#she showed up today and made them of herself so that’s pretty cool

[blankieisablankie]

Razor doodles from class

[dykeishh]

lessons in lust

ellie williams x fem reader

synopsis: ellie meets with her hot tutor for calculus and somehow ends with an anatomy lesson! 

CW: 18+ MINORS DNI, dealer!ellie (throwback asf), tutor!reader, slightly dom!ellie, cunnilingus, public sex (they don’t get caught tho), a bit of teasing, both reader and ellie are just sluts basically. not proofread :3

a/n: heyyy the way i wrote this in literally 2023 and it's just been in my notes… hence slight dealer!ellie appearance LOL its also barely relevant to the story but I just think tutor!reader x dealer!ellie is a hot pairing. also ellie being lowkey dominant in this is so funny cuz i'm really in my sub!ellie era… but its still hot honestly. anyways hope y'all enjoy!

——————————————————————

ellie sighed as she looked at her current course score, knowing she was about to fail her calculus class if she didn’t start getting decent grades soon. she cursed herself for picking astrophysics as a major, recalling how she ‘thought it sounded cool’ and failed to consider that she would need to take difficult math classes.

she didn’t hate it, but she was falling behind as she allowed her ‘business’ to take up most of her time. it was easy to get caught up, and she was pretty proud of herself once the money really started raking in, but was quickly humbled when she remembered she couldn’t afford to retake a foundational course to her major. 

that was how ellie found herself tapping her shoes against the library chair, waiting for her calculus tutor to arrive. she blew out a sigh from her pursed lips as she scrolled mindlessly through her phone, in a daze—so much so that she hadn’t noticed you walk up to the round table until you said, “hi, are you ellie?”

she looked up, a bit startled by your voice in the quiet library, especially because she had picked a spot in the back, away from other people and their chatters. 

she took a second to respond, partially because she had expected some kind of geeky math nerd to be her tutor--especially since it was through the school. however, the main reason for her delayed response was because she knew you.

well, knew is an overstatement, you were a bit of a crush that ellie had in one of her classes. she had never made a move to talk to you, but she often indulged herself by staring at your legs, barely covered by the short skirts you wore to class, and fantasizing about the sounds you’d make with her face between them. she noticed you were wearing a similar skirt today and her mind already started racing, but she quickly snapped out if it. 

“hi, yeah that’s me.”

“i’m y/n, i’ll be working with you today,” you said, smiling at her. she felt her heart rate increase, but she made sure to play it cool. “oh, nice, thanks.” you gave her a slight smile aam pulled your chair in next to her. 

“so, where should we start?”

—————————

after several minutes of going over the subjects taught in the course, ellie’s mind had started to wander back to your short skirt and your words faded into the background as she wondered how quiet she could be while fucking you in the library. you can feel her eyeing you up as you spoke, and try to keep your voice steady regardless of how nervous she’s making you feel. how are you supposed to teach her while she’s practically undressing you with her eyes?

“so, can you show me how you could solve this kind of problem?”, you ask. after a few moments of silence and ellie scratching her head, you giggle, noticing she looks a bit spaced out.

“jeez, am i that boring of a tutor that you’re zoning out?”, you tease. she chuckles and shakes her head, “no, not at all. these kinds of problems just confuse me is all, i really don’t know where to start.”

you scoot your chair closer to her and aren’t sure if you imagine hearing her breath hitch. 

“okay so, show me exactly where you’re having problems."

—————————

“holy shit. you’re a fucking genius. or a saint. both—whatever. i can’t believe i actually understand this,” ellie scoffs in disbelief. 

you smile at ellie and and shrug, “you had it in you. sometimes it just takes a bit of a push. i’m sure you’ll do great on your tests.”

ellie looks at you with a suddenly soft expression, suddenly realizing her appreciation for your help and being so patient with her. she also realizes that she might have a thing for nerds. she would be lying if she didn’t find your intelligence extremely sexy, as if you weren’t already hot enough.

“so, how am i going to repay you for this, y/n?” she asks, leaning towards you and brushing a hair out of your face. 

you let out a shy laugh at her sudden boldness, caught off guard by the cute girl’s fingers brushing against your skin. 

funnily enough, you had heard about ellie before. there was a small number of queer students on campus, and an even smaller circle of queer girls. and as it usually happens, lots of you knew of each other. in fact, you and ellie were both hooking up with the same girl, which was how you knew about her. just based on this, you assumed she was a bit of a womanizer, and her obvious flirting with you now seemed to align with this idea. 

but you aren’t put off by this—in fact, it only makes her more intriguing to you. behind your studious math-nerd image, you aren’t all that innocent either. 

“please, i already get paid to tutor. i’m just doing my job, so you don’t have to thank me any special way,” you reply, amusement laced in your tone.

“i know i don’t have to,” she states simply, “i want to. you helped me out, and i think it’s only right that i return the favor.” as she says this, ellie places her hand on your thigh, slowly moving it up as she looks into your eyes, waiting for a reaction. 

you raise an eyebrow at her, but once you smirk, ellie knows it’s game over. you lean in forward and lower your voice. “y’know, i think you might be right. i did, after all, save your grade in this class didn’t i?” 

you decide you’ll play along and see where this goes. after all, she was fucking hot. when she smirks at your response, you almost start drooling. 5 minutes ago, you were focused on integrals, but now all your brain can think is how fucking badly you want those long fingers to keep moving up your leg. 

“so how exactly are you going to repay me?” you ask, although you already had an idea of what she had in mind. 

even though ellie was hoping for this situation, she couldn’t believe you were actually down. when she realizes this, it goes straight to her clit. was she really about to fuck her hot tutor? 

ellie suddenly starts lowering herself under the desk.

“i think i can help you better down here.”

you just about come right in that moment, looking down at her mischievous green eyes from beneath you. your breath hitches and you look around to make sure that nobody is watching. 

“fuck. that’s so hot. okay… you just-you have to tell me if i’m being too loud, okay?”

ellie nods and can’t seem to wipe that smirk off her face as she crawls forward and positions her face so she could look under your skirt. you spread your legs slightly for her access and you can immediately feel her hot breath on your inner thighs, causing you to shudder. she looks up at you, making direct eye contact as she leaves wet kisses on your thighs, teasing you, even in this moment where she should be going quickly as to not get caught.

you bite your lip when she drags her middle finger over your clothed heat, then slowly rubs your clit through the pink fabric. you hear her curse to herself and you feel yourself getting wetter as each excruciating moment passes. after a few moments, she pulls your panties to the side to view your soaked pussy. 

“you’re already so wet,” she quietly groans. you almost whine when she brings her mouth so close to your center, looking up at you from her hooded eyelids and just holding herself there to tease you just a little bit longer. 

ellie takes a mental snapshot of your desperate expression as you look down at her, with your lips between your teeth and eyebrows furrowed. but she can’t wait any longer herself. needing to taste you, she licks a long strip from up your pussy and you immediately find yourself choking back a moan. 

ellie seems pleased by your reaction and starts leaving wet kisses on your clit, sucking lightly as she pulls away and alternating with gentle flicks of her tongue. its driving you absolutely crazy how gentle and slow she’s being, and you start to roll your hips to satiate her relentless teasing. she knows that it’s not enough but she’s also aware of how much more wet it’s making you. 

she sucks a little harder on your clit and your head falls back as you gasp in pleasure. then she pulls away, lightly smacking your thigh. 

“uh uh, keep looking at me. i want you to watch me while i make you feel good, baby,” she murmurs before she dives back in.

you pull your head back down to watch her with your mouth slightly agape and see her low-lidded eyes are clouded with lust. your back arches as you feel her the pressure of her tongue increase and watch her bob her head up and down under your skirt. ellie isn’t holding back and you can hear the messy, wet noises her mouth makes against your cunt in the quiet library. everything about the situation was borderline pornographic, and you almost feel dizzy from how much it was turning you on. without stopping her mouth movements, you feel her one of her fingers rub against your entrance before plunging deep into your cunt, causing you to let out a little moan. her eyes flick up back to yours, giving you a dangerous look as a warning. one of your hands clasps over your mouth to muffle your sounds as best you can. 

“feels good, doesn’t it?” she whispers, and you nod in response, causing her to tsk at you. “i want to hear you say it. tell me how good i’m making you feel,” she demands, slipping in a second finger. 

when you remove your hand, you accidentally let out another small whimper, and you respond as best as you can, “it f-feels so good. fuck, it’s too good,” you whisper, eyes rolling back into your skull.

satisfied with your answer, she reattaches her mouth to your clit and sucks harshly, forcing you to bite your fingers to hold back your sounds. her fingers speed up as well, and you can hear the lewd sounds of your wetness even louder now. you’re getting dangerously close, and she can tell by how your insides clench around her fingers. 

“s-shit, i’m close, ellie,” you half-whisper, half-whine. 

“i know, baby.”

she continues her assault with her tongue and fingers, doing her best to drive you crazy. she can feel her own wetness growing between her legs as she listens to your muffled sounds. when she sees your face, all fucked out and desperate, she nearly cums on that alone. “you gonna come for me?”

“mhmm,” you whimper, unable to respond properly as your mind and body are completely clouded with pleasure. your hands find her hair, needing somewhere to grab as the intensity became too much for you, causing her to moan into you, and the vibrations of her voice push you over the edge.

your body freezes up completely for a moment, then jolts as your release hits you, hard. you can’t help but moan and your legs shake as she keeps her pace, prolonging your orgasm for as long as she can. when the overstimulation becomes too much, you push her head away from you causing her lips to detach from you with a pop. you gasp for air and your body trembles as you come down from your high. 

when your vision unblurs, you see her still between your legs, lips and chin covered in a combination of your wetness and her spit, and watch her smirk before she cleans her fingers off with her mouth. it’s the most erotic view you’ve ever seen—you could cum a second time.

she helps you put your panties back on and slowy rises from under the table, looking around to make sure the coast is still clear. she chuckles when she sees you still slumped in your chair, recovering and wraps her arm around your waist to help you up. 

“how was that for repayment?” she teases.

you chuckled, still out of breath, and hoped that she’d be setting up more sessions with you in the future.

[sugdenlovesdingle]

Based on Oliver mentioning Buck and Jee baking together in an upcoming ep.

(I wrote this on my phone so it's not the greatest)

now also on AO3

---

"Is it someone's birthday?" Maddie asked, running through all of their friends and relatives in her mind, trying to figure out if she forgot a birthday.

"No." Buck shook his head and kept pulling ingredients out of the fridge and his kitchen cabinets.

"Ok... What's the occasion then?" she asked when he didn't elaborate.

"It's for Tommy. "

"Oh, is it his birthday?"

"No, not for a few weeks."

"Right. So this is a practice run?"

"What? No. I found the recipe online, but it's easy enough."

"Ok..."

"He likes cake."

"Ok."

Buck sighed and rolled his eyes at his sister before glancing up in the direction of the loft's bedroom.

"He's had a rough couple of days. He had to make an emergency landing because of bad weather yesterday and the ambulance couldn't get to them fast enough and they lost the patient."

"That was him? Josh took that call and he was exhausted from stress by the end of shift."

Buck nodded.

"Tommy too. And he was hurting all over last night. He never takes any pain medication but he took two ibuprofen and a hot shower and crashed into bed."

"Are you sure you're alright to take Jee for the afternoon then? I can ask Mrs Lee or see if she can go play with her friend Emily from down the road. "

"It's fine." Buck told her and turned to Jee. "You're my sous chef aren't you? Are you going to help me today?"

"Yeah!" the girl yelled happily.

"But we have to be quiet ok? Tommy is sleeping upstairs and we don't want to wake him. He needs to sleep because he's sick."

Jee nodded solemnly to show she understood.

"But we're going to surprise him with cake so he'll feel better soon, right?"

"Yeah!" she yelled again, making her mother and uncle laugh.

"At least she's enthusiastic." Maddie tried and bent down to hug and kiss her daughter goodbye. "You be good for uncle Buck, me or daddy will pick you up tonight ok?"

"Ok mommy!" Jee said and climbed up onto the stool next to the kitchen counter.

"Go. We'll be fine." Buck assured her, wrapping an arm around Jee to keep her safe.

After Maddie had left, Buck gave Jee an old shirt of his to wear as apron, made her wash her hands, and the two of them got to work.

He tried to let her do as much as possible while still making sure everything was going to plan and she wouldn't hurt herself.

Before long the cake was in the oven and they started the clean up.

"And when it's done baking, we let it cool off a little and then we can put the icing on and decorate it with these." he showed Jee the assortment of sprinkles he kept in his kitchen for her.

Jee nodded happily and started planning out her sprinkles masterpiece.

Buck looked up towards the bedroom area and listened for a sign of life from his boyfriend.

When he didn't hear anything, he decided to put Jee in front of the TV and go check on him. Tommy was fast asleep, rolled up in the duvet like a human burrito, and didn't seem to have woken up since Buck had made him eat something that morning.

Satisfied everything was ok, he went back downstairs and let Jee tell him all about the cartoon she was watching, until the cake was ready for decoration.

"Which ones do you want to put on first? Pink or gold?"

"Gold!"

"Alright, gold it is. Put it on where you think is best." Buck told her. "But not too much, we need to leave room for the other colours. And we can put your name on it. And mine."

"And uncle Tommy." she decided and Buck froze for a second.

Sure Tommy and Jee had met and he'd explained to her that Tommy was to him what mommy and daddy were to each other, and he was pretty sure she'd understood, but to hear her call him uncle Tommy, that was new.

Jee didn't seem to notice just how much she'd just turned his world upside down and was babbling about what colour sprinkles should go where.

"Pink here for the heart." she decided and Buck wondered when they'd agreed on heart shaped decorations.

"Right, yeah, that... that works." he let Jee draw a heart in pink sprinkles and dutifully wrote his and Tommy's names in it. "And where should I write your name?"

Jee thought for a minute and studied the cake but then shook her head.

"No name."

"What? Are you sure?"

"Yeah." Jee said like it was the most obvious thing in the world and put some sugar stars across the top half of the cake, above the heart with their names. "That's the sky. With stars."

"Oh wow, that's beautiful miss Jee, did you make that?"

Buck jumped a little when he suddenly heard his boyfriend's voice behind him and felt a hand on his waist.

"Uncle Buck helped" Jee told Tommy.

"Did he now? I'm sure you did all of the important work." Tommy said and gave her a conspiratory wink before turning to Buck and stealing a small kiss. "Hey." he greeted him softly.

"H-hey... Did we wake you?"

Tommy shook his head.

"It's fine. Had to get up eventually."

"Feeling better yet?"

Tommy shrugged and sat down at the kitchen island.

"I'm alright." he just said, which wasn't really an answer but Buck decided to let it go for now.

"Uncle Tommy, it's for you. You need to come look!" Jee insisted, pointing at the cake.

Tommy met Buck's eyes over her head and mouthed "Uncle Tommy?" at him.

Buck shrugged and smiled.

"Uncle Tommy, come see!" Jee said again, a little louder this time, clearly getting fed up with the adults in her life.

"Why don't you two come here and show me, and you can tell me what you made."

Buck helped her down from her stool and put the cake on the island in front of Tommy before helping Jee back on her stool, this time sitting next to Tommy who immediately put a hand on her back so she wouldn't fall off.

"This is the sky with the stars." she started like she was explaining the mysteries of the universe. "And you can fly to the stars."

Tommy laughed a little.

"I don't think I can go quite that high in my helicopter. But maybe I can show you how high I do go. When you're a little older. And your mommy and daddy are ok with it. Maybe uncle Evan will want to come too."

Jee-Yun turned to Buck and gave him an expectant look.

"Yeah, maybe." he settled on, trying to get his heart to calm down and not burst out of his chest hearing his boyfriend make plans with his niece. Even if she was only three and would probably have forgotten about it by the time she was old enough to even think about going up.

She seemed happy with that answer and turned back to Tommy to explain the rest of their creation.

"It's really amazing Jee, it's almost too pretty to eat don't you think?"

"No. You have to eat it. It's chocolate." she said as if that explained everything.

"Oh really? I do love chocolate." Tommy told her. "But can I take a picture of it before we eat it?" he reached into the pocket of his sweats only to realise he'd left his phone upstairs. "Evan, can you take a picture and send it to me?"

"Sure." he grabbed his phone and opened the camera. "You should be in the picture too, we made it for you after all."

Tommy dutifully posed with the cake, tilting the pan towards the camera so the decorations were clearly visible.

"And now one with the master chef herself." he put the cake back down on the table and moved a little closer to Jee so they'd both fit in the picture with the cake and Buck took a few pictures.

After that Jee insisted on having a photo shoot, and by the time Maddie came to pick her back up, his camera roll was filled with pictures of the three of them.

He showed a few to Maddie at Jee's insistence and set one of Tommy making a funny face at Jee as his new contact picture.

They said goodbye to Maddie and Jee-yun and settled on the sofa together, scrolling through the pictures and laughing at some of silly ones.

"I like this one." Buck said, stopping at a selfie of the two of them where Tommy had kissed his cheek at the last second.

"Yeah. Me too." Tommy said softly, not really looking at the picture. "Thanks. For today. For getting me out of my head."

Buck smiled and kissed him.

"Of course."

[l-bubee-l]

THE GREEK GODS IN MY STYLE — ATHENA, APHRODITE :

The Goddess of Wisdom and the Goddess of Love are done! I love me my (olive and seafoam) green girlies. 😌

More about their designs below!

So obviously, the shade of the most prominent color of their outfits correspond to something they're linked to.

Athena with olive green because of the olive tree she planted which earned her patronage over Athens, and Aphrodite with seafoam green because of her being born from seafoam (technically it was something else but we ain't getting into that today).

I actually really struggled with figuring out the colors for Athena. She was the first to give me trouble like that. But I knew I wanted her to be green from the get go. With the amount of mortals she's helped, I feel like she'd have a pretty strong earthly connection. Plus apparently green abstractly symbolizes wisdom, so there's also that!

It was my lovely partner who had suggested to make it so that the back of her helmet was basically the face of an owl, as a reference to owls turning their heads 270 degrees. It works really well too because it is said that one of the purposes of Athena's owl is to watch her blind spots so I think it's cool to incorporate that into her outfit.

Now for Aphrodite... I have quite a bit to say.

I gave her pointed ears to signify the unusual way in which she was born. She and Poseidon share this trait, alongside the both of them having green eyes. Idk, I think it's an interesting way to show their connection to the sea.

I love how, in many different fan depictions, her bed is a clam. Absolutely love that nod to her origins. I came into designing her with the idea that I wanted to somehow incorporate that clam into her design and I did so by making it so that her cloak and trail both form the shape of one.

The white roses are meant as a nod to the Greek myth of how red roses came to be, specifically the version where, while running to save her mortal lover Adonis, Aphrodite cuts herself and her blood ends up staining pure white roses.

Finally, one thing I really love doing when designing characters is making it so that there's a fair bit of asymmetry. Namely in the case of their outfits. That's something I've been trying to implement for all the gods. But in Aphrodite's case, I intentionally made it so that what she has on is relatively even, with her actually having two of each accessory on either side of her body. This is meant to be a nod to how she was often described to have been born "perfectly symmetrical".

—

[jaeyunologyy]

Anonymous asked:

02z fucking you with fnaf animatronic heads on 🫢

a/n: not gonna be lore accurate bcs im horny as fuck for them, at first i wanna use the ogs fnaf 1 characters but fuck it let's pick one hot character from the first 3 fnaf(s) + my two worlds colliding :)

edit: felt like reposting this for spooky szn :)

jay wearing springtrap's

the worn out green bunny head covering his masculine face only making his sharp eyes visible making you feel some type of way. dirty but thrilled. scared but aroused.

you sensed fear in your veins while you look at the psychopathic killer bunny animatronic head that you despise so much is now being worn by your lover while his cock is pounding you so good not missing any spots, his fat tip is throbbing inside of you because you're tighter clamping down on him today.

is it the springtrap head making you scared so you behave with your best or you're just actually a fucked up little girl living her best life with her dark fantasy?

his big hand wrapped around your throat pressing the sides lightly making you lightheaded, you're already a bit fuzzy from small space of the vent that's been pinning him against you since earlier when you guys were crawling in it to explore the place more and you found springtrap's head in one of the lanes in the vents.

his voice echoed within the small space of springtrap's head. "little bunny is too tight on me today, is she enjoying herself hmm? my little doll is pretty with fear in her eyes. did you like getting fucked by a monster. who could kill you in an instant baby? hell you're gushing on me right now. guess i know the answer now, and if i'm not satisfied with it i can always come back right?" and the growly voice of his was accompanied by creaking noises of the vent while he was pistoning in and out of you or maybe you just have a visitor that's enjoying the show?

jake wearing mangle's

you're bent over the counter in the pizzeria's kitchen while your whiny boyfriend is fucking you with a white & pink fox head he found while trampling around the abandoned placed.

while you were looking around the kitchen he creeped up behind you catching you off guard which was so hot because he was so light on his steps that you did not catch a sound you felt so small to him. you could feel his breath right by your face that was pressed against mangle's muzzle.

jake was a huge a fan of mangle and he admitted to you during halloween that he wanted to fuck you while he's wearing a mask preferably mangle's.

and that's how you ended up breaking in to the pizzeria to find the head for him to wear while he's angling his tip to press against your gspot making you trickle out on the floor from squirting for him. the excitement from the fear made the sex much more enjoyable. the intermission noise sounded from the surveillance, you knew they were near but fuck you're too brainless for it.

