred grand a year, right?”

“One seventy-five. Which is plenty. And I’ve saved her money on housecleaning. She used to pay a service. Seventy-five dollars every two weeks. I clean the house better than they did, and I do it every week, plus I do the laundry. And I cook. Dinner is always ready for her when she gets home from work. I’m pulling my weight the best I can.”

“You’re the perfect 1950s housewife she always wanted,” Chuck said. “You’d think that would be enough.”

Michelle told Lou she wanted to at least have dinner with the boys since it would be her one chance to see Chuck while he was in town for the night. She was sweet and asked about his mother and the rest of his family. She pressed him about his plans to marry Lexi, which made the boys uncomfortable because they knew that he not only wasn’t making plans to marry her, but he was mostly fucking someone else — and possibly falling in love with that someone. Michelle, however, had no idea about Gina and there was no way Lou was ever going to say anything about her as long as Chuck was still living with Lexi.

He was a cheating, conniving bastard, yes. Lou knew that. And he told Chuck so several times. But Lou also understood the reasons for the attraction and the reason he had to sneak around. Without Lexi, Chuck had no money, and with all he had on his plate, not having his sugar mama would be a disaster.

There was also the fact that despite the cheating and lying, he loved Lexi. She wasn’t perfect, but who was? So she bored him sometimes; who doesn’t get bored with the woman they love? They hadn’t had sex in ages, so what? People go through slumps. It was complicated because matters of the head and heart so often are. But it was wrong to lie to the person he was in a recognized relationship with. And that’s all Michelle would see, the black-and-white physical truth, not the grey emotional truth. So, it was best to just not bring it up.

He ran toward and lunged at Chuck, and they began fighting each other.

Michelle even paid for their dinner. “You’re both having a hard time right now; let me get this,” she said yanking the black checkbook away from Chuck.

“You want to pay for our hotel, too?” Chuck said.

“Sorry, boys. You’re on your own with that one.”

Following dinner, the drinks came fast and hard. It had been more than five months since they saw each other, but they spoke on the phone and emailed each other nearly every day so there was no reason to sit someplace quiet and catch up. What they missed was the rowdiness. Since they ate dinner downtown, Lou suggested they go to “that wretched Viagra Triangle. It’s full of tourists, rich women, creepy old perverts and over-privileged go-hards.”

When Chuck and Lou committed to a binge, they did so with every good therapeutic intention in mind. Some people relieve stress and manage problems by jogging or going to the gym or seeing a shrink. Chuck and Lou were each other’s shrinks, and their exercise routine consisted of filling their guts full of booze so that their blood thinned out and they could flush out their brains with a simple blackout. There was often a consequence or two to deal with when they came to, but it was always worth it.

At a karaoke bar where the drinks were overpriced and the floor was dramatically sticky, Chuck nearly had his head beaten in by three big frat-types, probably day traders, after invading their performance of “Don’t Stop Believing.” After being thrown out of the karaoke bar, Lou stumbled into an alley around the corner to puke up his dinner and about fifty bucks worth of beer. Chuck took pictures of it.

“You like that?” Lou yelled at him. “There’s plenty more where that came from.”

Then he ran toward and lunged at Chuck, and they began fighting each other. Lou was half the size of Chuck. Where Lou was a star cross-country runner in high school, Chuck was all-state in football. Whenever these playful fights broke out, Chuck was always the victor. But Lou was scrappy, and their antics made messes.

Out of the alley, Chuck stumbled backward, falling over a young couple sitting on the curb, sick from too much of something. The boys apologized as Chuck threw a few dollar bills at them. “Get a cab home,” he said.

Lou lunged again. Chuck caught him and rotated his body, using Lou’s momentum to throw him into the middle of the street. A black Lincoln town car almost ran him over. It blared its horn. Lou imitated the sound back to the car at the top of his lungs.

Chuck came at him. Lou tried to escape to the other side of the sidewalk, but Chuck grabbed hold of his jacket. Lou spun around and slapped Chuck across the face. Holding onto Lou’s jacket collar, Chuck shoved Lou backward to the corner of the next block. Just as he was about to throw his skinny friend into a collection of street corner newspaper dispensers, Lou tripped him and twisted his body, causing the bigger, heavier Chuck to fall into the dispensers, with Lou landing on top of him.

Metal newspaper stands clanged loudly against the street pavement. One of them broke open, and copies of the Inquisitor spilled into the intersection. Chuck pushed Lou off of him, and when they were both balanced on their feet again, Chuck charged, which pushed Lou back into a trash can, knocking it over, as well.

By this time, a crowd had gathered to witness the street fight between the two maniacs who were laughing their drunken heads off. Chuck’s leather jacket was ripped. Lou’s hand and forehead were bleeding. Someone called the cops.