"you like my mask baby? you squirted all over the floor because of it. need to take you again in our bedroom many many times you want while i put this mask on." you felt he nuzzled against your neck with the mask on while lightly grazing the razor sharp teeth on your nape. "need to mark you with it so you can't never run away from me. i'll always catch you puppy. you're mine, you're under me forever."

sunghoon wearing foxy's

sunghoon has been so mean to you ever since you told him you liked foxy and how you found him attractive for an animatronic.

it's so ironic when he was fucking you on the security guard table while wearing foxy's head. he knew about your fantasy and even though he's mean about it, he's still willing to be dragged by you to go 'visit' the pre-demolished pizzeria in order to bring home foxy's mask.

ever since you got the mask you can't stop gushing on how cool it is, how pretty it is, how valuable it could be and how bad you want to be fucked by the animatronic if it's capable of it. it pissed sunghoon off so much, he pulled you into the surveillance room, closing both side doors and made you sit on the table while he put the mask on snapping the jaw at your face everytime you made a too loud sound and finger you open to take his cock.

"really pup? you wanna get fucked by a fox robot, so fucking nasty. i know stupid girls like you only think about getting stuffed by random things in their cunny but a fox? that's disgusting little vixen. i can always fuck you baby. anytime. and i'll make you feel much better than that stupid fox could."

you guys left the guard room with cumstains and bite marks on your shoulders, neck and chest from hoon's biting using foxy's teeth. it might've been your imagination but you were sure a growl outside the door when hoon was talking down the fox while fucking you.

[chvoswxtch]

part three: the camera

[series masterlist] | [previous part] | [part four]

pairing: billy russo x fem!reader

summary: if the police can't help, who can you turn to?

warnings: swearing, billy is still a cocky lil shit, explicit sexual content (minors dni), billy is also a lil perv, voyeurism (noncon), mutual masturbation

word count: 3.1k

a/n: y'all can thank @thyme-in-a-bubble for this one. this entire part was born from a slutty conversation we had about billy being a sneaky lil perv. this is just a taste of the treats to come. ;) (pun intended) as always, feedback is welcomed/appreciated!

Sitting on your couch, watching several of Billy’s men come in and out of your apartment, you’d nearly bitten your nails down to the quick. The sound of holes being drilled and nails being hammered seemed to be amplified in your ears, making you feel as though those screws and nails were being driven into your own brain. Annie gently placed her hand on your knee, trying to quell the relentless bouncing, and then reached over to pull your hand you’d been gnawing on away from your anxious mouth, giving it a gentle squeeze.

“You know, for two women living alone in New York City, having security cameras isn’t such a bad idea.”

Having the security cameras installed should have made you feel better, and on one hand it did, but on the other it just made you feel extremely guilty, because if it wasn’t for the ghost haunting you from your past, they wouldn’t be necessary. To her credit, Annie was doing her best to not outwardly show how scared she was herself. She’d been by your side ever since Adam was murdered, she went with you to the police after the call from Roman, and she was here with you now, trying to keep you calm even though you could see it in her eyes that she was freaked out too.

Billy was standing by the front door, speaking to one of his men with a stern expression on his face. He showed up with a team of his guys first thing this morning, brought all the necessary tools and equipment, and commanded each of them with strict instructions. He was making rounds, checking each of his men’s work on the different cameras with intense scrutiny, checking various angles from the video feed on his iPad to ensure there were as few blind spots as possible, and making sure there were no loose wires or connections.

Derek walked through the front door, focused solely on Billy as he approached him. The shirt he was wearing made his eyes look more green than blue today. His eyes had been what first attracted Annie to him. Well, that and the rest of his tanned Greek God-esque physique. But she always gushed about how she thought he had the most perfect smolder look naturally. Permanent bedroom eyes.

To you though, it just looked like the sun was always in his face. Or like he’d forgotten his contacts and couldn’t see something far away.

“Cameras outside are secure and operational.”

Billy’s dark brown eyes flickered up to look at Derek. He gave him a faint nod and went back to typing something on his iPad screen. Derek ran one of his tan hands through his messy blonde hair, turning his attention towards you and Annie sitting on the couch. He walked over and bent down to press a kiss to Annie’s forehead, placing his hand on the back of her head.

“Y’all alright?”

“Yeah. Thank you for doing this.”

“Of course, baby.”

Derek’s gaze flickered over to you, noticing the zoned out look on your face. He reached over and gave your shoulder a light reassuring squeeze, capturing your attention. There was an easy smile on his lips as he nodded in your direction.

“It’s gonna be alright. Don’t worry your pretty little head. Son of a bitch has a better chance of breachin’ the Pentagon than this place.”

Unable to stop yourself, you let out a soft snort and shook your head in slight amusement. Derek was so easy going it was almost annoying. He had that Matthew McConaughey drawl and aura of coolness about him, like nothing could ever disturb his laidback nature. It made you wonder what he was like in the military. Was he still all calm and collected in the middle of warfare?

Arching one of your brows, there was a tiny smile on your lips as you looked up at Derek.

“The Pentagon? Not the White House bunker?”

“Hey, doin’ what we can on short notice.”

Derek gave you a confident grin and flashed Annie a wink before walking over to check with the guy working on the door.

“Hey, sweetheart.”

Turning your head to look up when Billy called your name, he motioned you over with his index and middle finger. Letting go of Annie’s hand, you got up and walked over to where he was standing, looking up at him curiously. He moved to stand right beside you and held out the iPad, allowing you to see the screen as he switched between all the different camera feeds.

“Alright you got five cameras. Kitchen, living room, front door, front of the building, and alley behind the building. We took out the physical lock on the front door and replaced it with an electronic keypad. No chance of anyone pickin’ a lock, gotta have a code to get in the door.”

You watched as Billy shuffled through the different camera feeds. They had a pretty wide range of coverage, able to move up and down, and from left to right. The only blind spot seemed to be with the camera on the front door; there wasn’t a view of the elevator or stairwells. Your apartment was right in the middle of the hall, so those viewpoints were too far for the camera’s range.

“Derek put an app on yours and Annie’s phones that allows you to check the cameras at all times, no matter where you are. He and I got the same one on our phones, and I got a team of people back at Anvil surveilling the footage twenty-four seven.”

Turning your head to look up at him, a soft crease formed between your brows.

“You mean someone is going to be watching us on those cameras all the time?”

Sensing your apprehension, Billy turned to look down at you, looking like the playful version of himself you were used to for the first time all morning.

“They’re gonna be lookin’ for trouble, mainly keepin’ watch on the front and back of the building, and the front door. Only reason they got to watch the feed in here is if someone tries to tamper with the lock, or tries to beat the door down.”

Seeing your eyes widen at that last statement, Billy set the iPad aside and gently grabbed your shoulders, ducking his head to meet your eye level.

“Relax, no one’s gonna do that, alright? It’s a pretty damn thick door.”

Letting out a deep exhale past your lips, the tension in your body slowly deflated, and you absentmindedly placed one of your hands on top of Billy’s as you glanced around your apartment that was crowded with his employees.

“So, you do payment plans?”

Turning to look up at Billy, you noticed he arched one of his dark brows as he looked down at you in confusion.

“Payment plans?”

“I know none of this stuff is cheap-”

“Don’t worry ‘bout that.”

“Billy-”

“I mean it. You ain’t payin’ for none of this, alright? You can argue with me til you’re blue in the face ‘bout anything else, but not this.”

Giving him a pointed look while crossing your arms over your chest, Billy mirrored your expression and body language, the two of you in a silent standoff. Rolling your eyes, you shook your head as you looked around your apartment once again before looking back up at him.

“You have to let me do something.”

Billy’s lips instantly spread into a wicked smirk, and you gawked at him before letting out a dry amused scoff, lightly smacking your hand against his chest. Billy’s sharp features twisted into an expression of faux anguish, placing his hand over the spot you’d smacked him.

“Ow, what? I didn’t say anything.”

“You didn’t have to. God, you are so transparent.”

Billy let out a deep chuckle as his lips split open into a wide grin, and he slipped his hands into his pockets as he stared down at you with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

“I think you’re the one with your head in the gutter, sweetheart. I was just gonna say some company for coffee would be nice, but hey if you got somethin’ else in mind-”

“Shut up, Russo.”

Trying to fight your amused smile, you looked away from him and shook your head while attempting so hard not to laugh. At your side, Billy was snickering, still trying to maintain his look of faux innocence. 

When you turned your head to look up at him again, you narrowed your eyes lightheartedly and cocked your head to the side.

“What happened to not wanting to end up ‘gutted in some alley’?”

“I never said it was gonna be a date.”

Immediately your cheeks flushed slightly with heat. Because of his flirty nature, and the fact that he’d been trying to fuck you since he met you, when he mentioned getting coffee, you just assumed he was trying to ask you out. Catching the way your face quickly shifted into a concoction of confusion and embarrassment, Billy’s dark eyes roved over you as he flashed you a cocky grin.

“I mean if you wanna go out with me that bad, all you had to do was say so.”

“You’re insufferable.”

Billy let out a bark of laughter at the annoyed expression on your face and the dryness of your voice, watching in amusement as you rolled your eyes and shook your head at him. He could see the way the edges of your lips twitched, fighting your urge to smile and laugh. As much as you hated to admit, you were grateful for Billy’s presence lately. He had a way of making you feel lighter in such a heavy situation.

Billy stood by your side with his hands in his pockets, glancing around your apartment, a smirk tugging at the edge of his lips as he spoke.

“So, Friday?”

»»———　　———««

Billy was working late tonight at Anvil, trying to get a few last minute things done for an upcoming business deal. His large desk, which was usually neat and tidy, was covered in a plethora of contracts to be reviewed, reports from the latest operation involving a D.A. candidate, and a file he’d managed to retrieve on you from a contact in Woodsboro PD. 

You had told him your version of your past, but you hadn’t gone into explicit detail. After reading the contents of the police report, the medical report from the hospital, and the full document of the restraining order, he understood why. Beneath your file was one on Roman Walker, nearly as thick as his thumb. But the one on the left side of his desk labeled ‘The Woodsboro Murders 96’ was almost as thick as the book next to it with the same title by Gale Weathers.

He was in the middle of reviewing some paperwork when an alert went off on his phone. Absentmindedly, he glanced over at the new notification.

Bedroom Activity.

Immediately he put his pen and the paperwork down, swiping his phone off his desk. After typing in the passcode to unlock it, he clicked on the notification, and a live camera feed popped up of a bedroom.

Your bedroom.

Was it a complete invasion of privacy to have hidden a camera in your bedroom? Yeah. Did he regret it? No. He’d justified it in his head that he was just trying to keep you safe, although he definitely had ulterior motives for doing it. What you didn’t know wouldn’t hurt.

Seeing you walk out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, your hair damp and skin glistening with droplets, Billy let out a hum of appreciation in the back of his throat. He tilted his phone horizontally, the feed expanding to fit his entire screen, and he leaned back in his office chair. Just the sight of you fresh out of the shower in a towel was enough to make his cock twitch.

He should’ve exited out of the feed right then. He should’ve locked his phone and gotten back to work, knowing you were about to be removing that towel to dry off, leaving you completely exposed and vulnerable in front of a camera you didn’t even know existed. That would’ve been the gentlemanly thing to do.

But Billy Russo was no gentleman.

Instead, his eyes widened with delight and he bit down on his bottom lip, letting out a groan when you unwrapped the towel and started to dry off before wringing your wet hair out with it. Billy had imagined you naked several times since he first met you that night in the bar, but God the real thing was so much better. His eyes darkened with hunger as they roamed over your body, drinking in your exposed flesh.

Those hips and thighs he desperately wanted to grab onto with your legs wrapped around his waist, those soft breasts he wanted to watch bounce as you rode him, that incredible ass he wanted to smack while he fucked you from behind. He was practically salivating as he watched you sit on the edge of your bed and massage lotion onto your damp skin, something he would’ve eagerly volunteered to do. He was already half hard just watching you go about your nightly routine, his hand snaking down to palm the bulge in his pants while you brushed out your wet hair, letting out a quiet groan of relief.

Billy figured your next move was to get dressed, and that his private little show would soon be over, but what you did next surprised him.

He watched you lay back against your pillows, close your eyes, and he saw your chest rise and fall as you took a deep breath. His eyes were glued to your hands, watching as you brought them up to your breasts, cupping them and giving them a soft squeeze, your lips parting as you brushed your thumb over your nipples that had begun to peak.

“Oh, fuck.”

Billy palmed himself a little harder through his pants, feeling his heart rate quicken and his breathing get heavier as he watched you toy with your nipples and grope your own breasts. His dark brown irises were nearly blown open with lust watching you slip your hand down your stomach, your thighs parting like the gates of heaven, giving him a perfect view of your glistening pussy. 

“Christ, sweetheart.”

He was already unbuckling his belt with one hand as you started to glide your fingers through your wetness, watching your face contort with pleasure and relief. You were going slow, taking your time as you coated your fingers in your own arousal before starting to rub lazy circles around your clit. You seemed to be teasing yourself, one of your fingers languidly playing with your clit while your other hand continued to toy with one of your nipples.

Billy had his pants and briefs shoved down his thighs in a flash, spitting in his palm before wrapping his hand around his cock and starting to stroke slowly, keeping up with your pace. You seemed to like it slow, and to enjoy a bit of teasing. He’d remember that. He clicked on the button to unmute the feed, allowing the sweet sounds of your pleasure to fill his silent office. He also zoomed in to give himself a better view of what you were doing. He didn’t want to miss anything.

His mouth was open and he was slightly panting as he kept pace with you, barely even blinking as he savored the delectable sight on his phone. He watched the way your hips shifted upwards off the bed when you spread yourself open and slipped a finger into your soaked cunt, and he grunted.

“That’s it, baby. Just like that.”

Billy was fucking mesmerized by you. His dark eyes kept flickering between the way you pumped your finger inside yourself while strumming your clit with your thumb, how you squeezed your breast tightly in your free hand, and the sight of your eyes closed and mouth hanging open, face contorted in pure pleasure. The sounds you were making were driving him absolutely insane. When you started to move your hand faster, he started to stroke his cock faster, squeezing the base everytime he twisted his wrist upwards.

“Oh you’re gonna come, aren’t you pretty girl?”

Watching you roll your hips upwards against your own hand while you pleasured yourself was making Billy feral, and he was fisting his throbbing cock even harder, pumping furiously to match your pace. He didn’t want to come yet though. He didn’t want to miss a second of seeing what you looked like when you climaxed. 

“C’mon sweetheart, let me see how pretty you look when you come.”

His eyes were glued to his phone screen, grasping it so tightly in his other hand that his knuckles had turned stark white. He felt his own thighs tensing up, a bead of sweat forming along his hairline. When he saw the way your body tensed up and your eyes screwed shut, your hand that had been on your breast flying out to grip the sheets as you curled forward slightly, your breathless and high pitched noises turning into a louder and more sensual series of satisfied moans, Billy couldn’t hold himself back.

He came hard with a loud and animalistic grunt, thick ropes spurting rapidly from his weeping tip like exploding fireworks, soaking through his crisp white button up to the point the fabric was stuck to his lower stomach and translucent. He let his head fall back against his office chair, closing his eyes for a moment as he tried to catch his breath. He couldn’t remember the last time he had come so hard.

He definitely had never seen anything as fucking beautiful and erotic as the sight of you coming undone. He couldn’t wait to experience that in person.

Dragging his other palm down his face and dark beard, he then ran it through his gelled back raven strands, glancing down at his phone that hand landed on his thigh in the midst of his orgasm. Picking it up again, he watched as you laid in bed with a blissful look on your face, your chest heaving as you tried to catch your own breath. He licked his lips, grazing his teeth along his bottom before smirking wickedly.

“Goddamn, sweetheart. I love to watch you work.”

tags: @thyme-in-a-bubble @ferns-fics @danzer8705 @to-thelakes @simonsgirl @sweetserendipity65 @zomtart @day-dreaming-goddess @caroblogsthings @thomasshelbyswife @snowkestrel @hallowedtangerine @ameliaswife @dreadfulxives18 @ebsmind @lllla717 @slumnit @fireeyes-on-teller-dixon-grimes @nolita-fairytale @oliviaewl @r1kk @unlikelystarlightcowboy @imperihoe-writes @dumb-fawkin-bitch @merc12-us @moonyinthestars @sweetttart

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»— if you wanna get in the spooky slutty mood, listen here! -> the manhattan murders soundtrack

[daenysx]

hi! could you write something for dad!aemond where alyssa watches a horror film for the first time and wakes him up in the middle of the night bc of a nightmare? thank u already, i love your writing and your modern!aemond stuff so much <3

thank you, angel ♡ i hope you enjoy

modern!aemond targaryen x fem!reader

"wake up." someone whispers to aemond's ear. it's definitely not you, it takes him a few seconds to process a sound coming from his blindside.

"dad, wake up."

oh, there she is. aemond blinks his eye open and the sight of his daughter's silver hair in two frizzy braids welcomes him. she doesn't do that usually, coming into her parents' room in the middle of the night. she's almost 7, claims she's a big girl to get through the nights herself.

"what's wrong?" aemond asks, sleep dripping from his voice. he holds your hand as you reach for him in your rest. "what happened?"

"i can't sleep." alyssa says, softly. her eyes look huge under the moonlight.

aemond sits on bed carefully to not wake you up. he reaches for his girl. "do you want some milk, baby?"

"please." alyssa leans against his legs. "chocolate milk."

"we have to be silent, okay? mommy and aelyx are still sleeping."

alyssa holds her dad's hand as they walk to the kitchen in the darkness. the kitchen lights bother aemond's eye for a brief moment and then he gets to take in the sight of his daughter as she clings onto him.

"up you go." aemond lifts her so that she can sit on the counter. it's her favorite thing to do in the kitchen, sitting there as she watches her parents cook. he heats up a glass of milk quickly, stirring the chocolate mix alyssa likes into it. she doesn't say anything, which is a bit unusual. she'd definitely ask for more chocolate normally. aemond tries to keep his face cool.

he gives her the chocolate milk in her favorite glass, the one with winnie the pooh picture on it. she accepts it with a small thank you, drinking it in silence as aemond cleans up the little mess he made.

he catches alyssa's gaze on him as if she wants to say something. he waits for her, doesn't try to get the words out of her mouth. she takes her time, though, her sips get lingered as much as they can.

at the end, she has no choice but finishing the milk. she gives her glass to aemond, her pretty eyes watching the floor. aemond stands in front of her, holding her small hand and rubbing his thumb on the back of it.

"i had a nightmare." she starts saying. aemond nods first. "do you wanna tell me about it?" he asks.

"it was- about this movie i saw with gracie today." alyssa explains but she still seems hesitant. "her brother told her the name of the movie and she showed me some of it."

"okay." aemond whispers, his hand still holding hers. "what was it about?"

"um- it was a horror movie, dad." she finally says. "i didn't like it, i couldn't understand what was it about, really, but i'm- i saw the scenes of it in my nightmare."

her eyes fill with slow tears and aemond loses his mind just a bit right there. it always happens when she tears up. he quickly hugs her, her arms wrapping around his waist as much as she can.

"it's okay." he says, his thumb drying up the tears. "don't cry, baby, it's okay."

"i don't want to be a coward."

"you're not a coward just because you didn't like a horror movie." he says, softly. she's too much like his young self. "you don't have to enjoy everything you see."

"but gracie's brother was saying his friend is a coward because he got scared."

"i think gracie's brother is wrong." he does a good job being cool with a kid's ideas that clearly upset his girl, right? "many people don't like horror movies, that doesn't make them cowards, right?"

"really?"

"you know," he smiles. "i remember the first time uncle daeron saw a horror movie with us. it wasn't all that bad but he got so scared at night, he insisted to sleep in uncle aegon's bed."

"did he accept it?" alyssa asks, interested in the story.

"yes, actually. they slept in his room that night and after that everything was okay. no one made fun of daeron. well, except aegon of course, but that doesn't count."

finally she stops pouting and puts on a gorgeous, sleepy smile for her father. he takes her in his arms, carrying her to his room. "why don't you sleep in our bed tonight? i'm sure mommy will be happy about it."

alyssa nods, burying her head to aemond's shoulder. he puts her in the middle of the warm bed carefully. you blink your eyes open, trying to understand what's happening. "aemond?"

"we have a guest, sweetheart." aemond fixes the covers for the three of you. you give your girl a sleepy kiss on her cheek. "everything okay?" you ask.

"yes." he answers. "go back to sleep."

alyssa's hand stays still in her daddy's palm. if the monsters in the movie come looking for her, he will fight them off.

[fatale-distraction]

BG3 NPC Social Media Headcanons Part…4???? Part 4

Here’s some more!!

Zevlor: starts out pretty normal. Support group stuff for former Hellriders. Typical awkward selfies from an older guy trying to keep up with The Youths and their social media. Then he makes the mistake of posting an old photo of himself and his old Hellrider squad, and a current gym selfie. All of a sudden he has five million followers and gets hundreds of thirsty-ass yes daddy fmu grandpa DMs he doesn’t know what to do with. He has to ask Tav to turn off private messaging and help him moderate comments for awhile. He’s pretty flustered but also kinda flattered. But damn these young people today are horny.

Dammon: literally a modern day blacksmith. Always posting progress pics and vids of his latest projects. Mostly replica weaponry, but he does some pretty cool art too. He also really enjoys welding art and has a professional set up in his garage. Lots of thirsty comments and DMs. About half of them are from Tav, Karlach, Lia and Cal.

Auntie Ethel: no one really knows, but it must be pretty bad because she’s constantly being banned and has to create new profiles. Another MLM mastermind, but her accounts never last long enough to figure out what she’s actually even selling.

Lorroakan: Oh my god the biggest fucking douchebag ever. Constantly suspended for harassment, and then he goes and makes videos about how the site admins are assholes and violating his right to free speech. Rolan and Aylin are constantly dunking on him, often in tandem, with some truly incredible roasts. They’re works of art, frankly. The only reason Lorroakan has so many followers is to see him constantly being wrecked.

Mizora: thirst-trap galore, but she NEVER gets suspended or banned. She’s always EXACTLY within the TOS. Constantly hitting up Wyll on new accounts because he’s blocked her on so many different ones.

Wulbren: he has zero followers because NO ONE LIKES HIM. Tav is the gender-neutral king of the Wulbren Sucks Donkey Ass club regardless of whether they’re dating Barcus.

Aradin: hasn’t had a social media account since Aylin made him piss his pants for doxxing her.

Omeluum and Blurg: have a cute educational video series doing experiments, teaching about Underdark stuff, and educating people about the so-called “evil” races like Illithids, Bugbears, Drow, Deep Gnomes, and Goblins. Such wholesome content. These guys are the best. They have the cutest bromance selfies.

Lakrissa: idk why but she gives me American Ninja Warrior vibes. Always posts videos of herself trying out new tricks at the ninja gym, archery range, sword fighting club etc. Super sassy motivational videos. Shows up for Karlach’s jackass and parkour videos.

Alfira: the PUREST music channel!!! Not only does she post awesome songs but she’s also super motivational to other artists and really open about her process and struggles. “Not every song is going to be a banger. It’s okay to just have fun and be silly with it sometimes. Some of my best songs have come about from just letting go and feeling my emotions.” She and Lakrissa have the cutest selfies.

Duke Ravengard: pretty typical politician social media, but he makes cute posts with Wyll and does a lot of outreach to troubled youth and current and former Fists.