If the police really wanted to capture half-aware drunks like those two, it would have served them best to not hit their sirens as they approached. Chuck and Lou trained themselves over the years to spring into action at the first sound and sight of an officer of the law. Chuck quickly grabbed Lou’s hand and yanked him up off of the ground, and they took off down Dearborn Street, where they successful evaded the cops in the Gold Coast neighborhood.

✶

THEY WOKE UP ON THE FLOOR OF THEIR ROOM IN THE CONGRESS HOTEL. The room was trashed, Chuck’s jacket was ruined and Lou had to think of a way to explain the cuts on his hand and forehead to Michelle. Getting into a street brawl with his best friend wouldn’t resonate well with her. They had to pull themselves together quickly. Chuck had a flight to make.

“We are fucking idiots,” Lou said.

As they hustled out of the hotel and to the Orange Line El train that would take him directly to Midway Airport, Chuck reminisced, “Remember when we used to have no responsibility for anything?”

“We always had responsibility. We’ve always just been good at keeping our circus act from burning the whole town down.”

“But all of this accountability to people now. My family. Lexi. Michelle.”

“We’d be more fucked without it.”

“I suppose.”

“Anchors to our drifting ships.”

Lou saw Chuck onto the train. They hugged and laughed at each other in a way that they both understood what the other was thinking; that they were going to be okay. That somehow they would figure it out, but that yes, they were complete and total fucking idiots.

✶

LEXI WASN’T AT THE AIRPORT TO PICK UP CHUCK AS PLANNED. He called her, but she didn’t answer. He waited there an hour and called her a dozen times leaving just as many messages. Nothing. He caught a cab. The fare emptied out his wallet. When he walked through the door, Lexi was lounging on the couch watching TV. Her phone was next to her, the voicemail indicator light blinking. He set his bag down.

She turned off the television, sat up and said, “We need to talk.”

Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI

#Fiction #David Himmel Author #David Himmel Fiction #Chicago Fiction #Humor #David Himmel Novel

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andrewdburton · 5 years

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The virtue of thrift

When I was a boy, we lived in the country. That is, we lived five miles from the nearest town (Canby) and 25 miles from the nearest city (Portland). We were surrounded by farmland. Life was quiet. Pastoral. Bucolic.

The road we lived on was especially quiet, with very little traffic. Even from a young age — five or six, I think — I was allowed to walk the quarter-mile to visit my grandparents. (My father's parents lived “next door” to us, but next door was across a large field.)

Visiting grandma and grandpa was fun. As quiet as life in the country was, life at their house was even quieter. There was a stillness in their place unlike anything I've experienced since. Their home seemed stuck in time.

Part of this stuckness stemmed from the things they owned.

They lived in a little white farmhouse built in 1920. My grandparents moved there in 1943 — two years before my father was born — then remodeled the place. Sort of. (Like all Roths, they left the job undone — for more than forty years!)

During the 1970s, when I was young, they still owned and used many of the things they'd purchased when they moved in.

They still had a big, white Kelvinator refrigerator, for instance, with a moving door handle and hardly any space inside. They called it the “icebox”.

They listened to hymns (sometimes) and radio sermons (daily) on an imposing wooden console “hi-fi” system as big as a couch.

They owned a long pink-ish, purple-ish “davenport” with scratchy, well-worn fabric on which grandpa would nap every afternoon after “dinner” (which was lunch).

They used a black bakelite rotary telephone on a party line.

My grandparents themselves were very much like the things they owned. They were old. (They were in their seventies when I knew them.) They were calm. They moved slowly during the day, and even more slowly at night. One of my fondest memories is sitting with them in the evening, watching as they sipped “sanka” and played Scrabble while a fire roared in the nearby woodstove.

For children, time always moves more slowly, but it seemed to me that nothing every changed in my grandparents' world. Their home was frozen in time. It was stuck. It was still. It was silent.

It was comforting, and I liked it.

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Changing Times

My life is not still. It is not silent. It's more peaceful than most, I suppose, but it sometimes moves at a frenetic pace.

At this very moment, for instance, I am writing to you via a wireless internet connection on my laptop computer. I am sitting in a small room on a big boat — a cruise ship — that is plying its way through the Ionian Sea, just off the shore of Greece. On my wrist is a watch that isn't really a watch. It's actually a small computer with more power than those that were used to land men on the moon.

This morning, I've communicated instantly with friends in Maryland, Oregon, and Alberta. I've checked up-to-the-minute news stories from the United States. I've sent a dozen business email messages. I'm making plans for a big conference in Washington D.C. next week.

Mine is not a pastoral life.

Too, I am a consumer in a way that my grandparents never were. As much as I try not to be, I'm deeply entrenched in our materialistic culture. I am a Material Boy.

A large part of the problem is that I expose myself to advertising. I don't watch much TV or listen to the radio, but I practically live on the internet. I'm bombarded by web ads. Worse, I deliberately allow myself to visit sites that promote consumption. Yes, Wirecutter is cool and all, but it's also a ginormous gateway to desire.