Popper: TREATOOOOOOOOOOOS

~~~

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

[duskandcobalt]

Everywhere, Everything: Chapter Eight

Chapter Summary: Back in the same city once again, Azriel and Elain are no longer able to ignore what's simmering between them

Word Count: 7k

Warnings: smut. just smut. (18+ pls and ty)

Missed the first seven chapters? You can find the Masterlist for this fic here 🥰

A/N: hello again friends, i'm baaaaack :)

Once again, I must begin by saying thank you for all your lovely comments and messages on my fics and on my wip wednesday posts because they truly keep me going 💕 I hope you enjoy this next installment.

ENJOY XX

Read on AO3

Azriel couldn’t keep his foot from tapping against the linoleum floor of the Velaris airport as he kept an eager eye on the escalator that descended into the tiny arrivals hall. 

He’d picked Elain up from this airport a number of times when she’d gone on work trips or holidays with her sisters. But he’d never picked her up like this - waiting for her inside instead of on the curb. Waiting for her with this new situation between them ever present in the back of his mind just as it had been ever since the morning after Christmas when they’d unexpectedly gotten a little too carried away in his workshop.

He had the thought that maybe he should’ve brought some flowers with him today - if only to have something to do with his hands because right now he couldn’t decide whether to keep them in or out of his pockets and so he’d been fidgeting like a madman for the last fifteen or so minutes. It was a wonder airport security hadn’t confronted him for suspicious behaviour. 

The issue with bringing flowers was that they were headed straight to Nesta and Cassian’s house for the long weekend and the thought of explaining why he’d bought Elain flowers to her brother-in-law was enough to give him a headache. 

He’d already received a look from Rhys when he’d volunteered to pick her up under the pretence that it would make life easier for him and Feyre but maybe he’d been too eager given the speed with which he’d offered when they’d been discussing the logistics for this weekend. 

But Azriel couldn’t have possibly kept his cool. Not when the last time he’d seen her in person he’d had to drop her off at her sister’s house without so much as a kiss on the cheek because Nesta had been standing outside, waiting for her on the porch with a look on her face that hovered somewhere between worry and disappointment, as if Elain were a wayward teenager who’d snuck out for the night. 

It’d been months of separation and now she was once again back for her nephew’s birthday and though they’d been in near constant contact - texts, phone calls, hours spent on Facetime each evening - he couldn’t wait to see her again and he was desperate for a bit of time alone with her - even if it was just the forty five minute drive from the airport to Nesta’s house on the outskirts of town. 

Azriel raised up on his toes and then back down again - made note that perhaps he’d been spending too much time with Feyre because he’d clearly picked up that nervous habit from her - and then focused his attention back to the escalator again just in time to see a girl with brown hair cascading over her shoulders, a bright smile on her cherry red lips, and pretty eyes that were already set on him. 

There were no words for the way that first glimpse of her made him feel. No possible way to describe the rush he felt in his chest or the anxious itch of his palms. For all the slack he caught for keeping his feelings to himself and hardly ever letting his emotions show on his face, now his cheeks actually hurt from the way he was grinning as Elain not so casually rushed across the floor to him before abandoning her bags and launching herself into his arms. 

He caught her easily, lifting her up with his arms wrapped tight around her middle - savouring the feel of her hands as they wove through the strands of his dark hair. 

“Hi,” Elain giggled, resting her forehead against his. 

“Hi, Lain,” Azriel smiled back, carefully setting her back down on her feet so he could move his hands from her waist up to her face, tilting her chin up to him before he lowered his lips to hers. 

He felt the momentary hesitation, the bit of slight shock. He thought for a split second that maybe he’d pushed his luck with her, taken it too far, but the feeling was short lived because he soon felt her relax in his arms, melting into the kiss - melting into him. He knew what would’ve been going through her head. Knew that she’d paused for a moment because they’d never had this before - the chance to be so open, to put on such a display of affection where anybody in their small town could see them.

“Missed you,” she whispered against his lips, suddenly shy. Her face was flushed, eyes shimmering as she pulled back and looked at him. 

“Missed you, too.” Azriel whispered back, pecking her cheek once more for good measure. “Ready to go?” He asked, waiting for her nod of confirmation before reaching for her suitcase with one hand and taking her hand in the other because he simply couldn’t keep from touching her in some small way. 

The walk to the car was quick, quiet words exchanged about the flight as they walked - turbulent to start but otherwise fine. He knew how much she hated landings and so he’d given her hand a squeeze when she relayed with a small laugh the way she’d gripped the armrest, wishing he’d been there to hold her hand instead. 

There’d also, much to his chagrin, been a slight moment of embarrassment when Azriel started his car only for music to start blaring from the speakers - a bass heavy club track with female vocals that featured on his rotation of music he listened to whilst at the gym. He’d been listening to it on the way to the airport at top volume to keep his mind distracted.

Elain had looked over at him, a teasing grin on her lips and one sharp eyebrow raised as he sheepishly lowered the volume and quickly picked up his phone, switching to an indie folk song that was more indicative of the style of music he typically listened to throughout the day. “I see your club rat days aren’t completely behind you, after all.” 

Azriel chuckled as he threw an arm around her headrest and put the car in reverse, looking over his shoulder as he backed out of the parking spot. 

“Only within the constraints of this car and the gym, I’m afraid.” 

“Shame… I was hoping to see you with some glow sticks in hand again. It’s been awhile.”

Azriel shook his head at how much amusement she was getting out of this moment. He’d had a reputation in his college days for enjoying a good night out and while Elain had only witnessed him in his prime party days a couple of times, she’d never let him forget it. “Don’t worry, I keep the glow sticks in the glove compartment and pull them out at red lights to entertain myself sometimes.” 

“Very funny,” Elain rolled her eyes, settling into her seat and looking out the window as she quietly hummed along to the song that was now playing. 

Azriel watched her out of the corner of his eye, enjoying having her as a passenger in his car once again, happily chattering away about what they’d been up to and what this weekend had in store for them. It wasn’t until they were on the last five or so miles to their destination that he noticed how quiet she’d gotten a little over halfway into the drive, the conversation dying down into what he believed to be a comfortable silence. 

But the more the silence continued, the more suspicious he got.  He’d caught her twice now not-so-subtly sneaking long glances at him while she fidgeted with her necklace and shifted repeatedly in her seat, legs crossing and uncrossing as if she couldn’t get comfortable. It was dark out but he could just about spot a little crease between her brows - a dead giveaway she had something on her mind. 

He’d just opened his mouth to ask about it when she looked over at him. 

“Could you pull over?”

“What?” Azriel frowned, looking over at her as he slowed down, approaching the end of the long, dark road they were on. “Are you okay?” 

His own forehead creased in concern as he scanned her from head to toe. He didn’t know what he was looking for, could barely even see her properly now that the sun had fully set behind the mountains. 

“Yeah, I’m fine… I just… I… can you turn down here?” Elain gestured to the left where the paved road turned to dust and gravel - no street lights to be seen. They were supposed to go right and over the train tracks before turning into Nesta and Cassian’s neighbourhood. 

Azriel turned left as directed, driving a little further down the road before pulling to the side and putting the car in park. He twisted in his seat to face her, the dim lights from the dashboard doing little to help him see her.

“Lain, what’s wr-,” Azriel didn’t get a chance to finish his question because Elain was unbuckling her seatbelt and was halfway over the centre console of his car a second later - her lips fused to his neck, her hand skimming the waistband of his jeans. 

“Can we,” her hand slid along his jaw, turning his face toward hers. Her lips were inches from his. “Please, Az. Let me…”

The other hand that settled low on his waist slid down further, fingers gently palming him where his body had begun to catch on far quicker than his mind. 

“Fuck,” Azriel let out an involuntary groan, his hips keening upwards into her touch. “Jesus, Lain…here? Now?”

“Mhm,” she nodded, tucking her head into the crook of his neck. She breathed in the scent of him, tracing a path with her mouth to his ear where he felt her teeth just barely graze his ear lobe. “Been thinking about it all day long… this whole drive, on the plane, when I was at home. Want you in my mouth.”

Azriel cursed again under his breath, so caught off guard by her uncharacteristically brazen words to even notice that she’d undone the button and zipper of his jeans until he felt her fingers wrap around him, lightly dragging up his quickly hardening length. Just a tease of a touch that had him breathless.

He shouldn’t be surprised that she was acting like this - so out of her mind with the need to have him that she’d gone as far as to make him pull over when they were mere minutes away from seeing her family.

She’d been so eager a time or two on those late night calls, after all. Had only vaguely pretended to be shy when after hours of exchanging increasingly salacious texts, he asked if she’d undress for him. She’d nodded, a pretty blush creeping up her neck as she slowly took off her clothes and propped her laptop between her legs, dutifully following his instructions - lower, slower, yes, just like that… good girl -  until she was coming for him, rapid breaths, his name muttered into her pillow, the light from her computer screen casting her perfect skin in hues of blue.

“Come here,” he groaned, suddenly impatient, overcome with the need to have her - wanting to give her what she was begging for. He unbuckled his own seatbelt and pushed his seat back as far as it would go, helping her over the console and onto his lap, chuckling when her ass hit the horn. She maintained her focus, kissing him once, twice, then shifting down - squeezing herself into the space between his legs, her knees on the floor of the driver’s side, her hands on his thighs, her lips tracing a path around the head of his cock. 

It was like something out of a wet dream. It was every filthy fantasy he’d ever had. Elain on her knees, signature deep red lipstick staining his skin like a map of all the places her lips had explored. Heavy lidded eyes watering as she took him into her mouth - deeper, then deeper still, until he felt the back of her throat, heard the soft choking sound of her taking just a bit too much.

“Careful,” Azriel whispered, gathering her long hair in his fist and holding it back so that it stayed out of her way and gave him the view he was after.

Elain drew back, taking a deep breath as she smiled up at him - eyes glazed over with lust. “I’ve wanted you like this for so long,” she dragged her tongue over his head, her fist tightening and twisting around him. “For years.”

“Yeah?” It’s all he could manage because she was back to it, that torturous mouth making him see stars. The way she hummed around him in confirmation brought him right to the edge. Only a few minutes and she already had him there, thighs tensing as he tried to hold back just a second longer. “Elain… I’m gonna,” he tried to warn her. Tried to give her the option. But she kept going, nails digging into his thighs, almost smiling around him as he tugged at her hair so her eyes were focused on his as he spilled into her mouth with a loud groan.

He watched in a daze the motion of her throat as she swallowed, taking everything he gave her in stride until he was completely spent. He released her hair,carefully tucking it behind her ear as she dragged her tongue over him one last time.

Azriel reached down after she pulled off him, thumbing at her full bottom lip - now slick with spit. “This mouth… all I’ve been thinking about is your mouth. These lips, that lipstick - thought about it on my cock.”

“Hope I lived up to your expectations,” she smiled, shy once again.

“Exceeded them,” he slipped his thumb further between her lips, shaking his head when she playfully dragged her teeth over the pad of it as if she just couldn’t help herself. He had to pull back, keep his hands to himself before he abandoned all plans and hauled her into the back seat of his truck to return the favour.

Elain pressed small kisses to his thighs and his chest as she did her best to make him presentable again before settling back on his lap with her arms around his neck, her face once again tucked into his neck. “Thank you.”

Azriel couldn’t help but laugh as he leaned back to look at her, hands cupping her face. “Think I should be thanking you.”

She shook her head, smiling at him. “Needed that.”

All he could do was grin at her stupidly, tracing her cheeks and then her lips, before he kissed her. Slow. Deep. In no rush. 

To hear that she wanted him like that, needed him… he could almost come again just from the thought of her feeling that way. He was so in over his head, so deeply gone for her.

“Az,” she swallowed, biting down on her lip. “We should go… before the girls send a search party.” 

“You’re right,” he nodded, hands squeezing her ass once more before helping her back over the console and into her seat. He righted himself, readjusted his seat, and turned the engine back on. He started driving back towards the train tracks - his hand on her thigh, a satisfied smile tugging at the corner of his lips. The memory of a moment on a dirt road now a secret just between them - nothing but the stars in the night sky as their witness.

…

Filthy. 

It was downright filthy the way Elain felt about him. Filthy the way she walked into her sister’s house knowing her lipstick was on Azriel’s body, crudely smeared under his jeans. Filthy, the way she could still feel his fingers threaded through her hair - the gentle tug of his fist until her eyes were on him so he could watch as she swallowed. Filthy the way she wanted to avoid eating or drinking if only to keep the taste of him in her mouth just a little bit longer. 

She’d wanted it from the second she’d gotten ready for the airport, slipping on her favourite underwear while imagining him taking it off her. She’d wanted to make him feel the way he’d made her feel a time or two now - knew that he wouldn’t be keeping count but still, she’d been itching for it and she knew she wouldn’t be able to hold out as soon as she first spotted Azriel upon arrival at the Velaris airport. It was a miracle she’d even lasted that far into the drive. It was even more of a miracle that she’d been able to stop after all was said and done considering that now, hours later, there was a persistent ache between her legs the begged to be attended to. 

Arriving at Nesta’s house had been a much needed distraction. She’d checked her appearance in the visor mirror just to make sure there wasn’t any incriminating evidence of what they’d done lingering on her skin and then climbed out of the car just in time for the front door to swing open and her nephew to appear at the top of the stairs, shouting her name in excitement. 

From there, she’d been dragged into the house - taken on a tour of the toys and books he’d forced his parents to drag along for the weekend - before he finally handed her over to the adults when the excitement faded and the sleepiness took over. 

She was happy to be back in this house with her favourite people. It was so different from the last time she’d been here, when Graysen had been glued to her hip, his eyes carefully keeping track of her every move. The last time she’d been here, she’d told Azriel that they couldn’t be friends - at least not like they had once been. 

She couldn’t believe just how much had changed in such a short span of time. She couldn’t wrap her head around just how differently everything had panned out. Now she was back in one of her favourite places, no overbearing boyfriend in sight. And yes, she and Azriel weren’t friends, certainly not like they had once been. But it was true in a much different way than she’d anticipated and she couldn’t possibly be happier about it. 

It had been so easy to fall back into old patterns with him - the comfortable ease of their long friendship rekindled as if the year or two of limited communication had never happened. But while those first few weeks after Christmas were just like old times - friendly conversations talking about everything and nothing - at some point their daily phone calls escalated, certain things slipping out with the darkening of the sky and a couple glasses of wine. 

They’d sp0ken about their situation a few times over the phone. She’d confided in him about Graysen - about the mistakes made and the lessons she’d learned. About her hesitancy to jump straight into another relationship. So they’d agreed to keep things casual, to not label anything just yet. Still, it was evident by the constant tension between them, that they were undeniable more than just friends.

Perhaps that should’ve been obvious, given that the last time she’d seen him in person he’d had his head between her legs and it would’ve gone further had Nesta not rudely interrupted. 

She’d hated leaving him like that and had been so eager to see him afterwards but the New Year's rush had been hard to avoid at work for both of them and so they’d ended up agreeing to see each other when she visited for Nyx’s birthday - and to keep this new development just between them- until they could plan their next steps. 

That’s how they ended up in this house - Elain unable to look Azriel in the eye for more than a few seconds while surrounded by their family and friends without thinking of everything she wanted to do with him. She’d been more than happy to entertain Nyx and to help prep dinner. To do absolutely anything that would keep her busy so that she didn’t have time to think about the way she could feel him sneaking looks at her every time they were in the same room. With the distraction of other people, she could push aside the desire coursing through her for just a moment. 

Somehow, Elain had made it through the night successfully. She hadn’t raised any suspicions. Had managed to interact with him in a way that was just the right amount of friendly. But now, laying in the bedroom she always stayed in at Nesta’s house, all she could think of was him. Of what they’d done in the car on the way here just three or four hours ago. 

She wanted him again. Wanted his hands on her body. Wanted his tongue in her mouth. Felt like she needed him in a way that was borderline embarrassing. 

She picked up her phone, opening their text thread. She typed and deleted multiple messages before locking her phone and putting it face down on the nightstand. It felt too desperate to text him like that. Juvenile almost. But it was torture - each shift of her legs, the soft touch of the sheets, the feel of her t-shirt twisting around her sensitive skin - it all added to her incessant need. Her nipples were hard peaks and there was a thrumming low in her core that was becoming impossible to ignore. She’d never in her life felt frustration like this, pinpricks of sweat gathering at her hairline. 

She knew this wasn’t something that she’d be able to work away herself like she did when she was alone at home and desperate for him- in bed, her fingers stroking between her thighs.

Elain sat up, swinging her legs over the side of her bed. She needed air. A glass of cold water. And if she walked by his room… if she happened to see the glow of a light underneath the gap in his door, then that would be the sign she needed. Maybe then she’d knock. And if he happened to be awake, if he happened to open the door, then she’d feign ignorance - was just going to the kitchen and saw your light was on… 

With her mind made up, she slipped on her robe and padded to the door with the intention of venturing to the kitchen but she didn't make it far at all, pulling the door open only to almost walk face first into the solid wall of Azriel’s chest.

“Oh,” she swallowed, dragging her eyes up to his face. 

He looked just as dishevelled as she felt, his hair tousled as if he’d been running his hands through it. 

“I was just going to the kitchen because I needed some -”

“Save it,” he shook his head, voice low as he stepped towards her, forcing her to retreat back into her room. She couldn’t bring herself to say anything, too distracted by the look of determination in his eyes as twisted her around and quickly closed the door behind them.

Her entire body sparked to life, burning as he reached for her again, both hands firm on her hips until she was completely pressed up against the door with nowhere to go, his hips flush against hers, not even a single inch left between them. It was that movement that made her snap out of the daze, it was the feel of him hard and heavy against her stomach that left no room for questioning what he was here for or that his intentions matched exactly what she’d had in mind while she’d been tossing and turning in her bed. 

Azriel wasted no time, hands deftly undoing the tie of her robe, reaching up to slip it off her shoulders until it fell to their feet. His fingers were under her t-shirt a moment later, fingertips skimming the soft curve of her breasts. 

“Az, wait…” Elain breathed, trying to put a bit of space between them if only to clear her head a little. “Feyre and Rhys…”

“Don’t wanna hear names that aren’t mine right now,” he said gruffly, rolling his hips against hers.

“It’s just that they’re right next door. I share a wall and they could hear…” 

Azriel only smirked down at her, thumbs circling her sensitive nipples. “Guess you’ll just have to be quiet then won’t you. Do you think you can manage that?”

She knew he was being smart with her, knew that he remembered just how not quiet she’d been the last time he’d had his hands on  her like this. But her rational brain had seemed to vacate the premises and so instead of offering some sort of rebuttal back, Elain was muttering something like I can be so quiet, I promise I’ll be so quiet as she turned them around, tugging him down towards her and pulling him to the floor. 

“Right here?” Azriel raised an eyebrow, hands travelling up her legs and under the hem of her oversized t-shirt, leaving goosebumps in their path, until his fingers curled into the straps of the lacy underwear she wore.

“Yes,” Elain nodded, not bothering to explain that the headboard would likely be an issue for them. She lifted her hips up to make it easier for him to tug her underwear down her legs. “Here. Now. Need you.” 

“I know,” Azriel soothed, hands pushing her shirt up her torso before lifting it off her head, leaving her sprawled out underneath him - naked on the carpet. “I know, angel.” 

Elain bit down on her lip, watching as he quickly stripped out of his own clothes before lowering himself over her. One big palm was placed on her thighs, calloused hand spreading her wide in a way that would’ve made her blush if she wasn’t so focused on the blissful feeling of his weight settling on top of her and pinning her to the floor.

That same hand maneuvered in between their bodies, fingers easily parting her and slipping through her center - teasing and testing. He cursed under his breath, clearly pleased with what he found there. “You’re so fucking wet already, I think you could take me just like this but I’d like to taste -”

“No,” she shook her head quickly, blindly reaching between them to grip his cock, guiding it to where she was wet and ready for him. “Please.”

The feeling of him settling against her entrance was divine, and her back arched in search for more.

“Wait, fuck.” Azriel stopped all of a sudden. “Condom… they’re in my room. I can just go and…”

Elain locked her legs around him, nails pressed into his shoulder blades to keep him from moving any further away. She couldn’t bear for him to leave. Couldn’t possibly waste one more second with him when they were already so short on time. “It’s okay, I’m on the pill and I haven’t… there’s no one else so if you’re good then I’m good.”

“I’m good, Lain.” Azriel nodded quickly, relaxing a little as he once again situated himself, dragging his cock through her once before he pushed in just the tiniest bit so she could feel that beautiful pinch of initial pressure. “You sure?”

“Yes, fuck, pl-” her words were choked off with a gasp as Azriel pushed into her so slowly, each incredible inch of him sinking into her until there was nowhere else for him to go. 

His lips skated over her jaw until they found her own, kissing her sweetly as he withdrew out almost all the way before sliding in again. “There’s no one else, Lain. Just you.”

“Yeah?” Her eyes fluttered open to look at him as he sank into her. 

“Yeah, that’s how it’s gonna be now. Isn’t that right, angel?” He whispered as he plunged into her over and over again - slow, decadent drags of his cock that had her whimpering beneath him. “Just you for me and me for you.”

“Yes,” Elain nodded frantically, hips bucking up against his, desperate for more.

“You’re mine, aren’t you?” Azriel read her signs and lifted her knee, pushing it up and out to the side, allowing for a deeper fit that had her biting down on her lip hard enough to draw blood. 

“I’m yours. Fuck, fuck, I’m yours.” Elain moaned, lips seeking his mouth for another kiss. 

She didn’t know what had gotten into him but she relished in it. Body growing taut at the suggestion of belonging to him. Maybe it was the distance for him as well, the time spent apart, that had him just as crazed as she had been. Just as feral. 

It was so good. So fucking incredible to have him like this, so deep inside her, making her feel so unbelievably good that she couldn’t even think straight. It was undeniable that this was more than sex. Despite the carnal urge they’d both felt, this had to be more than just physical desire between them. She couldn’t get enough. Wanted even more. 

“Az?” Elain raked her nails up his back, tugging lightly at the hair at the nape of his neck until his eyes were on her. “Will you fuck me?”

She could see the look of confusion in his eyes, the little crinkle on his forehead as if he was trying to figure out if that wasn’t exactly what they were currently doing. It took a second but she could pinpoint the exact moment he caught on to what she meant because his eyes darkened and his lips twitched.

“You want it a little harder, hm? A little rough? I’ll give you whatever you want.” He pulled out of her, kneeling back and nodding as he looked down at her. “Turn over. Get on your knees.”

Elain bit down on the inside of her cheek, nervous anticipation coursing through her as she flipped over as directed. Her hands and knees were on the floor as she turned back to look at him, watching as he knelt behind her, hands kneading her ass . He gave her no warning before lining himself up and pushing into her in one rough, hard thrust - knocking the air clear out of her. 

She hadn’t even noticed that she’d made a noise until his chest pressed into her back, his hand covering her mouth as he nipped at a spot just below her ear. “Thought I told you to be quiet.” 

She loved him like this. Loved the authority. The dominance. The control. She needed it sometimes and she loved that he did as she wanted, fucking her properly without making her feel like any of the other men she’d been with had made her feel in moments like this. Because for each rough movement, there was praise. 

You’re doing so well, angel.  Azriel told her as he gripped her hips hard enough to leave bruises.

You feel so fucking good. As he placed a hand between her shoulder blades, pushing her down into the rug to create the perfect arch of her back.

Look how pretty you look when I’m fucking you. So beautiful when you’re taking me. As he fisted her hair, roughly turning her head until she caught their reflection in the mirror hanging on the closet door beside them.

“Az!” Her voice was muffled slightly by the carpet, her eyes hazy as she watched him fuck her - the measured snap of his hips, the flex of his arms as he gripped her hair, her hips, her ass. He was so strong, so assured in his motions as he easily positioned her just how he liked. 

She hoped and prayed that these walls were solid enough to block out noise because while she was doing her absolute best to stay quiet, there was nothing to be done about the sound of his skin hitting hers each time he fucked into her. Nothing to be done about the sinful, slick sound of his cock sliding in and out of her given how wet she was.

“What is it, Elain?” He asked. “Tell me what you need.”

“More,” she begged. She didn’t even really know what she wanted but she knew she wanted more of him. More of his touch. More of his words. Just more of him. “I’m so… I’m so close, please, I just need more.” 

Azriel slowed his thrusts, pulling gently on her hair until she was up on her knees, her back tight to his chest. Her head fell back onto his shoulder, her lips were on his neck tasting the salty skin there. 

“Feel like you were made for me.” His arms wound around her. One arm snaking up between her breasts to put slight pressure on her throat as he held her up. The other arm drifted down her torso until his fingers found her throbbing clit, his thumb smoothing quick circles there as he continued to push into her with deep, powerful thrusts. She pulsed around him, her stomach pulling tight as her desire reached a precipice with each stroke of his cock and each tap of his thumb. “There you go, Elain. That’s it.”

“So good. You feel so good.” She murmured, so pleased with the intensity this new position brought. “I’m so close.”

“Come for me, baby.” Azriel urged, his thumb still working her beautifully. “Be a good girl for me and come on my cock, Lain. Can you do that?”

Elain made a small noise of agreement, pushing back onto him to match his thrust, amplifying the feeling of him so deep inside her that she felt him in her belly, stretching her in the best way. It was like he was made to fill her. Made to fuck her. 

In the end it was his words that did it - the gentle praise coupled with the rough motion of his hips and his hands. It was Azriel whispering about how well she was taking him that tipped her over the edge. She collapsed back into him with the force of her orgasm, her teeth buried into his neck in a halfhearted attempt to muffle the way she cried out his name.

“That’s it, sweetheart. Ride it out. Take what you need.” His fingers continued to stroke over her, wringing out every last drop of pleasure until she was utterly boneless - absolute putty in his arms as he maneuvered them so that she was on her back again with him between her legs. “Just a little more, okay? I’m right there with you.”

When he dipped down to press his mouth to hers, Elain accepted it greedily as she spread her legs apart and welcomed him in. She was so sensitive, aftershocks of her orgasm still pulsing through her as he entered her again. She savoured the way their tongues slid together, moaning quietly as he lifted her hips and fucked into her quickly until his own hips started to falter. 

“Where do you want it, Lain?” Azriel asked, voice gravelly as he attempted to hold himself together.

“Anywhere. Wherever you want.” Elain told him, meaning every word. He could do whatever he wanted and she’d let him. He could come on her stomach, her breasts. Even her face if that would please him. But there was really only one place that felt right at this moment. One place that caused her to tense around him as if to wordlessly suggest the idea. “Inside me. Come inside me.”

She heard him groan at the suggestion, a string of low curses flying out of his mouth at her words. “Want it inside you? Want me to fill you up?”

“Yes,” Elain wrapped her legs around him, pulling him further into her. Showing him exactly how much she wanted it. “I’m yours, Azriel.”

He said her name as he came, hips stilling as his forehead pressed to her chest. She could feel it, the warm sensation, the jerk of his cock as he gave her everything he had until there was no room left for it all. Elain felt it on her thighs, felt it seep out of where they were still joined. 

“God,” Azriel moaned in disbelief, head still buried against her chest as he attempted to regulate his breathing. “That was…”

“Yeah,” Elain agreed, threading her fingers through his hair as she gently untangled her legs from his waist. He grabbed his t-shirt from where it was laying next to them, dabbing it against her thighs as he pulled out of her - ensuring nothing spilled from her onto the rug beneath them.

There were no words for what just happened. No possible way to summarise everything she felt in that moment. She’d never felt like that before. It was almost too good to be true how unbelievable it was. How incredible he’d made her feel. She couldn’t believe how much time they’d wasted not doing that.

They laid there for ages, neither of them able to find the energy to make it to bed. Instead, Azriel reached up and pulled a couple pillows to the floor along with a blanket, draping it over their naked bodies before pulling her into him. Her breasts against his chest. Her legs entwined with his.

They exchanged kisses in between whispered conversation- slow and heated - hands tracing and grasping until it was inevitable that somehow neither of them were ready to stop. It wasn’t long until Elain was on top of him, breathy moans slipping from both their lips as lowered himself onto his cock, riding him slowly. Grinding against him, taking her time drawing out their pleasure until they couldn’t possibly take it anymore and they both finished with stifled moans. 

“Az?” Elain broke the comfortable silence that had settled between them afterwards, her finger stroking along his jaw as his own fingertips traced soothing patterns down her arm. 

Azriel hummed, sleepy eyes fluttering open. 

It made her heart skip a beat - how beautiful he was like this - sex tousled hair and tired hazel eyes. Lips swollen, the dim moonlight illuminating his sweat slicked, tan skin. He was like a piece of art and she couldn’t believe how lucky she was to be the one to see him like this. To be the one that had messed up his hair and bitten his lips. 

“My necklace,” she forced herself to focus, swallowing nervously before she continued. “I never asked when you gave it to me but I’ve always wondered… the letter on the back…”

Elain trailed off, watching carefully as Azriel tilted his head back further into the pillow sandwiched between his head and the floor. She bit back a smile as a warm flush of colour crept up his neck and seeped into his cheeks. He’d caught on quick to where she was headed with this inquiry and his reaction was enough to hint at what his answer would be. 

“The ‘A’ on the back isn’t for my last name is it?”

“No,” Azriel answered quietly, his hand drifting from her arm. “No, it’s not.”

Her breath hitched in her throat as his fingers smoothed over her sternum, sliding in between her breasts until he reached the pendant. He flipped it over, thumb pressing into the small letter hidden there like a secret.

“Do you engrave your initial onto all the jewellery you make?” She asked.

“You know I don’t,” he answered. The initial signs of embarrassment were gone from his face and in its place was an unabashed, earnest honesty. “That was just for you.”

“Why?”

“You really don’t know, Lain?” He shook his head, tugging on the pendant gently. “I knew I couldn’t have you the way I wanted. Didn’t think I’d ever get the chance… so I thought I’d give you just a little piece of me. I suppose I liked the idea of my initial being right here. Against your skin. Close to your heart.”

As if to punctuate his words, he did just that - pressing the oval into her skin just as she’d done time and time again over the years in an attempt to steady herself in moments where she needed comfort. 

She knew. Of course, she knew that the letter on the back hadn’t really been for her last name. She’d seen the way his eyes fixated on it each and every time he saw her since he’d first put the necklace on her. Noticed the way he’d relax when he saw that she was still wearing it year after year.

It was a relief to know that all this time, what she’d secretly hoped to be true was actually true. 

“You’ve got a possessive streak, huh?” She didn’t know what else to say so she settled for the safe option of making a joke. Everything else that fought to leave her mouth would be too honest. Far too much, far too soon. “All that talk earlier about being yours…”

“I meant it,” he slipped his hand further up her neck, up to her jaw. His hold on her was loose but still, her blood heated with the suggestion behind the action. “We don’t need to put a label on anything. We can keep this quiet, keep it between us. But if we’re doing this then there’ll be no one else. Not for me. Not for you.”

“So we’re doing this, then?” she asked, finally breaching the question that had been hovering between them like a grenade over the past few months. “We’re… exclusive?”

“Yes, Elain.” Azriel laughed, lips hovering over hers as his thumb smoothed over the expanse of her throat. “We’re exclusive.”

She closed the distance between them, her lips pressed to his as Azriel rolled her onto her back and used his knee to guide her legs apart for the third time that night.

[cattimeswithjellie]

Stream Recap ZombieCleo, 6-23-24

((Did I jump the queue with this one and stay up especially late finishing it specifically because DocM77 asked on Twitter for someone to go over the stream with a fine-toothed comb and give him the salient details? MAYBE. I just hope I can figure out a way to get it to him so he sees it. Anyway, it's stupidly late, have a stream recap in which Scar's audio is a main character that never appears.))

0:00 Cleo opens the stream on the Hermitcraft server. She greets the False raiders and the chatters who were already here, even as she types to False in the game chat. She asks False if she is tired, False replies that she is boiling. Cleo suggests living in Scotland, where it is cool in both a literal and metaphorical sense. Cleo asks Chat if they are good. She herself thinks Chat is great because they are here. Cleo does not know if False shows appreciation for her chat enough, but promises that False does really appreciate them, probably. Chat appreciates False. Ren enters the server and gets an OMG HI from Cleo in chat. Cleo and Ren agree they need to play Plate Up again soon. Cleo will also drag False along on this Plate Up adventure, whether she wants to or not.

3:00 A chatter plays hydration check, so Cleo takes a drink and gives chat a bonus posture check as well. A chatter asks which is Cleo’s favorite punctuation mark. Cleo says it is the interrobang (‽) because it is great. The plan for today is to try and do some planning with Chat’s help, because Chat is smart and Cleo hasn’t got a plan. Cleo is also very concerned that Chat engage in self-care activities. They go full-screen vtuber to lead a mini stretching session and tell Chat they are important and loved.

5:10 The plan-planning process requires some signs. Cleo goes to get some while talking about how nice it is to live in Scotland where it’s not so hot. They thank subs and donos and try to make heart-hands after a nice message, but realize they have not put on their hand sensors. Maybe later for that. A chatter plays the Hotdogs On Your Face song. Mrs. Tango raids into the stream. Cleo goes full-screen again to welcome the raiders and give them the same niceness and self-care message. Cleo is feeling especially nurturing today and Chat is vibing with it.

8:20 Cleo stares at the sign she was about to place down and write the plan on, but she has forgotten it. She thanks subs and donos instead and remembers the plan. The plan is to plan out the city and mark places for Shrubberies, which must be pronounced in Knights that Say Ni fashion ((a reference to the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.)), and other important landmarks. NJCoffeeJunkie raids in, but Cleo’s not doing the nurturing thing a third time in ten minutes. A chatter plays sour jelly bean.

10:30 Cameron, Cleo’s lead mod and partner, raids in. Cleo gives in and gives the full-screen nurturing self-care speech again. Cleo finally writes “Granery Food Storage” on the sign, declaring that she is not a teacher anymore and doesn’t need to spell. She shares the plan for the granary building and says hi to Scar in game chat. More thanks to subs and donos. A chatter suggests Scar has a power beyond this world, Cleo wouldn’t go that far but does agree that Scar is pretty dangerous. ((In Season 9, Joe Hills made it a point to greet Scar whenever he logged on, because otherwise Scar had a tendency to drop by his build and murder him. This may have had a lasting effect on Hermit behavior patterns.)) Cleo has a video coming out tomorrow that also involves Skizz and Joel, and it’s going to be fun.

14:20 Cleo shows off how they have spawn-proofed their front lawn area, mostly using glow lichen, which they insist must be pronounced with a short I sound, as in “finger-lickin’” because otherwise it sounds stupid. A chatter announces they came out to their parents and shouts out the gays. Cleo shouts out the gays, lesbians and all other groups and wishes everyone happy pride. They trail off when they realize that Ren has made a stone… “upside-down T” in one of the marked-off building squares. Cleo takes down the definitely-only-an-upside-down-T and replaces it with a sign declaring it the medical tent/emergency room area. Chat is not sure it was just a T. Cleo marks another square for Delivery of Supplies, right in front of the mailbox.

17:00 Cleo makes a big square for the Tavern, which will also be the town meeting hall. When the drama happens (and she doesn’t mean Theatre Kid Ren), they can come in here and plan. Cleo thinks about what else is needed. A boat dock maybe. Chat agrees that if D&D has taught them anything, it is that a tavern is the best place to make plans. Cleo agrees. Chat also suggests an armory. During this time, Cleo also seems to perceive that it is evening and tries to sleep. It does not work. Eventually Cleo realizes it is still daytime and is a bit confused. Chat suggests that night is an illusion. Cleo thinks about the best place to put an armory without blocking the sight lines of the little town. Chat suggests a school as well, but a town on a war footing does not need a school. She sketches out an armory and puts up a sign for where the docks will be.

22:50 Cleo starts trying to sleep again. She taps the bed for about 25 seconds before finally being allowed to sleep. A kitchen tent might be good on the hill, so that gets sketched out as well. A retaining wall for the hill will probably show up at some point. A chatter asks what era the village is supposed to be, Cleo says it’s going to be Magipunk. There will be motorbikes and magic robots. There might be some ruins as well. A chatter asks about the pile of Ren and False heads in the middle of the build area, Cleo says that’s Ren and False being Ren and False. A chatter suggests adding a watchtower, but that would be on top of the hill and Cleo has other plans for that area.

28:30 A chatter says that Scar needs help. Cleo says that if Scar needs help, Scar can ask for help. It is not polite to go into other peoples’ streams and ask for help for other people. Chat suggests a junkyard or scrap heap, but Cleo thinks this community is very into recycling and mending because they haven’t got much stuff. There will be a bunch of barracks tents, those get squares. Cleo needs one more big building. Chat makes a lot of suggestions. Cleo has run out of yellow wool to make plan squares with. They head to the shopping district.

31:40 Cleo hits up Wool Street and buys four stacks of yellow wool, then goes home. Wool Street does not have an ender chest, a clear violation of the Cub Rule, but Cleo pays anyway. Chat is becoming extremely distracted by whatever is happening in Scar’s stream, to the point where Cleo’s mod bans the word “Scar” temporarily. If Scar needs help, Cleo reiterates, Scar can speak to her himself. ((If this were a video recap, there would be a smash cut here to Scar’s stream, where his profound audio issues are currently causing everything he says to turn into an unbearable auditory hellscape until he is reduced to pantomime and beatboxing just to interact with his Chat. But Cleo has no way of knowing this.))

34:10 Chat finally comes up with the good suggestion of a campfire area in the center of town. Cleo agrees with this and decides a longhouse to go with it will do the trick. They begin sketching it out when Scar puts “cLEO!” “where are yyou?” into the chat. Cleo tells him they are at their base. Chat is extremely riled up by now, telling Cleo to run, to escape, pain is coming, prepare your ears. Cameron has caught wind of what is actually happening and tells Cleo it’s not good. Cleo does not know why they should be expected to run from Scar.

35:30 Scar approaches on foot, wearing his Poe Poe skin and hat. He doesn’t say anything. Cleo says hi to him several times. He continues not to say anything. Cameron lets Cleo know that Scar’s mic is looping all desktop audio. Cleo tells Scar that he’s wonderful and she wants him to know that, but the whole no-sound thing is actually extra-creepy. She suggests that she could make things much worse by going and getting her horns.

36:30 Ren flies in, playing one of his own horns. He is clearly well-informed about the situation and intends to make it as terrible as possible. “Burning in my ears,” he sings, “the mic is echoing! It is absolutely pain, in the earholes!” Scar flies away. Cleo admits she can’t hear Scar at all, but the song has her laughing. Ren says that he and his stream are watching Scar’s stream and it is _wild._ Cleo’s Chat is in emoji-only time out right now because talking about other streams is both against the rules and all anybody wants to do. Scar flies back to the waiting pair and Ren immediately begins chanting the beginning of “My Name Is” but he doesn’t actually know the words and mostly improvises. Cleo congratulates Scar on getting her stream put into emote-only. Scar does not respond ((partly because everything Cleo says is being shredded into the nonsense avalanche of sound looping on Scar’s stream and partially because Scar also hasn’t figured out how to unmute his mic in his current OBS configuration)). Scar flies away again.

38:00 Ren and Cleo discuss the wildness of the current situation. Cameron knows what is wrong with Scar’s audio equipment, but there’s nothing they can actually do. It’s not as though they can reach through the computer and get into Scar’s audio equipment. Scar flies back, having successfully unmuted at least, and yells at them to help him. Cleo reiterates that they can’t, while Ren begins beatboxing. Cleo tells Scar he needs to reboot, but there is no way that is getting through overtop the terrible audio mess that Ren is creating. “If I say something I just echo!” Scar yells. “Echo, echo, echo!” Ren starts beatboxing again, because he is terrible. Scar flies away again. Cleo tells Ren he is mean. Funny, but mean. They are both laughing pretty hard.

40:10 In the spirit of attempting to actually be helpful, Cleo begins writing Cam’s suggestion about the problem into game chat, but is interrupted by Scar flying back while singing “Have you heard the take of Mr. Kirkland and his four-pound pie?” Ren adds backup vocals. Cleo is trying really hard to impart some actual information but it is totally buried under the audio barrage that is completely inaudible on this stream. Cleo tells Scar that he is the best, he has completely derailed everything. That isn’t bad, it’s just funny. Cleo spends a lot of streams just listening to Scar.

41:50 Ren apparently closes or mutes Scar’s stream and heaves a sigh, saying he really feels like he’s been somewhere else. Cleo bets Scar wishes he were somewhere else. A chatter plays sour jellybean. Cleo says the funniest part is when Scar unmutes suddenly to say something. Ren begins playing his guitar over his mic. “It’s getting WORSE!” Scar yells suddenly and flies away again. “You’re a mean, mean man,” Cleo tells Ren. The two of them agree that this is pretty satisfying karma for all the trolling Scar has ever done to them. Cleo shows off some of the planning they have been doing with all the wool squares. Ren looks at the 3x3 square marked off for a tent and suggests dubiously that it is a small space for a tent. Cleo assures him it’ll be fine, it’ll be made out of pants. It takes Ren a minute for figure out that the tent will be an armor stand sculpture, not a build. He thinks it’s cool.

44:30 Scar returns once more! Ren and Cleo sing to him. He flies away again. Ren turns on the stream and reports that the audio is definitely not fixed. He tells Cleo that when Scar comes back, they need to hit him with some Bohemian Rhapsody. Cleo agrees, so long as Ren handles the high parts. Ren wants to do the low parts. They practice. Cleo does have a little uncertainty on the high notes and neither of them are sure of the words, but they do a credible job. Chat is very enthusiastic about it.

46:00 Scar comes back again. His audio is still not fixed. Ren and Cleo sing to him. Chat speculates on how many horns could be made just from the shenanigans of the past thirty minutes. They forget the words and jump ahead to the “MAMAAAA” portion. Cleo decides to actually be helpful and tabs out to start sending information and screenshots from Cameron to Scar that might help fix his problem. While Cleo is tabbed out, there is no visual indicator like a menu screen but the game does freeze, leading to the strange phenomenon of Scar audibly being killed by a drowned, complete with hitting and screaming, while appearing completely fine and motionless onscreen. Chat is confused.

47:30 Cleo tabs back into the game to find the drowned attacking them now. They scold it for being on land and kill it, then survey the bits and piece Scar left scattered around as Ren tries in vain to describe the complete audio chaos that is Scar’s stream. Cleo spots Scar’s _enormous_ Poe Poe hat and starts laughing. Neither of them have any inventory space to pick up any of the scattered belongings. Ren makes a chest and does his best while thinking about other songs that he can loop into Scar’s audio purgatory. He asks Cleo if she knows a song that he describes completely as “Dadadadada, dadadadadada.” Cleo does know it enough to dadada along. ((Chat identifies the song as Sandstorm, by Darude.)) He collects up the Poe Poe hat and puts it on. The effect is striking, especially considering that his skin already has glasses. Cleo is impressed. She tells Ren she’s never said this to anyone before, but he should be a member of the Poe Poe.

49:50 Scar returns, naked but for his spare wings. He asks timorously if he can have his things. It seems possible for a moment that Scar’s audio issues are corrected, but no luck. Ren throws back all of Scar’s items, then absolutely engulfs him in the monstrous entity that is the Poe Poe hat. Cleo dissolves in laughter again. Ren starts in with Sandstorm. Cleo tells Scar that she doesn’t mind if he kills Scar. Scar says Ren might have his axe. Ren does, and throws it back while still “dadadadadada”-ing. Scar sets off several flight rockets, apparently just to add to the chaos Cleo cannot hear. Cleo tells Scar he is awesome, but whatever he is going through, she cannot relate. It is funny that Ren is being the menace right now, she says, because usually that’s Scar’s job. There’s a moment of silence, then Cleo asks Ren how long he thinks it’ll be before Scar mutes them. “Let’s keep complimenting me,” Scar suggests instead. “I like that part.” Ren starts playing guitar again. In chat, Cameron is clearly itching for a way to actually reach through the computer and fix Scar’s audio equipment.

51:50 Scar thinks he’s figured something out. He’s only getting one echo now, which is a big improvement from the four or five he’s been hearing. Cleo asks if Scar’s done the troubleshooting Cam suggested. Scar says he tried, but he’s not seeing any of the stuff Cam said he should see. Ren whispers to his Chat that he thinks they muted him. Cleo says they did not, they’re just ignoring him. Cleo reminds him that they are trying to be nice to Scar, which is quite difficult. Ren doesn’t know anything about that, he is trying to make loop tracks.

52:20 “Oh, like this is your Woodstock,” Cleo realizes. Ren agrees. “What about wood?” Scar asks. Cleo sighs and asks why Scar is like this, but Scar has clearly gotten an immediate dose of karma in the form of an innuendo that will not stop looping in his audio feed. He regrets everything. Cleo asks with some disbelief if he actually understands what he just said. Scar says he does because it won’t stop repeating in his ears. If he hears one more thing about wood he’ll go crazy! Cleo has had an epiphany. Could this be Scar’s conscience, a force that simply repeats the exact things he says back to him?

53:00 Cleo tries to help Scar disable desktop audio. This helps, but does not eliminate the problem. Cleo and Cam believe it is desktop audio and Scar is just not finding the correct source. Ren begins chanting the “How much wood would a woodchuck chuck” rhyme, because he is terrible. Scar gives up and leans into it, telling Ren to do the woodchuck thing again. Clearly those two are hearing a lot that Cleo is not hearing right now.

54:50 Scar is silent for a moment, then comes back and says he may have figured it out. “Oh?” Cleo asks. Scar asks if hypothetically, someone were to have three open sources of their own stream in the background on their desktop, could that cause this. Cleo answers “yes” in the carefully controlled voice of someone who wants to say so very, very much more. In the chat, Cameron has been reduced to ellipses. Cleo reminds Scar that the very first thing they asked him was if he had his stream open in the background. Scar admits he had three tabs of his stream open, but they were minimized so he didn’t see them. Apparently he had some trouble linking when he was trying to tweet out his stream start, and that eventually led to… all of this. Chat is melting down. Ren tells Scar “You are easily in my top ten favorite humans.” Scar cannot hear him because, on top of everything else, he is working with a broken pair of headphones old enough to be starting intermediate school in the fall. Ren types it into the game chat.

56:00 Scar adjusts Ren’s audio and tells him he has pumped him up so he can hear better. Cleo says Ren does not need pumping up, that Ren comes fully inflated at all times. Chat wants a clip of that immediately. Scar claims that nothing like this has ever happened to him before. Cleo says at least they know what the problem was now: ineptitude! Ren admits that he gave up on helping immediately and embraced the chaos. Cleo tries to say that they could help a little by passing along Cameron’s advice, but is interrupted by Scar audibly dropping his headset. Chat is just having the best time right now.

57:20 Cleo asks Scar if he’s going to get a new headset. He says “not yet” in the vocal tone of a talking dog who knows he is the one who ate all the ham. She asks why and he explains he hasn’t decided what he wants yet, and also he hates spending money. Exasperated, Cleo reminds him that this is his JOB. Scar snicker laughs and says he was thinking today that he probably does need to have a burial for this headset. He can bury it in the garage. She suggests “burying” it with a ten pound hammer. Scar says he gets sentimental and weird and very specific things: his sunglasses and this headset. He’s had the headset longer than he’s been on Hermitcraft! ((Scar joined Hermitcraft in Season 4, which started in early 2016, meaning that the headset is a minimum of eight years old and probably older.)) Cleo is appalled and insists that this proves the exact point she was trying to make. At some point the headset was good but now it is ancient and diseased and needs to be put out of its misery. Scar insists that it’s not diseased because he has replaced the ear cups several times. A brief discussion of the Headset of Theseus ensues before Cleo rejects the whole premise.