At the same time, our world today is different from the world my grandparents inhabited in the forties and fifties. (Today is the 18,410th day of my life. That day for my grandfather was 22 February 1953.)

Advertising and marketing were certainly a factor for them, but they weren't as pervasive as today. When my grandfather was my age, just over a third of American households owned televisions. (He never owned one his entire life.)

Meanwhile, modern appliances (and other consumer products) are designed around planned obsolescence. They're deliberately not built to last. They're difficult or impossible to repair. (Thus the rise of the “right to repair” movement.) Or they're made to be stylish rather than timeless so that when tastes change, consumers feel motivated to replace them.

Technology adds another layer to the problem. Tech changes quickly. Some of this is merely a result of progress, of course. Our computers are smaller and more powerful than they were five years ago. Or ten. Or twenty. We all keep our machines as long as we can, but at some point we run into a wall. We want to do something and we can't. When that happens, we're faced with a decision: Upgrade or not?

Recently, I sold an old computer to my niece. She paid me some nominal amount for a 2009 iMac. Before I gave it to her, I wiped the hard drive and updated the operating system. But I could only update it so far. Beyond a certain point — 2014? 2016? I can't remember — Apple stopped supporting that computer. It still runs great, but now it's frozen in time. Eventually, new software won't run on it.

My Life as a Consumer

Kim believes I buy too much. She may be right. But when I started writing this article, I was ready to hold myself up to be pilloried. I was going to mock myself, then let you join the fun. Turns out, I'm not as bad as I think I am.

When I look at big items around our house, I have to give myself high marks (with one big exception, which I'll explain). For the past fifteen years, I've done well at choosing quality over price.

My Stickley furniture was expensive when I bought it ten years ago (even though I got it a deep discount), but it ought to last a lifetime. Plus, I still own a chair that Kris and I bought soon after we were married in 1993.

I deliberately buy top-quality tools with the idea that I never want to replace them.

As much as I've been pining for a new car lately, I'm fine with the two I already own: a 2004 Mini Cooper and a 1993 Toyota pickup.

So, on the big infrastructure stuff in my life, maybe I'm closer to my grandparents than I thought.

I'm not so good at smaller consumer items, though, and I know it. I buy a lot of books. I buy a lot of clothes. (It doesn't help that my weight and waste have fluctuated so much over the past twenty years: up and down, up and down.) And, especially, I spend a lot on technology. This is the big exception I mentioned above.

Because I live online, it's important for me to have the best available tools at my disposal. (Or maybe I'm just rationalizing?) I've upgraded every device I own in the past twelve months, and I know it. I'm now going to see how long I can make them last.

Eat It Up. Wear It Out. Make It Do. Go Without.

My grandparents embodied the virtue of thrift. Whether consciously or unconsciously, they followed the old New England proverb: “Eat it up. Wear it out. Make it do. Go without.” (Nowadays, that's more commonly seen as: “Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without.” It's the same thing.)

This simple mantra is powerful. It encourages you to:

Don't buy things until you need them. Use up your current supply first. When you're out, make a note of it, and replace the item next time you're shopping. Don't replace it before you're finished, though, and do not stock up on case of it from Costco. (I'm bad at this, I'll admit. Low on ketchup? I'll buy a case today!)

Make the most of what you have. If it's not broken or depleted, don't replace it. This is especially important when it comes to clothing and other items subject to fashion. If your old jacket still sheds rain and keeps you warm, don't buy a new one simply because the old one is out of style.

Be creative and resourceful with the things you already own. Yes, sometimes you'll need to buy specialized tools. I learned that last winter when replacing our kitchen faucet. I didn't want to buy a basin wrench, but I needed a basin wrench. Many times, though, you can make do with something approximate. Or something less than perfect.

Finally, and most importantly, recognize that you can't have everything. It's okay to live without some of the things you want. It's good for you. It builds character! (Wow. I sound like my grandfather…)

I'm pleased with the changes I've made to my lifestyle during the past fifteen years. Yes, I'm more materialistic than my grandparents, but I'm getting better. Yes, my life moves at a faster pace than theirs did, but I've made choices to slow things down.

And while I probably will never embody that New England style of thrift, I do make deliberate decisions that are aligned with this mindset. I try to choose quality over price. When possible, I avoid items designed for planned obsolescence. I've reduced my exposure to advertising by avoiding radio, television, and magazines. (I still see plenty of ads on the internet though.) And I don't give a whit about keeping up with the Joneses.

Honestly, it doesn't make sense for me to expect to live like my grandparents. I live in a different world than they did. I have different priorities, different goals. But in my own way, I can work toward a life based on the virtue of thrift. It's all about making smart purchases, about spending mindfully in ways that are aligned with who I am and what I want out of life.

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