59:30 Cleo points out that if Scar’s headset is over ten years old, he is going to hear _so much_ better when it is replaces. Scar insists that it’s a good headset and gets very nostalgic about how many Hermitcraft meetings have come through that headset, but Cleo would rather not. Ren suggests that Scar needsto take the headset in a field and deal with it Office Space style. ((A famous scene in the movie Office Space involves smashing a printer to bits with a bat.)) This actually seems to appeal to Scar. The three also discuss the merits and risks of a viking funeral for the headphones. Scar likes the idea because it involves a flaming arrow. Apparently Scar did some archery when he was young and even got a couple bullseyes. His archery career was ended when his brother broke the windows on the shed with an arrow and got the bow taken away. Ren says he is scared of bow and arrows because of a time in boarding school where an older boy bullied the new kids by shooting an arrow straight into the air and making them run away from it.

1:02:00 Scar shoots an arrow into the air to illustrate the story. Ren says that brings back painful memories, yes. Scar tells them that this is the first arrow of the new HotGuy bow, because he fell into lava again yesterday and lost everything. Chat is still pretty hung up on Ren’s story. Cleo sighs that at some point they are going to just have to give Scar some kind of frequent flier discount at the bookshop. Scar clears his throat and says it’s nice that Cleo mentioned that because there is a situation where some snails stole all his diamonds… Cleo asks if he stole books from the shop. He insists that it wasn’t stealing because he is going to pay it back! He paid half at the time and the other half is on layaway, which in his mind apparently involves getting to take the items before you have finished paying for them. Cleo insists that they can’t get a new trophy with layaway diamonds!

1:02:40 Scar and Cleo find common ground over the fact that they are both currently the plaintiffs in server lawsuits. Scar is embroiled in a dispute with some snails and a man named Big Ron who may or may not be Mumbo, while Cleo is suing Doc for killing a pig they had a special emotional attachment to. Cleo’s suin’ papers have been delivered and Ren should expect a subpoena at any point. Ren says he’s not going to appear in court for less than a stack of diamonds, suggesting he is not super-familiar with the subpoena power in general and “things a witness should probably not say” in specific. Scar, confused, asks if Ren is Cleo’s lawyer. Cleo clarifies that Ren is a witness. Skizz is Cleo’s lawyer. Scar is sorry to hear that and offers his condolences to Cleo. Cleo says it’s fine because the other lawyer is Joe. She is also not going to say what she did to the judge. She clears her throat and moves on.

1:03:30 Ren reiterates the fact that if Cleo were to see her way clear to making a substantial amount of diamonds appear in Ren’s mailbox, he might just become a very enthusiastic and helpful witness. Cleo insists that all she really wants is for Doc to suffer. Ren says he just wants to make some profit off the situation. Cleo asks points out that Ren is supposed to be married to Doc. Scar agrees and says that it’s not right to get in the middle between family. He asks Cleo if this is about the pig. “Yeah, it’s about the pig,” Cleo admits, sounding a bit embarrassed about it at this point. Cleo is suing for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

1:04:10 Ren informs Scar that there was A MURDER. Scar knows about the murder, it’s tied into his investigation and he has zero leads and he doesn’t know what to do because Doc is expecting results! Cleo is confused until Scar clarifies that as a member of the Poe Poe, he is charged with investigating the diamond ore thefts that were the instigating incident for the pig murder but he has zero leads and he doesn’t know what to do. Ren immediately tells Scar he’s barking up the wrong tree because Ren of course knows absolutely nothing about the diamond snitcher and can be of no help whatsoever. Scar finds that immediate reaction very suspicious. Cleo doesn’t know from suspicions or diamond filchers, all they know is that there’s a diamond thief and it caused their pig to die. Ren admits that it is possible that his quick denial might have sounded a bit suspicious.

1:05:20 Ren admits that he was trying so hard to sound not-suspicious that he accidentally wrapped right back around to suspicious again. Scar laughs and tells him he “pulled an Impulse,” referencing Impulse’s frequent behavior from Friday Night Among Us streams. Scar decides that he has a new prime suspect. Cleo is not sure Doc will believe Ren took the diamonds. Ren says he couldn’t have thought of the prank and even if he had, he wouldn’t have the follow-through to actually do it. Cleo thinks about it and decides yeah, Ren probably doesn’t have the energy. Scar laughs and protests that he already used that as his excuse and nobody believes him!

1:06:20 Cleo says it can’t be her because she has no energy or patience to poke Doc and then have to listen to Doc rant on and on about how terrible the punishment raining down is going to be, only to have him never deliver. Ren wants to plead his case some more, but Scar is too busy laughing at Cleo’s declaration. He agrees that Doc did dole out some punishment last season, but that the threats are mostly bluster. He does a very terrible Doc impression. Cleo does another Doc impression that is also terrible but in a different way. Scar goes to sleep and Cleo points out that this area is mob proofed. Ren points out that Scar literally just died to a zombie. Cleo has to admit that’s true, but it was a water zombie. Scar points out that he died and they both just LET IT HAPPEN. Cleo protests that she was tabbed out. Ren says he was too busy looping.

1:07:40 Cleo offers Ren the opportunity to tell his story and prove his innocence. Ren goes back to the distant days of Season 8 when he and Doc were living in each others’ pockets, basically in voice chat all day long. Cleo offers condolences for that, but thinks it might make Ren more likely to want to commit a crime. Ren insists no, the opposite! He offers as character evidence the fact that False won Demise this year in part because Ren decided not to target her at the end of the game and in fact helped her although he had no reason to do so. Ren is very loyal to his particular people, and Doc is one of them, so therefore QED Ren cannot possibly be the ore snatcher.

1:08:50 “So you’re saying it’s False,” Scar summarizes. Cleo agrees that is what they got from the story as well. Ren insists that False is way too busy to be doing ore snatching with all the river building, etc. Cleo agrees that this is true, except that Ren just told them it was False. “Did I?” he asks, bewildered. Scar and Cleo both heard it. Scar says sometimes you just need to stop talking because you just keep digging, a subject he himself is well-versed in. Cleo says Ren is incapable of stopping talking. Ren suggests pulling footage of several Among Us streams to prove something about his character, but Cleo interrupts, saying that if they’re pulling footage, Cleo can just pull the bit showing Ren killing the pig. Cleo corrects herself a moment later to say Doc killing the pig, but Ren seizes on the slip as the reason innocent folks like himself get sent to jail. Chat is going to clip that and then everyone is going to think he’s the pig murderer. The soundbite where he says “I’m the pig murderer” in a low sinister voice probably will also not help his clip issues.

1:10:30 Scar moves the conversation along by suggesting more Hermits as potential suspects. This turns into an incredibly lengthy and wide-ranging conversation that is much more concisely summed up in the Reddit document devoted to it. Cub eventually joins in as well to defend himself from some accusations against himself and to throw out some of his own. Joe comes along as well a little later but is less interested in levying accusations and more interested in litigating the unfairness of the fact that he had the idea to mess with the diamond ore first but someone else ran with it and has caused a commotion that could have been his. The conversation lasts for nearly an hour.

2:06:00 The argument turns to whether or not a sophisticated redstoner would be required in order to snatch the ores out of Doc’s machine without breaking it. ((There was an early belief that Ore Snatch #2 did break the machine, but careful video analysis reveals that Doc simply did not notice the ore when it was first removed and that the machine remained unbroken until later on when Ren and Scar came over during Ren’s stream and Ren poked at it. That is actually how the armor stand deployed and the inventory shifted.)) Most of the Hermits present claim to have not even seen the redstone circuitry in question, so a field trip is obviously in order. They all fly over to the armor trim shop.

2:07:20 Scar plays the Poe Poe Siren horn as they fly to the shop, which probably makes this an official Poe Poe visit of some sort. They land outside the shop and Ren worries about spoilers, but most of the shop has been around for awhile. Scar gets distracted by a wandering trader while the rest of the group goes into the shop to look around. Ren points out one of the circuits where a replaced ore block is still visible, commenting that looking down into the circuitry is enough to make him feel panicky. Cleo looks at the armor stands instead and mostly feels offended. Joe points out that most of the redstone circuitry is inert while the machine is not active. As long as one doesn’t touch a block that is powered or, like, pseudopowered? He cannot remember the correct word ((possibly something to do with quasiconnectivity?)) but as long as someone wasn’t removing a block that powered something, they should be able to do it with no trouble.

2:08:20 Cleo abandons the redstone discussion to fiddle with the armor stands that are particularly offending her. One statue has the arm buried inside the chest and that is just unacceptable. She fixes the armor stand to give the statue a more natural posture. Joe says that surely it’s fine and Doc definitely will not get upset about people adjusting things in this room, of all places. Cleo scoffs and says Doc won’t know. The others begin discussing whether the shop is actually open for business, with Joe deliberately muddying the waters by pointing out that the shop must be open because it has no door or anything keeping people from walking inside. Cleo continues making small adjustments to the postures of the statues and is busy with a fish-headed model when suddenly the alarm goes off. It is impossible to tell from Cleo’s perspective who broke the block that triggered the alarm, but all the Hermits who entered the building are still on the main sales floor when she turns around to look. ((Ren’s POV on this is also useless as he was freecamming into the redstone, but Scar’s stream POV shows that Cub placed a magma block at the top of the front doorframe of the shop and broke it, which triggered the alarm. It’s not clear what Cub was doing, but “being a smartass about the is-the-shop-open question” is a fairly safe bet.))

2:09:10 Ren warns everyone to stay up top as the alarm system is dangerous. Scar immediately notices that there is now a Warden in the depths of the machine. Cleo laughs and reminds everyone to be quiet. All the Hermits mill around on the glass display floor to try and get a glimpse of the Warden. Scar asks why it’s not attacking them all. Cleo suggests that it might be distracted by the noise of the alarm itself. Ren says it’s just climbing the stairs and they’d better get going. The world turns black. The Hermits flee.

2:10:20 The Hermits regroup on the grassy lawn well outside Doc’s shop. Cleo is still laughing pretty hard. Ren says “So yeah, that’s the scene of the crime.” Cub wonders if the wandering trader will be killed by the warden. Scar is worried; that trader has gilded blackstone miniblocks and Scar wants him alive. The Warden does not appear to be making an appearance now that everyone has left, though. Cub, Joe and Scar head back towards the building to see what’s happening inside, but Cub and Scar turn back well before the door, driven back by the obnoxious noises of the alarm. Joe goes straight into the building. Ren speculates why someone would want to investigate now, if not to find better ways to get in later. Scar points out that with the alarm already tripped, it’s basically free game now until Doc resets it. Joe only stays inside for a few moments before coming back out. Scar shoots an arrow at him but doesn’t connect.

2:11:40 Somewhat belatedly, the group starts to wonder what triggered the alarm. Cleo suggests that surely someone must have gone down into the redstone. Ren suddenly wonders whether freecam possibly could’ve activated it. Cub pooh-poohs that idea but nobody else is sure. Ren says it’s not a very good alarm if it can trigger just from a customer entering the shop. ((Ren is acting like he doesn’t know what triggers the alarm, which is strange since he helped test it and should know full well that it is breaking blocks.)) Chat knows that the alarm trigger is breaking blocks. Cub admits he placed and broke some magma blocks. Cleo demands to know whether they can set off the alarm so easily, by just setting down a block and breaking it. They are going to annoy Doc _so much _ with this knowledge. Scar suddenly realizes that this means there is very little effective way to pay for items in the shop, since pulling a wallet from a shulker box, placing it down and picking it up again would trigger the alarm. It is not, they decide, a very good alarm system.

2:12:40 Cub decides he’s going in. The others stay outside and talk about whether or not they were scared of the warden, a bell curve that seems to have a lot to do with how much they played the lower levels of Decked Out 2. Cub types in chat that it’s fine, then flies back and tells them that he did get blasted. “Nice,” Cleo compliments. Cleo is of two minds whether they should all keep their mouths shut or leave some kind of sign at the door for Doc. Scar is worried about property damage, but the sonic shriek does not break blocks, only players. Cleo does like the idea of Doc thinking his alarm caught the culprit, then getting linked to the stream and realizing it is just a bunch of bumbling Hermits. They also think it is funny that now the Glitcher actually can do anything they want in the next few hours until the alarm is reset. Nobody else knows the name “The Glitcher,” or at least they are pretending not to. Cleo consults with Chat and passes along the knowledge that the name The Glitcher was provided to Doc on a sign after one of the ore thefts. Scar thinks that this new name sounds a lot like the work of one Cubfan and plays his Darth Vader breathing horn in an attempt to intimidate him into a confession. It does not work. In the background, Joe has left the group and gone back towards the shop, but drops out of sight at the base of the sand pile and eventually flies back around to rejoin the group without actually going inside.

2:15:10 Cub pushes the Grian and/or Scar theory again, but that’s been discussed before. Ren decides that after an hour and fifteen minutes, they are not even a tiny bit closer to figuring out whodunnit. But there is a warden in the shop now, so that’s something? Scar thinks that a warden has got to be bad for Doc’s business, right? Cleo doesn’t believe that Doc cares at all about the success of his business, mostly because he’s being paid in sand. Doc is just being dramatic. Cub circles back around to “The Glitcher” and the quotation marks around it are audible. He asks if it’s true there was a sign. He and Scar both want to see a screenshot from Chat. Chat thinks Cub is pretending a little too hard.

02:17:00 Cleo and Ren both suggest putting up signs purporting to be from the Glitcher, solely for the purpose of trolling Doc. Scar insists that they cannot do that, he is the investigator and he is supposed to be _helping._ Ren thinks it would be very funny to have a sign reading “Soz for tripping your alarm, -The Pincer” (Or Pincher, it’s hard to say.)) Cleo gives him a sign and tells him to have at it. Scar protests loudly again and says they can’t do that. Ren clearly considers it, but then says he cannot do it either, he is Doc’s husband. Cleo grabs the sign and runs for the shop.

2:18:40 Cleo braves the terrible noises of the shop to place a sign in the doorway reading “LOL, Failed Again!” Ren is right behind her and protests that she didn’t add the part about The Pincer. She agrees she did not, because that is LAME. Scar gets the screenshot he wanted from his Discord chat and suddenly remembers Doc talking about these signs. Apparently Doc saw that there was a misspelling on one of the signs and (in Scar’s words) decided to blame the dumbest guy in the crew. Cub also believes that a misspelled sign points in Scar’s direction. The new sign is not going to serve well as a piece of evidence, given that there is a lot of stream evidence about who placed it and why and when, but Cleo doesn’t care. Doc deserves to be wound up, he murdered Cleo’s pig.

2:19:50 Ren has to admit that even though Doc is his husband, he does have something to answer for when it comes to Pig Murder. Scar is paying attention to his chat for once, he tells the others to hang on because an investigation is taking place in his Discord. While Scar is so ostentatiously distracted, Cleo begins handing out a few judicious gifts of diamonds, though the stream lag inherent in a bunch of hermits together leaves a lot of room for them to steal from one another. Cleo becomes convinced that Joe has become the recipient of diamonds they intended to go elsewhere and begins beating him like a pinata in the hopes they will disgorge. In the background, Scar announces that his chat believes Big Salmon is behind the whole thing, but he has no idea what that means. Joe flies away. Scar swears he saw Grian walking around near Doc’s shop, but Cleo has no POV angle to confirm or deny that. Cameron informs Cleo that Ren got the diamonds and is lying about it. Cleo congratuates Grian on some excellent trolling. They go up to the shop, but do not find Grian. Cleo thinks that sneaking in under everyone’s noses for trolling is huge Grian energy.

2:22:20 Ren finds a sign on the sand store that was not there earlier. “Sorry about your alarm, Scar, Chief Investigator.” Scar swears he did not put it there, and indeed he would’ve had a very hard time doing so because he has been moving and talking with the group basically the entire time. Ren insists the sign is there, and it was even glow-inked. Cub says that must’ve been Grian, so Grian is a suspect too. Even as he says it, Joe throws a handful of glow inks out of his inventory and onto the ground. Scar notices it right away. Cleo points the finger at Joe. Joe says he said ten minutes ago that he was going to put up a sign on Scar’s behalf apologizing for the alarm, but nobody ever listens to him. Cleo laughs and says they love it when a plan comes together, they just wish it was theirs. The others are skeptical. Scar points out that Cleo is really pumping the ego of whoever did this and that’s a little suspicious. Cleo says that if they were the culprit, they would’ve told everyone. Joe points out that Cleo could’ve told everyone and it might not have changed anything. After all, Joe told everyone he was going to place the sign and nobody listened to that! Cleo points out that people actually listen to them.

2:24:30 Scar has a thought, forgets it immediately, then immediately remembers it again. He wants to know why his Chat is so insistent that it is Beef. ((Scar’s chat is very devoted to the Big Salmon Theory.)) Why would it be Beef? Cleo laughs and says every single one of them knows why it isn’t Beef right now, and that Beef is too busy to be getting up to any kind of shenanigans. The others agree and warn Scar not to say anything or else there will be real trouble. Scar suggests that Beef’s gonna have a beef with him, but he doesn’t offer any further hints. ((Cleo is obliquely referring to an announcement Beef will make the next day; he and his wife are expecting their first child and thus Beef has way bigger salmon to fry than moonlighting as the Ore Snatcher.)) Cub explains that Beef was part of the Big Salmon consortium that feuded with Doc and Big Wood at the start of the season, but that feud is pretty much over now. They all admire the Big Salmon floating in the Hourglass.

2:26:00 Scar reports that his Chat has turned around on the Beef question, they believe Cleo that it cannot be Beef. The group goes back to trying to decide who the Ore Snatcher actually is, aside from Joe who is still mad it isn’t him. They each go around the circle and give Scar a theory, but none of them seem better supported than the others. Scar says this is all useless, but he’s going to go get a search warrant to search everyone’s storage systems. Ren asks if Scar is going to search his own storage system, perchance? Scar says he’ll have Doc do it. Ren is satisfied by that. Cleo says that’ll definitely work, because nobody on this server except the culprit has deepslate diamond ore, surely.

2:29:00 Scar’s favorite theory is that it was Doc himself, causing drama by stealing his own diamonds. The others think that’s a funny theory. Joe says his favorite theory is that the Scicraft guys got in touch with Karin, Doc’s partner, and gave her detailed instructions on how to carry out the thefts in retribution for unspecified petty wrongs. Whenever Doc is out of the house with Doccy, she’s sneaking onto the server with his account and stealing the diamonds based on detailed tutorials. Scar loves this idea. Ren asks if that means Karin has to come to court. Nobody is sure if she even has a Minecraft account. She might have to make one to come to court.

2:30:40 Cleo laughs and suggests that this has all been a big ploy to jump-start Karin’s YouTube career. Joe is taken by this idea and suggests it would be an amazing spinoff series, Karin and Mrs. Tango and Lizzie Shadow-Beans, but they’re all thieves. Ren puts forth a suggestion from his chat that maybe it _is_ Lizzie, pranking Doc when Joel is out of the house. Cleo thinks Karin is a more likely suspect than Lizzie. Scar admits it’s unlikely, but hilarious. Cleo says that now it is imperative that some Hermit’s spouse begins pranking the server. Joe says that now that his fiance Badgerspanner has heard that, she’s going to demand to be able to do it. Cleo laughs and points out that Joe will get blamed for that. Joe cheerfully announces that he knows, and it’s just going to make more work for Cleo because she’s going to have to explain to him why, when everybody thought it was a funny idea during this stream. Scar suddenly chimes in with “Desperate Hermitwives” from his Chat.

2:32:50 Cleo wants to wrap up, but she stays long enough to hear one more Bdubs theory. Ren wants to know what better way there could be to get people into the court for lawsuits than by causing a bunch of trouble? Cub likes that idea, but Cleo and Scar argue about whether the court actually costs money. Cub is still accusing Scar though, saying that nobody has more to gain from crimes on the server than the Poe Poe. Scar protests, saying he and Bdubs are the Judicial system and devoted to stopping crime! Because the police are never corrupt, right? The argument continues for a moment until Scar finally says “I touched Doc’s boring machine, I blew it up, I banged it too hard, and I’m not interested in banging Doc’s redstone anymore.”

2:34:35 There is a moment of silence. Cleo announces she is leaving. It’s been a lovely stream, they should do this again sometime never. She flies away laughing and insisting that nobody should ever ask Scar why, because No. Cleo apologizes to Chat for getting nothing useful done, but Chat clearly does not care. Cleo goes back to full screen to thank subs and donos, then says that even though she didn’t plan a lot, she did technically plan the plan, which was the plan all along. So that’s something. Cleo raids into Rendog and (with a brief interruption from Joe and his train whistle) ends their stream.

[honeyjars-sims]

3.23 Making an Impression

Part 1 of 2

It’s the day of my hike with Lucy and Lacey. I somehow manage to convince a few other coworkers to come with us even though a lot of us aren’t particularly athletic. Robi, Clara, Quinn, and Lilly are joining us and I’m feeling pretty good about my plan to help Lucy make friends.

While we’re waiting for Lucy and her brother to show up, Lilly shows off her hiking fit. She always has the craziest outfits and they’re usually themed, which is fun.

Today she’s wearing a fishing hat with fabric fish attached to the brim. As Lilly poses for us, Lacey swats at them and they swirl around each other like they’re in a chase. “What’s with the fishing hat?” Lacey asks her.

Lilly starts untangling the fish. “It’s the most outdoorsy thing I own,” she explains. “I thought it really completed the outfit.”

“I think it’s cute,” Clara tells her. “No one said you had to be practical.”

“I don’t think Lilly could be practical if she tried,” Robi laughs.

“I’ll take that as a compliment!”

“I meant it as one!”

“I think that’s Lucy,” Quinn says, looking toward the entrance to the trails. She abruptly slaps herself on the neck, which makes all of us stare at her in confusion. “Mosquito,” she explains, her face flushing red. “They always eat me up.”

Lucy and her crew approach us. A guy I assume is her brother is with her; he looks like the stereotypical Tartosan with his jet black hair and I can see a family resemblance. There's another girl with them, which is great because if there's one thing this trip is lacking, it's female energy.

Lucy introduces them as her brother Paul and his best friend Danica.

Once the introductions are done, we all start making our way up the hiking trail.

“What do you two do?” Clara asks Paul and Danica.

“We’re both students at Foxbury,” Danica answers. “We’re in undergrad now, but I want to be a Psychologist and Paul’s going to be a doctor.”

“Wow, that’s really cool!” Clara replies.

“What kind of doctor do you want to be, Paul?” inquires Lacey.

“I’m not sure yet,” Paul admits. “I want to wait until I’ve done a few clinical rotations in med school before I settle on anything.”

“That’s really wise,” Lilly says, sounding impressed.

All of the girls make their way towards Paul as soon as they hear the word "doctor." They start talking to him about his bright future.

Wow, Paul, it’s so cool that you got a full ride scholarship!

You must be really smart!

I love when guys have a strong work ethic!

I hate to admit that I start feeling a bit irritated. A few weeks ago they all gushed over me when they saw my drawing, but now it doesn’t seem as impressive.

We come to a cliff that Lucy informs us is a popular climbing spot. “If you feel confident in your climbing skills you can go up this way. Otherwise the trail takes you to the top,” she explains.

“I think I’ll climb up,” Paul says confidently. The girls look at him in admiration. I can practically see the hearts forming in their eyes.

I don’t know what possesses me to do it, but I blurt out, “Yeah, me, too.”

As soon as we begin to scale the rocks, I realize I made a big mistake. Why would I think climbing was a good idea? I don’t have any experience and Paul is clearly in better shape. Of course, he reaches the top of the wall with no problem and I’m left struggling halfway up. All I can think about is how badly I need a cigarette.

“Johnny, do you want to just climb back down?” Lacey calls up, with more concern in her voice than I feel comfortable acknowledging.

“No, I’m good,” I lie. It takes what seems like forever for me to get near the top. Every passing second just fills me with more embarrassment.

As I approach the top of the cliff, I see Paul crouch down at the edge and reach his hand out. “Need some help?” he offers.

No, nope, not going to happen! I scream internally, but then I start to lose my footing. Faced with the possibility of this horrible moment being my last one on earth and forever cementing me in everyone's memories as The Dumbass Who Fell Off a Mountain Trying to Impress Girls, I see no better option than to take Paul’s hand. I feel defeated, but at least I still have the rest of my life ahead of me to try and save face.

“I have a lot of climbing experience,” Paul tells me once I’m secure at the top of the cliff.

“No problem, I was just trying to be funny.” Liar! Now that the moment is over and done with, I realize I’m more embarrassed by trying to engage in some sort of macho competition for the girls’ attention than I am in my lack of skill. It’s not the sort of thing I usually do.

“Oh, okay,” Paul responds. He doesn’t sound convinced but at least he doesn’t call me out.

“Are you okay?” Lacey asks me once we catch up with the others.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I tell her. Just a bruised ego is all.

“We’re almost to the top!” Lucy exclaims. We round the corner and Lucy guides us to the edge. “Be careful,” she warns, and I ignore that she’s looking right at me when she says it.

Cautiously, I peek down over the edge. I’m surprised at how much of the city I can see. It doesn’t seem like we went that high up, but laid out below us are hundreds of buildings and trees that seem surreal in their tininess. “Cool,” is all I can manage to say.

“I can see the studio!” Lilly points below, and the rest of us look excitedly at the building we spend 5 days a week in. It’s funny how something we see everyday seems so much more impressive when it’s viewed it from a different angle.

“There’s where the food truck parks!” Clara shouts and we all turn our heads like we’ve discovered a hidden treasure.

“Great, now I want tacos,” I joke, and I feel the embrace of laughter surrounding me. Maybe the day won’t be a total waste.

Previous | Beginning of story | Beginning of chapter | Next

[strangersteddierthings]

Gut Instinct: Chapter 8 - Sunday

[Art] [Ao3] [Prologue] [Chapter One] [Chapter Two] [Interlude] [Chapter Three] [Chapter Four] [Chapter Five] [Chapter Six] [Chapter Seven] [Interlude] [Chapter eight]

Dustin is not alone. Robin, Max and Lucas are with him, which is a nice surprise. Steve was sure he was going to have to head out and pick them up at some point today. It’s a good thing they all showed up now, though. It’ll probably be helpful to have them all hear when Nancy shows up. To help explain.

“Where’d you pick up Lucas?” Steve asks the question to Robin, but it’s Dustin who answers.

“He came to my house this morning.”

“Yeah, I had questions and Dustin had some answers. I’ll tell you the whole thing if you want, but later?” Lucas asks, and he looks shaken.

“You get filled in?” Steve asks, ushering everyone in the door far enough so he can close it.

“Yeah,” Lucas nods.

Steve leads them all back to his dinner table.

“What’s our problem?” Steve prompts, once all of them are sitting. Which is weird but also pretty cool. Steve doesn’t think more than three people have ever sat at this table at the same time.

“Do you want the good news or the bad news first?” Dustin asks.

“Good news first, always,” Eddie says.

“There’s been a second, uh,” Robin flicks her eyes to Eddie for just a moment, “murder.”

Dustin nods grimly and says, “I was listening to Cerebro again this morning and caught the cops talking over the radio. They were found near the trailer park. So, um, they have made Eddie an official suspect. It’s not public information yet, but you’re on the list.”

Eddie makes a scoffing noise and mutters, “Of course.”

“We’re going to clear your name,” Dustin says with such conviction that Steve’s immediately convinced. They have nothing to go on, and if the source behind this is a person with mind powers like El, they don’t really have a lot of hope of capturing them, but Steve believes anyway.

“Yeah? And how do you plan to do that?”

“Well. You’ve got an alibi for last night,” Max says. “And I can lie about what I saw on Friday night if that’ll help.”

“You can’t lie to the police,” Lucas argues, “My mom says we have to always be honest with the police.”

“Well, your mom probably never thought we were going to have to try and get our friend out of false murder charges when she said it,” Dustin argues back and Lucas makes a face at that but doesn’t say anything otherwise.

Eddie, meanwhile, is giving Max a knowing look. Steve wonders what it could be that Eddie thinks he knows.

“What lie could you even tell that doesn’t- It’s not like Ch-Chrissy let herself into my house!” Eddie stumbles over Chrissy’s name.

Max shoots him a look that says clear as day are you stupid. “Aren’t you supposed to be, like, an amazing story teller or something? Figure out the lie and I’ll tell whoever needs to hear it.” Lucas whips his head around to look at Max, surprised, and she shrugs, “You guys wouldn’t shut up about him when you first joined his stupid club.”

“Hey!” Eddie says, offended.

“It’s not stupid,” Dustin says, defensive.

“Do you want me to lie for Eddie or not?” Max huffs, crossing her arms and sitting back to shoot glares.

“Maybe?” Robin offers up, reaching a hand out to drum her fingers against the table as she thinks. “We just don’t know enough right now.”

“Well, the longer we wait, the worse it makes Eddie look,” Lucas says.

“True. What’s your gut say?” Robin asks, and it takes Steve a moment to realize she’s speaking to him. He was so enraptured with everyone else’s back and forth that he forgot he was a part of this conversation.

“Um,” Steve says, trying to think about it. He thinks about Eddie staying in hiding, and nothing in him stirs, so he thinks about Eddie going to the police and confessing his innocence, expecting the mild nausea but it doesn’t come. Neither thought brings a reaction. Which is interesting. There have been a few times that Steve can recall where he’s had to weight two options, and his lack of nausea let him know that either options would turn out okay.

Maybe this is the same?

“Uh, nothing. So, maybe we need more information before we can do anything?”

“Okay, but how do we get more information?” Dustin asks.

“Nancy,” Steve says, an instant reply that he knows is true. He can feel it. Nancy will either already know something, or be on her way to learning something when she finally gets here. “She’s coming over, um, at some time today.”

“At some time. Today,” Dustin echoes back.

“Yeah. That’s what I said.” Steve pushes his grocery list across the table to Robin. “So, until she gets here, Robin, you want to look this over? Maybe add whatever you’ll want.”

Dustin stands up and reaches across the table to snatch the notebook up. He gets to look at it for maybe five seconds before Eddie has stood up and ripped it back out of his hands to pass it back to Robin. “Don’t rip things out of people’s hands. Show Buckley some respect.”

Steve can feel his crush on Eddie growing.

“Was that a grocery list? Eddie’s a suspected murderer and the Upside Down is back, now with an evil mind wizard and you’re writing a grocery list!?”

Steve gives a one shoulder shrug, “I don’t want to be hungry while fighting an evil mind wizard.”

“Unbelievable.” Dustin falls back into his seat, exasperated. “So we’re just going to sit around and wait for Nancy to show up?”

“Yup,” Steve says, popping the ‘p’, leaning back in his chair like he’s unbothered by the fact the Upside Down has returned. It’s all fake, of course, but there’s no point in just sitting around freaking out about it when there’s nothing they can do about it at the moment.

It’s kind of why he was focusing on the grocery list to begin with. What else was he going to do? Lay in his bed and stare at Eddie until he woke up?

Well. Actually, that might have been a good activity, too. Hopefully he’ll have more opportunities.

Max wonders into the living room to watch TV and it doesn’t take too long for Lucas and Dustin to join her on the couch.

“Should we get one bag of potatoes, or two?” Robin asks, pulling Steve’s attention.

“Two, just to be safe.”

“That’s a lot of potatoes for just you,” Eddie remarks, leaning into Steve’s space to look over the list again.

“If it were just me, this list would be a lot smaller. But the kids barge in a lot. Also, there’s good reason to believe I’m not going to be alone in the house this week,” Steve turns his face to smile at him. “You’re here until we can get this all fixed for you.”

“I guess being stuck in the Harrington mansion is better than a cell down at the station,” Eddie says, and Steve thinks he’s joking.

“Ew. Yoohoo? Is this your gross addition, Eddie?” Robin asks.

Robin and Eddie bicker about what’s gross and what’s good and Steve just sits back and watches. It makes him feel warm on the inside that Eddie and Robin get along. Which is what this is. Robin would be a lot meaner if she didn’t like Eddie at least a little bit.

They waste away the morning for the most part. The kids seem to be talking theories. It’s more that Dustin is talking theories and Max and Lucas are either nodding along or tuning him out.

Steve’s glad for the slow drag of the morning. It gives him time to whisk Robin away to talk to her in private.

They go upstairs, to Steve’s room.

“What is it? Did you get a bad feeling in your gut suddenly?” Robin asks as soon as she’s shut the door behind her.

“No. No, nothing like that. I just wanted to, uh, tell you something. And you can’t be loud about it.”

Robin tilts her head and gives him a look, squinting her eyes like it’ll help her see whatever it is he wants to tell her. “What is it?”

“I kissed Eddie last night,” Steve blurts, excited to finally getting to tell her.

Robin immediately lights up, just as excited in turn. She opens her mouth, then thinks better of whatever noise she was about to make. Snapping her mouth closed, she does an excited little wiggle instead and launches herself at Steve. She hugs him tightly and whispers, “oh my God! Tell me everything!”

So he does. Gives a quick summary of the events, leaving out the explicit details because he loves Robin but there’s some things that are just for him. Also, he’s not sure Eddie would appreciate Robin knowing anything about his dick; even if that knowledge is just that Steve touched it.

“I mean… what a turn of events,” Robin says from where she’s leaning on the wall. She had been sitting on the bed, but had flung herself from it with a gag when Steve had said he and Eddie slept in the bed together. “I always kind of suspected he was like us, but didn’t want to like, say that.”

“You’ve thought Eddie might be queer?”

Robin blinks at Steve for a moment before nodding. “The whole school did. It was a rumor. How did you not know?”

“I was kind of self-absorbed in school, Robs. If it didn’t involve me directly, I wasn’t paying attention to it. That includes rumors of who is queer.”

“Right. Well, do you think-” Robin cuts herself off when the sound of the doorbell goes off. “Oh! I bet that’s Nancy.”

“Back to it, then.”

By the time Steve and Robin have made it back downstairs, someone has already let Nancy in.

“Hey Nance,” Steve greets.

“Hi Steve. Hi Robin,” Nancy returns the greeting. “So, what did you need me for?”

“It’s back,” Dustin says. “The Upside Down. That’s what killed Chrissy.”

Nancy, to her credit, takes this information well. Just a quick catch in her breath before she’s nodding gravely. “So Fred’s death is related to the Upside Down, too?”

“Fred?”

“That must have been the second death,” Max says, realizing it sooner than everyone else.

“I was with Fred before he vanished.”

“Tell us everything.”

Nancy tells them how she and Fred talked their way into the trailer park, investigating herself, and how while she was talking to Eddie’s uncle, Fred had just vanished.

“Wait, you spoke to my uncle? How’s he doing? I- I didn’t even think about how he’d be the one to find Chrissy…” Eddie cuts in, voice wobbly.

Nancy’s face goes soft in a way that Steve hasn’t seen in a long time. “He’s okay. He knows you didn’t do this.”

Eddie lets out a noise Steve can’t even begin to describe. It has Steve moving on autopilot, stepping closer to Eddie like he can offer comfort with just his presence. Eddie, however, moves away. Takes one step further away. It freezes Steve in his tracks.

“It was actually your uncle who gave me an idea. Something to check out. I was going to go to the library after this to follow up on that.”

Dustin nods thoughtfully, then says, “Okay. So. What connect Fred and Chrissy? The trailer park?”

“Fred did seem… off, when we got closer to the trailer park,” Nancy says.

“Chrissy was being weird in the girls’ bathroom at the school, though,” Lucas says. “Max said she heard her there.”

Max, for her part, is quiet as she seems to think all this over. “There is something else that they have in common. Chrissy and Fred. They were both seeing the guidance councilor.”

“Oh. Okay. So, two leads,” Nancy is nodding as she speaks, the plan already forming in her mind. “I’ll go the library, and search up the lead Eddie’s uncle gave me, and you guys can go talk to Ms. Kelley.”

“Whoa, hey. It’s not going to take five of us to talk to Ms. Kelley. Someone should go with you.”

“I’ll be fine, Steve,” Nancy starts, sounding annoyed.

“No doubt. It was more of, like, more people would also half the time it took to look.”

“Oh. Right. Well, Robin, you want to come with?”

“Sure. Better than playing babysitter,” Robin grins, then jams her elbow into Steve’s side in what he thinks was supposed to be a playful way, but she’s really bony.

“Guess I’ll just… be here?” Eddie says, uncertain.

Steve turns to Eddie, and says, “Yeah. Um, free reign of the house. Whatever you gotta do to not go insane with boredom.”

Steve offers up a smile and Eddie returns it.

Steve feels his heart do a backflip, just from that. When this is all over, he’s going to see if Eddie’ll go on a date with him. This might have started a little backwards from how Steve’s used to this going, but maybe that’s a good thing.

Maybe breaking that habit will make things different this time.

“Alright. Let’s all meet back here when we’re done,” Nancy says, decisive, and then they’re heading out.

[bachissidehoe]

catalyst - chigiri h.

chapter 4 of 7 in the blue lock band series. chapter 1. chapter 2. chapter 3. chapter 5. chapter 6. chapter 7.

synopsis: chigiri arrives to pre-show early, running into y/n, and decides to finally take his chance with her, providing her with a distraction from his bandmate she can't seem to stop crushing on. and for some reason, y/n is extra desperate for those guitarist fingers.

warnings: smut; penetration; unprotected sex; degradation; praise; teasing; multiple orgasms; overstimulation; rough sex; dominant!chigiri; submissive!reader; fem reader; minors DNI

disclaimer: all songs referenced are credited to THE DEEP END

w.c. 3.6k

A night with Sae was all she needed to get more information out of him, to understand him better, to the point where y/n finds herself working on a Sae-specific article. After “talking to” Sae, y/n barged into Reo’s office the next morning to tell him her idea- to make a series diving into each of the band members- including their history, their likes, their favorite parts of being in the band- anything a potential fan would be interested to know about them. 

For example, Sae remains insistent on “Look at the Mess You Made” being in the setlist, something y/n didn’t understand before, but now she knows that Sae feels proud that he wrote it and likes to show it off to the crowd. Though he doesn’t act emotional, Sae has talent, and he enjoys when people recognize it. 

So now y/n sits, working diligently on her writing while she waits for the boys to arrive to begin preparing for tonight’s show. 

“Hey, y/n.” 

She looks up, met with a familiar pair of pink eyes that always seem to have a glint of mischievousness in them. Today is no different.

“Hyooooooma~” She sings, earning a bright smile from the pretty lead guitarist. 

Chigiri’s always been a difficult one to pin down, he’s so flirty and cute, but she can never tell when- or if- he’s joking. Back before the band got famous and y/n developed a close friendship with Isagi, he always acted like he was jealous, but it was always followed up with laughs. Regardless, y/n has adapted to Chigiri’s cutesy, funny personality, and honestly, he’s insanely enjoyable to be around. 

Since y/n started working for Blue Lock, she’s actually been the closest with Chigiri. They hang out a lot, joke and laugh together, always grabbing food or hanging out after practice, and he’s always the first to high five her after a performance. 

“Why are you here early?” Chigiri asks, settling into the beanbag chair opposite y/n, taking his acoustic guitar out of its case. 

“I could ask the same for you.” Y/n replies. 

“Uh, well I asked, so you first.” He grins.

“Fine. I’m working on an article.” She admits, turning her laptop around to show him. 

“‘Bout what?” 

“I’ll tell you after you tell me why you’re here.” 

“Fine.” He strums a few chords on his guitar. “I wanted to practice a new song. I know we’re still on tour, but I’m really excited about this one. We’ve been working on it here and there- but I finished it and wanted to practice.” 

“Can I hear it?” 

“Ah ah ah~ your turn. Tell me what you’re writing about.” 

She sighs dramatically, as if it’s exhausting and impossible to meet his demand. “It’s about Sae.” 

Chigiri tilts his head. “Why?” He asks, sounding slightly annoyed. 

“I’m doing an article about each of you and publishing it to your social media. You know, helping the fans get to know each of you. You didn’t see the Isagi one?” 

“No, guess I didn’t. That’s cool though.” He pauses. “When’s mine?” 

She shrugs. “Gotta like, get to know you better I guess. Spend some time with you or do an interview I dunno.” It’s not entirely true, considering she knows Chigiri more than well enough to write an article about him. But after her recent interaction with the band’s drummer, she was particularly excited to work on this one.

“When did you spend time with Sae?” He chuckles, though it’s clear there’s a hint of nervousness. 

She stops, peeking up at him from her laptop. “Um, I dunno the other day- why don’t you play me that song you wrote.”

“It’s just that you and Sae don’t seem to be that close.” 

“We’re not. What’s the song called?” 

“What did you guys even do?” 

“Just like vibed. Is it an acoustic song?” 

“Y/n.” 

“Hyoma.” She breathes. Maybe she should have approached it better. It’s not like she has a way out of this now, but she would have much preferred never speaking of her encounter with Itoshi Sae ever again. Not because it was bad, obviously, but because it probably shouldn’t have happened. 

“Did you hook up with Sae?” He asks, an eyebrow raised. 

“Why would that be the first thing you jump to?” She scoffs, as if she’s offended. 

“Because I’m right, aren’t I?” He twirls a strand of his long pink hair around his finger. 

She sighs. 

“So you’re writing an article about him because you guys fucked?” 

“No, I’m writing an article about him because that’s the plan Reo and I discussed.” She lowers her voice. “And we also happen to have fucked.” She says through the corner of her mouth. 

“I knew it!” 

“Can you just not say anything about it, please? It just kinda happened. But I got to learn more about him, so it was helpful for this task, in a way.” She pauses. “Now play me your song.” 

Chigiri chuckles. “Alright, whatever. But just know I’m sure I could do better than Sae. If an Isagi distraction is what you’re looking for.”

Y/n groans. “Nooooo that’s not itttttt.” She drags out her words. But to be fair, fucking Sae did help a lot with her Isagi problem. Same with Bachira. For a few days or so, she hardly thought about Isagi at all. 

Also, after fucking Sae, it’s become more apparent that there’s no way Isagi would want to date her, considering she seems to be making her way through his entire band. 

“Whatever.” He says with a light shrug, beginning to strum some chords on his guitar. 

Chigiri Hyoma is the epitome of a good guitarist, exactly what a rock band would be looking for. He’s got the long hair, the sarcastic attitude, and those fast fingers that never seem to miss a note. Come to think of it, as y/n watches his expert fingers pluck the strings so delicately yet so dominantly- she can’t help but shift a bit in her seat. 

“So it goes like- all I am is a catalyst, all I am is a way back home~” He sings it, though doesn’t use his actual singing voice, more like humming without trying. 

“You’re not actually singing?” She chuckles, but still can’t take her eyes off how those damn fingers move. Would they be better than Isagi’s? They both play guitar, after all, but somehow it just looks different when Chigiri’s playing. 

“Huh? I’m not just gonna sing at you. Cringe.” 

Y/n laughs. “You’re literally in a band? You sing for a living?” 

“Not really, I do backup vocals. My singing voice is just okay. Plus, even if you have a good singing voice it’s still cringe as hell to sing at someone.” He points his index finger at her, as if he’s accusing her of something. 

And y/n watches that finger, intently, her eyes dazed as she slips deeper into her forbidden daydream about him- Chigiri Hyoma, the lead guitarist of Blue Lock, known for his speed on the guitar and his amazing live guitar solos. She wonders how many girls have gotten to experience him like that, with those fingers. 

“Uh? Y/n?” He waves his hand in front of her, forcing her back to reality. An unfortunate reality where he’s not fucking her. Maybe hooking up with Sae wasn’t enough to calm her insatiable horniness.

“Oh, sorry.” She chuckles. “Zoned out.” 

“Uh. Huh.” He says, raising an eyebrow as he watches her cheeks become dusted in pink. She nervously looks away from him, her eyes darting to the ceiling. “What were ya thinking about? Hm?” 

Y/n just shrugs, becoming more heated by the second. She doesn’t understand why it’s suddenly like this, why she feels like she could pounce on him at any time. Sure, he’s hot, she’s always thought so, but she’s never felt like a cat in heat around him. Maybe it’s what he said about being an Isagi distraction, or how he played the guitar, or how he looked at her-

“Nothing.” She replies quietly, as if she’s not so sure. 

His voice is softer now too, quieter, more intense than usual. “I dunno y/n.” A smirk begins to dance at the corners of his lips, a smirk y/n can’t see since she’s so adamant about looking anywhere but his face. “Remember the other night when you told me to take a chance if I saw it?”

She reflects, taking a moment to process the context he’s referring to- back in the bar, when he was drunk off his ass and she was rushing to find an excuse to leave. She doesn’t know exactly why she said that to Chigiri. She could have said anything else. But she chose to give him a reason to chase her. 

“Oh. Yeah, um. I remember.” 

Chigiri places his guitar to the side, leaning forward to grasp y/n’s wrist. She doesn’t fight it.

“Well the chance is here, and I’m taking it.” He says, swiftly pulling her forward so she stumbles, collapsing onto the beanbag chair he sits on. He grabs her hips so she lands in his lap facing him, catching her completely off guard. 

“You want this, yeah?” He stops himself, leaning forward but maintaining distance between their lips.

“Mhm.” She finds herself nodding, hoping he’ll close that gap, hoping he’ll just take her. 

“You always coulda come asked, you know I’ve always wanted you.” He places a finger under her chin, still holding her face just inches from his. It’s almost painful how he’s refusing to take the leap, it’s making her shift in his lap, making her want to just grab him and force it. 

“No- um, you were always just joking- I thought.” She leans forward slightly, but he leans back. 

“Maybe I was saying it jokingly, but I was never actually joking.” He chuckles, looking down at her as she grows more desperate by the second. 

“Okay-“ She attempts to close the gap again, but again is met with resistance. He smirks, as if it’s all a game to him. 

“Why the pouty face?” He asks, taunting her. 

“Why won’t you kiss me?” She whines.

“Oh you wanna kiss me? I couldn’t tell.” He teases her more, which leads y/n to quickly realize that he’s likely getting turned on watching her suffer like this. “You actually want me, y/n?” 

“Yes I want you.” She sighs, attempting to lean forward once more. 

He blocks her, holding his finger to her lips. She nearly bites it out of frustration, but the teasing little prick would probably like that. 

“Okay. Beg.” He smirks, his eyes lit with a new flame, a sadistic pink fire, a strand of his gorgeous soft hair falling between his eyes.

Y/n can’t help but squeeze her legs together at his words, the pressure becoming more unbearable the more he holds out on her. It would feel pathetic to beg, which is exactly what he wants. On the other hand, if someone walks in and it forces an end to their encounter before she gets what she needs, that’s even worse. She’d rather feel pathetic than get nothing. 

“Please kiss me.” She whines.

“I don’t think you want it enough.” 

She balls her fists together, feeling her knuckles whiten from the frustration. “I do want it, fuck, I want you to kiss me and then kiss me more, then use those pretty fingers and fuck me please~” She sings, praying her pathetic attempt at pleasing his sadistic nature is enough. 

She doesn’t have time to break down the context around Chigiri’s approach to the situation, frankly she doesn’t care. It doesn’t matter what his kink is, she wants it so bad right now she’d do nearly anything to have him. She doesn’t know what’s come over her, Chigiri Hyoma just has that effect. 

And all he does is chuckle. He’s acting like he doesn’t even want her. And it’s making her more aroused with every passing second, she can practically feel her pussy dripping through the thin fabric of her clothes, her clit pulsing as it begs for some relief. 

“You were the one who told me you’re taking the chance.” She pouts, her voice coming out whiny and desperate. She doesn’t even care how she sounds anymore. 

“I’m sorry beautiful, I just can’t help but love seeing you so pathetic.” He glides a gorgeous finger through her soft silky hair. Even just the lightest touch is enough to make her shift, clasping her legs tighter together. 

“I am pathetic, Hyoma.” She sighs. “I can’t leave here without feeling you inside me.” 

“And it’s me you want? Right pretty girl?” He caresses the side of her face delicately, yet it almost feels like he’ll snap and break her. At least she hopes he does. 

“Just you, Hyoma, fuck. Please just do something, anything, or let me go so I can go think about you when I fuck mys-”

Finally, the switch that Chigiri Hyoma’s been grasping onto this entire time, through all his jokes and innuendos, through the way he watched her look at Isagi Yoichi, flips. His delicate touch turns lethal as his thumb presses into the skin of her neck, his other hand moving to grip the back of her hair with a forceful tug. And he kisses her, his lips immediately rough, wasting no time shoving his tongue between her lips like he’s splitting them apart. 

She submits entirely, letting her body go limp as the pressure from his thumb on her neck makes her vision blurry and her brain foggy. He’s only kissing her, yet she has no fight left. He’s already won, already forced her into submission before she can even think to fight. 

The only thing she can do is beg and plead, ask him for more, whine into his mouth and let him swallow every single one of her noises until his fingers press at her clothed area, clothes that are wet enough to feel like she bathed in them. 

“Please, please take them off, please Hyoma.” She whines, her jaw slack and her tongue almost hanging out, desperate to continue tasting his pretty pink lips. 

But Chigiri Hyoma- evidently- gets off more to teasing her than he would if he actually fucked her. 

“Ah, but do you deserve it?” He snickers, his face disappearing into her neck. His tongue slurps and sucks at her skin, his teeth grazing her like he’s threatening to suck her blood. The others held back with leaving visible marks, even if they did leave a few hickeys only to be seen under her clothes, but Chigiri clearly has a point to prove. He ruins her neck with dark purple marks, littering them on every part of her exposed skin as his fingers dance across her clothed entrance. 

“I do~ I do deserve it~” She whines, the pain of his teeth on her skin melting away from the short bursts of pleasure she gets when his fingers only lightly touch her clit through her soaked panties. 

“I wonder how fast you’ll cum~” He whispers into her ear, biting and sucking on the lobe. 

“Please.” She whispers, her desperate attempts at begging proving not to be as effective as she’d like. 

He finally slips a finger under her panties, gathering her arousal on the pads of his two fingers as he plays with her soggy lower lips.

“Ah~” She gasps, her breath stuck in the back of her throat and her mouth parted as her eyes blur with a layer of frustrated tears. 

He teases, slipping the tip of a single finger into her hole, inciting a short whine before removing it just as quickly as he started it. Instead, he moves it to press on her clit, rubbing light circles as she bites her lip, all while he still attacks her neck, making no attempts to end his assault. 

“Fuck~” She feels her muscles tense up, a roaring flame hurdling through her body at top speed. And she cums, just from him pressing her clit a few times, unable to handle the teasing anymore. 

“Ah, babygirl, you came just from that? Poor thing, can’t handle me.” He rasps into her ear, refusing to let her come down from her orgasm before finally separating her dripping pussy lips and forcing two fingers inside until they physically can’t go in further. 

“Hyoma~” She sings it like a lullaby, her vision completely clouded as his fingers provide her with nothing short of pure ecstasy, fucking her hard and fast, swishing around between her gummy walls, exposing her to the magic fingers she’s been desperately begging for this entire time. 

It only takes a moment before she’s cumming around his fingers again, performing a feat she didn’t think was possible. She’s never cum back to back like that in her entire life. 

“Fuck, Hyoma~ I-” Her orgasm rips through her used body like a sword cutting her in half, the fluids rushing to coat his already soaking fingers. 

“Fuccckkk~ I love those pretty sounds babygirl.” He coaxes her through her high before removing his fingers, moving his lips back to connect with her tired ones. “I think I’m ready to fuck the shit outta you~” 

She can only whine, a bead of drool dripping from the corner of her mouth as he pulls away from her, focusing his attention on unzipping his pants to free his bulging cock. He’s been teasing her, sure, but teasing himself as well. 

“Yes, yes, whatever you have~ I can take it~”

Before she can process it, her panties are discarded, and his cock is ramming into her dripping walls relentlessly, bullying into her like he attempts to break her. 

“Ah, fuck~ That’s a good girl. I can handle a little more than you can, though.” He chuckles, placing his thumb over her neck once again, enough to make her gasp. “I won’t cum just from a simple touch, unlike you.” He degrades her, but praises her at the same time. Such a tease. Y/n doesn’t know if she’s been more turned on in her entire life. 

He holds her in his lap, pounding upward into her, every thrust forcing ungodly noises from deep within her throat. 

“Look at you, that pretty cunt taking me so well~” 

“Mhm~” She groans, his cock ramming her g-spot as he turns her inside out. She didn’t think it was possible for her to cum so much and so quickly, but it seems like Chigiri Hyoma unlocked a teasing kink y/n didn’t know she had. “G’na, g’na cum, mmm, again~” She whines, overstimulation tears dribbling down her face. 

“That’s a good girl~” He hums, holding her limp body as she cums for a third time, sucking in his cock like she desperately needs it to survive the stimulation. 

He doesn’t let up, though, forcing his cock into her over and over again, somehow reaching deeper when y/n thought it wasn’t possible. But she needs it, she needs his cock to destroy her and tell her she can take it, she needs his cum to fill every inch of her needy cunt. 

“That’s it, getting close babygirl~ fuck~” He groans, flipping her over in the beanbag chair so she’s on her back, never letting his dick slip from her slick hole, his long hair falling in front of his face. He holds her limp body like he owns it, ramming into her even harder and faster than he was before. 

“Cumming~ agh~ gonna fill you up, fuck~” He finally finishes, releasing his thick load inside her until she’s dripping, sliding his cock out of her and watching his milky cum slide out with it. 

Y/n’s head falls back, her jaw slack and her vision still blurry. She can only whine every time he says anything. If she still has to work during this show, she might just get fired. 

“Oh, you poor thing. No more. Don’t worry.” He chuckles, sliding her panties up her legs and under her skirt, lightly ruffling her already messy hair. 

“Um, did I interrupt something?” Another voice is heard from the door, causing y/n to suddenly force herself back into reality and snap her head toward the entrance to the dressing room. 

“Nah Isagi, was just finishing up. You can have her back now, if you need her.” Chigiri taunts, zipping up his pants and standing up from where y/n still lays almost lifeless. 

“Yoichi…” She manages, watching Isagi awkwardly scratch behind his head. Her gaze shifts to Chigiri, who seems to have no issue talking about her like she’s an object to be passed around. 

“I, uh, it’s not like she was necessarily mine anyway…” He says with a light chuckle, his cheeks still flushed from catching the tail end of her and Chigiri’s interaction. 

“Hear that y/n? You deserve better anyway.” 

“Let’s not do that-” Isagi starts, but y/n interrupts, almost like the post nut clarity finally forces her to think logically. 

“No, no. I’ll do what I want. If I’m a slut being used by the whole band, then so be it.” She sits up with a smirk. “I kind of like it that way anyway.” 

[disappearingmuse]

Magilou and Rokurou: a character study and an underrated parallel

So. Magilou and Rokurou. Two characters lacking in the emotion department who covertly struggle with their self-esteem because of this lacking and because of their pasts. Who both tell us in their own ways that they don’t care, and they don’t care that they don’t. However, as we learn throughout the game, there is a lot more nuance to the way they experience the world than they would have us believe. Their internal experience is left somewhat up to interpretation, and what we do know about their mindsets isn’t spoon-fed to us. The player has to pick up context clues and slowly piece them together to see the whole picture, which I think is pretty dang cool. Today I’m getting out the corkboard and the red string.    

What is the deal with Magilou’s broken heart?

When Magilou refers to herself as having a “broken heart,” aka her feelings disappearing, it’s both symbolic and literal.

The literal: During her one-on-one fight with Melchior on Hexen Isle, she says that she has rebuilt her heart about 107 or 108 times. However, she was Melchior’s “failed experiment” whose heart never broke completely- which I interpret to mean that some of her capacity for emotion is still intact. The apathy she feels is very real, but it’s not the total eclipse of the heart (sorry, guys, I couldn’t resist) that she wants everyone to believe it is.

The symbolic: Magilou’s past is the quintessential tragedy epic. She was abandoned by her parents, then taken in by a circus troupe who made a freak show spectacle out of her, then the troupe perished in an accident set up by Melchior, then she was taken in by Melchior, then he abandoned her. She was stuck in a cycle: the people who were supposed to be her caretakers, guardians, and mentors all mistreated and left her.

Until Bienfu brought her to Grimoirh, who broke the cycle and saw her for who she was.

As Grimoirh says to Magilou, “It wasn’t failing to hold up against Melchior’s arte that broke your spirit, was it? It was when you realized that he no longer considered you his daughter.”

Emotional blunting is a common response to repeated trauma, so Magilou’s current disposition isn’t solely a result of a physically broken heart but also an emotionally broken one. Melchior’s betrayal was the final straw that led to the Magilou we see in-game, a woman who is rarely authentic in her interactions. Her cheery façade and exaggerated theatrics are the opposite of the apathy she feels inside. Magilou says, “I don’t care about anything, and I don’t care that I don’t.” That’s what she wants the people around her to believe. It’s a lie twofold: one, that she doesn’t care at all, and two, that she doesn’t care that she doesn’t care.

If Magilou didn’t care, she wouldn’t be telling Melchior how lovely it is that her traveling companions are driven by their emotions. She wouldn’t be asking Velvet what it feels like to hate. For her, it’s easier not to feel, sure; but in the same breath, she seems envious of others’ capacity for emotion. Her self-aggrandizing comments are a mask for the lack of self-esteem that shows itself in rare moments, most likely a product of both the repeated abandonment in her past and the blunted emotion that separates her from everyone else. “I hope you learn to like yourself,” Velvet tells her, having finally seen through the mask.

But Magilou gets more out of traveling with Velvet and crew than just having a host of people to compare herself to. Perhaps observing them is what allows Magilou to awaken a bit more from her slumber of apathy. As she tells Velvet before the final dungeon, “I finally found something to care about.”

What is the deal with Rokurou’s emotions?

Rokurou, being a daemon, also presents with a limited range of emotion. But what does that mean? What is his internal experience like?

Rokurou advertises himself as a heartless daemon who only cares about defeating his brother. He invites a simple interpretation of himself.

But I think the core of Rokurou’s being is, in fact, very human: a push and pull between two diametrically opposite sides of himself. The Rokurou who gets so caught up in the heat of battle that he will turn on even Laphicet before someone snaps him out of it versus the Rokurou who has only kind, encouraging words for Laphicet and goes out of his way to help the other party members. The Rokurou who upholds the principles of the Rangetsu clan versus the Rokurou who turned against those principles to challenge Shigure for the first time. The confident, even-tempered Rokurou and his vulnerable moments that reveal the doubt beneath the exterior.

This push and pull has been going on since he was a human. The scene that shines the brightest light into his psyche, I think, is the skit that is triggered by sleeping at the Meirchio inn. Velvet walks in on Rokurou’s sword training. She says he looks peaceful, but he counters that it’s actually the opposite- “It brings out my negative thoughts…my hatred, my doubts, my ego, my anger.” He says he used to try to practice to get rid of his negative thoughts, or so he told himself, but now he realizes that can’t be done. We can infer that these are the emotions and feelings that drove him to become a daemon and the ones that remain with him strongly since his transformation. He has given up on trying to fight them, and they are now his driving force. Unlike Magilou, I don’t interpret him as apathetic but as a very, very skewed scale when it comes to emotion.

Rokurou often mentions how little he cares about his loss of humanity or what others think of him. It’s his version of “I don’t care about anything, and I don’t care that I don’t.” This is also a lie twofold.

I point to the scene in which Velvet comes upon Rokurou sitting outside drinking while Kurogane forges himself into a sword, having a minor crisis about what allowing his friend to do such a thing says about him. He tells Velvet, “You hate because you love, and feel as much hurt as you do anger. That’s human.” He says of Shigure, “He has the very human strength to take the good with the bad and just keep pushing ahead. A strength that I, as a daemon, can never match.” His insecurity about his state of being and the inferiority he feels towards Shigure are on full display.

As in Magilou’s case, the narrative doesn’t disprove the emotional blunting that Rokurou describes, but it does contradict that it goes as far as he says it does. We see genuine emotion from Rokurou multiple times. In a skit where Eleanor decries the lack of empathy in daemons, Laphicet thinks to himself, “But Velvet and Rokurou have empathy.” During the sidequest “Rokurou’s Blade,” he mentions how good it felt to hear his mother praise him for the first time (say hello to another very likely source of Rokurou’s self-esteem issues.) In the scene where he strikes down Shigure, watch the sadness on his face when Shigure tells him that Rokurou’s first attempt on his life was for naught- Shigure was going to leave the clan anyway.

Finally, Shigure comments on Rokurou’s vicious smile: “If only Artorius’ stony face could smile like that, he’d be a lot happier.” Despite the negativity driving Rokurou, Shigure points out the truth: it’s not an empty, joyless existence.

In very professional conclusion, the end I friggin love Berseria and I love Magilou and Rokurou byeeee

[panelshowsource]

https://www.thetimes.com/article/david-mitchell-interview-upstart-crow-marriage-to-victoria-coren-and-fatherhood-5g73ccfzn

please, if you can do this you are absolutely incredible

sure anon, you just go to archive.is and plug in the link 😉

full article below the cut

When the Peep Show actor and panel-show regular David Mitchell was a boy – clever, introspective and a doted-upon only child for eight years – he had his “special costume trunk”. There was a lime-green and brown jumper for Star Trek, a black mac for Doctor Who and an 18th-century king. One day, when he was strutting around in the mac with his trousers stuffed into his socks, a plastic sword by his side and a piece of string tied round his waist, some older boys knocked on the front door and said they’d kicked their ball into the Mitchells’ garden. As they trooped through to find it, Mitchell hid behind a tree in shame, “oppressed”, he remembers, “by the feeling of being a weirdo. I was just a small boy and not quite as normal as I’d have liked.”

Cut to today. Mitchell, 44, is in the street in Waterloo in London wearing brown linen trunk hose, a leather codpiece, knee-high brown leather boots, a white linen shirt with Shakespearean collar, a brown leather doublet and belt and pouch. His already very high and clever forehead (Oxford private schoolboy, Cambridge history student, Footlights actor and writer) has been lifted a few inches higher still with the help of a bald cap and prosthetic forehead – “Although David has a brainy forehead, it’s not as brainy as Shakespeare’s,” says the woman in charge of his costume – and then a wig over the top. Ahem. We all know it’s rude to stare, but passers-by are clearly thinking, “WTF? I’ve just seen a bloke dressed as Shakespeare astride a Santander bike.” In his 2012 memoir, Back Story, Mitchell writes, “Is it normal to feel you’re not normal but want to be normal? I think it probably is.”

I had been hoping to sit down and talk to Mitchell while he was dressed as Shakespeare, whom he resembles convincingly in the upcoming third series of Upstart Crow, a clever and funny BBC Two sitcom about the Bard’s family life, written by Ben Elton with precisely Mitchell in mind as Shakespeare, albeit a younger David Mitchell. “But they couldn’t find a younger me,” he says, “so they had to put up with me instead.”

But Mitchell is in mufti, a pair of crumpled chino-type trousers, brown shoes and a nondescript navy T-shirt with a collar. His hair is pretty much as it was when he was the young boy hiding behind the tree, a standard issue kid’s bowl cut combed into a parting. Although he still loves a bit of fancy dress, codpieces and doublets and the like (the bald cap can get a bit tight and uncomfortable after a long day filming, he concedes), clothes continue to cause him agony. For years, his mum bought them for him (through the Cambridge years and later still), but now it is a role that has befallen his poker-playing wife of six years, Victoria Coren Mitchell, herself a comedy panellist and writer. “I’m very happy to put them on,” he says of what she buys for him. “To be fair, she’s never tried anything …” he trails off, but I think he means “modern or cool”.

“It’s just a slightly tidier version of the sort of thing I was wearing before. She knows the one thing I want my clothing to be is unremarkable.” And then there is the unchanged haircut. Coren Mitchell must know which battles to pick. “Not because I like it, or hate it, but because to change it at any point would have provoked comment … That would have made me cringe,” he writes about keeping the cut. The beard has stayed, but he has admitted he would have razored it off if faced with protest.

For years, Mitchell’s identity, to the public at least, but also to himself during the dark days of ready meals and no girlfriends in his Kilburn flat (“contented squalor” is how he puts it ), has been inextricably linked with the fantastically well-drawn, tragic character of Mark Corrigan (written for him), whom he played in Peep Show. He starred alongside his comedy partner Robert Webb, who got the part of Jeremy, the much cooler and more sexually successful flatmate. They had been writers/performers since meeting at Cambridge, but Peep Show made them, bringing them to an audience beyond student comedy fans. The essence of Corrigan’s believability was the fact that the show’s main writers, Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, based many bits of Corrigan on Mitchell himself: the nerdiness, the hopelessness in love, the pudding haircut, the clothes bought by his mother. But, Mitchell says, “The big difference between me and him – perhaps I am kidding myself – is that I’ve always been a fundamentally happier person, because he doesn’t know what he wants. For me, despite everything, for years not knowing if I was ever going to have a significant relationship, blah blah, the one thing I did know was that comedy was my crutch. Professionally at least, I’ve always had that source of hope and contentment.”

The deep irony of Mitchell’s life was that as his career, a dicey profession in any case, began to rocket, he was at his most emotionally desperate. After meeting Victoria Coren briefly at a drinks party (which she can’t remember) in 2007, he met her again at a film premiere. He writes in his autobiography Back Story, “I changed then. Everything that happened to me after that moment, even incidental things, are in a different context, a new world where different things matter.”

They dated briefly and he fell hopelessly in love with her. But timing was not on his side. Coren had lost her father and began seeing somebody else. She let Mitchell go honourably and kindly, what he calls “a reluctant brush-off”, but it broke his heart. He was sure there would never be anybody like her again. This inner melancholy fed into the character of Corrigan. In this respect, man and character were identical. He admits now that he told nobody about how dreadful he felt. “I didn’t talk about the state of my life to my friends,” he says. Journalists were always trying to fish around for comparisons with Corrigan. In 2009, when Mitchell was mourning the loss of Coren, on Desert Island Discs Kirsty Young talked about Robert Webb becoming a father. She asked Mitchell if he wanted that for himself. Mitchell said rather glumly, “I think I do.” There followed a white lie when he said, “I don’t think I have an ideal woman.” The fact was, he did.

Mitchell was not blind to the fact that he and Webb had had the most blessed career path, sprinkled with Baftas and endless opportunity: writing, acting and, for Mitchell, the panel shows The Unbelievable Truth and Would I Lie to You?. And so he felt his “wishes”, his luck, had been used up on his career. And then in 2010, Coren, like Princess Charming, came back into his life and suggested they try again. Reader, he married her two years later.

As Mitchell sits before me, he is beaming. “I’m trying not to look smug,” he says. “I feel very lucky. If I had thought that [asking her to marry me] would not have seemed mad earlier, I would definitely have done it. I am just incredibly proud that someone like Victoria wants to be with me. She has these amazing qualities, but fundamentally, we clicked. I fell in love with her. Being with her, it’s made me fundamentally more secure. A high percentage of the lurking terrors I felt for years, the things that I felt I’d failed to face up to as a proper human being, have gone.

“I do feel that there is someone in my life who I can say anything to. For years, I never talked about the things that worried me and now there is someone whom I trust, which creates a completely different context in which I can exist.”

Being loved, and loving, has taken away Mitchell’s profound sense of self-doubt. “I think I realise now that people judging me adversely, in superficial ways, doesn’t matter. Now I don’t mind looking a bit daft, like taking the bins out in my pyjamas. I don’t mind seeming like a bit of a twat any more. I don’t worry about projecting an image. There was a certain brittleness [before], and being worried about being laughed at in a way I was not in control of. I don’t really care much about that now.”

Do you take the bins out in your pyjamas?

“It has been known. I only wear my pyjamas all day if I have decided I’m ill. But I do think when I’m perfectly well I have always moved on to day clothes at some point.”

For diehard Peep Show fans reading this happy-ever-after fairy story and lamenting the replacement of their unhappy hero with a well-balanced, emotionally healthy middle-aged man who understands it’s good to get out of pyjamas before lunch, fear not. Mitchell confesses that having worried for years about not finding happiness, he now frets that somebody will take it away from him. Honestly! There’s no pleasing some.

“I’m a worrier,” he says. “I worry that something is going to go wrong. A horrific accident or an illness or, on a less serious level, a career mishap. I think that is probably how I avoid feeling guilty for being so lucky, that I worry that something is going to go wrong.

“I truly thought that because my career had worked out, maybe I didn’t get to have everything. And now I’m very happily married and I have a lovely daughter. I feel, ‘Hang on. Surely I’m luckier than I deserve?’ But that’s a definition of luck, isn’t it?”

Mitchell beams again. Their child is three and called Barbara. “She’s amazing. Extremely talkative and she likes imagining things, telling stories and being characters and explaining to me who she is in one of her stories.” Just think of the Coren Mitchell dressing-up box in their northwest London home. All those BBC codpieces and doublets knocking around for a second generation of bright dresser-uppers.

In the old days, Mitchell used daytime TV to procrastinate while writing. Now, it’s playing with Barbara and watching Peppa Peg and Hey Duggee. “A few minutes of feverish [work] activity followed by 45 minutes of time slipping through my fingers, some of that with Barbara.”

The announcement of Mitchell’s marriage brought astonishment beyond his close circle, for the fact that he and Coren seemed such an unlikely couple. But Mitchell says that he is similar to his wife (although he plays bridge, not poker). Both find the kind of socialising that comes with showbiz excruciating. They would by far prefer to stay at home with a DVD and supper on their knees. “I find places that are rife with acquaintances very stressful. I am not sure on what level to greet them. Do I hug them? Am I shaking hands? I sort of feel whatever I do will be wrong.

“Now, though, it’s nice going to a party [with Victoria] because you think, ‘We’re here; we’re in this room. It is a very high-stress moment, so let’s talk to each other for three minutes, catch our breath and then go, ‘OK, now we can go over there.’ Sometimes we separate or sometimes we just move together, depending on how confidence levels are going. At least eight times out of ten, I’d rather be watching a DVD and having some food in front of the telly. If you are happy at home, you’ve much less motivation to find the social confidence. You think. ‘Why are we even here? What’s the earliest point we can reasonably go?’ ”

In a year’s time, Mitchell will be thrust into the world of the school gate, a positive lion’s den of half acquaintances, small talk and necessary pleasantries with relative strangers, set against the backdrop of a bad day, or any anxiety going on about your child. “That genuinely hadn’t occurred to me,” he says, “but, yes, you are right. I remember that from being a child myself.” As he says, at least at parties there is alcohol to help everybody, other than “the minority of shark-like sociopaths who are very happy moving through the water while everyone else is sort of terrified”.

Mitchell’s relationship with Robert Webb is still strong, although their careers are more independent these days. “We’re closer friends now that we don’t work together so much. For several years it was incredibly intensive.”

Webb does not star in Upstart Crow, which, incidentally boasts Kenneth Branagh and Lily Cole in its final Christmas special. In the autumn, Mitchell is set to star in a film with Steve Coogan, yet to be officially confirmed, but he is back with Webb in the new year for the filming of another series of Back, the acclaimed TV series that reflects the old dynamic of their comedy partnership. Mitchell plays Stephen, a bitter son displaced by the return of his parents’ long-lost foster son, Andrew (Webb), and is eaten up by jealousy and inadequacy as Andrew seems to threaten his plans to take over the family business.

In his private life, Webb has been a good ten years ahead of Mitchell. Mitchell confesses that when Barbara was born, he took months off work. “Looking back, one of Rob’s children was born in the middle of a Peep Show shoot and he had an afternoon off and then a weekend, and then he was back filming on the Monday. I think I felt a sense of. ‘Oh, that must be quite difficult,’ but when I look back now, I go, ‘What? How did that work?’ I think I let him go through [becoming a father] without really reflecting on it. At the time, I was probably half-thinking, ‘What? He’s having a baby now, and we’ve got to get this shot.’ Only now have I allowed myself to realise, ‘Oh right. That was a massive moment [for him].’”

There are some jokes Mitchell has made in the past, particularly about children, that he would never write now. And he won’t read anything that makes him worry about the world Barbara will grow up in. “Victoria finds the dramatisation of a certain sort of horrific thing totally ceasing to be on any level of entertainment.” They did watch Broadchurch together, starring Mitchell’s close and long-term Cambridge friend Olivia Colman, but series one, about the murder of a child, was before Barbara’s birth.

Mitchell’s life has spun 180 degrees. Where once he was a relative loner – an only child for eight years – his private life is filled with people: nieces, nephews, brother and sister in-law, parents in-law. “I do enjoy it, but I also don’t know what your relationship with a cousin or an uncle or niece is supposed to be, so I’m learning that.

“I think in middle age, I am getting a sense of what a life is. I get the sense there is an arc, and if I see as many years again as I’ve seen already, I’m lucky. The life I had in Kilburn didn’t carry on for ever. I was ultimately unhappy and then something happened. I met Victoria. My life is totally different. I see that you can have periods of feeling completely unchanging and then a change will happen and can happen so many times, and then you die.”

Perhaps this is a maudlin element of Corrigan still lurking beneath? Loving Barbara as well as Victoria, Mitchell says, “I worry terribly that the world is terrifying in so many ways … There’s electricity and sharp corners and all of that, but also I want a world for Barbara to be secure and happy and prosperous in.”

If Mitchell once asked himself if it was normal to want to feel normal, well, aged 44, he might finally have got there.

[luvsae]

kang saebyeok as your guitarist girlfriend | bullet point story [1] . . ♡

- kang saebyeok x gn!reader

note: this is just the intro so she isn't your girlfriend yet

- you actually met saebyeok at a show that she was playing at a bar

- the whole band was good but you couldn't keep your eyes off of her

- she noticed at one point and made eye contact with you, sending a cheeky smile your way

- you couldn't help but feel butterflies in your stomach - she was really pretty

- she had on a tux, but the blazer was off, leaving her with a messy bow tie and a white shirt - it was perfect

- after the show you stayed for a bit to have one more drink and hopefully see the guitarist (who you now knew as saebyeok since the whole band introduced themselves)

- as you took a sip of your drink, the seat beside you was suddenly filled

- looking over, you noticed saebyeok

- you almost spit out your drink because of how beautiful she was

- she noticed your stare and laughed. "hi"

- "hi," you replied back. "the show was really good"

- she grinned, taking a sip of her drink. "thank you. were you staying after the show just for me?" saebyeok teased

- you felt your cheeks heat up, not knowing what to say at first. "well, i did want to see you, but i didn't expect for you to sit next to me"

- saebyeok chuckled to herself before taking a napkin and a pen, then writing down her phone number

- "call me when you get home, okay?"

- you practically ran home after saebyeok gave you her number

- after waiting a bit, you decided to text her

you: hey its y/n :)

- a few minutes later, she texted you back

saebyeok: hey there, didn't think you'd text me haha

y/n: how could i not? you're really interesting

saebyeok: ohhhh you're interested in me?? ;)

- you couldn't help but smile like an idiot - why was this girl so interesting to you?

saebyeok: we should hangout soon. let's go to a coffee shop

y/n: im down

- the two of you actually followed through with the plans of going out, and today happened to be the day

- you changed your outfit three times before coming to a decision - it wasn't too casual, but not too fancy

- suddenly you heard a knock at your door. shit she was here a bit earlier than expected

- rushing over to the door, you opened it and saw saebyeok. she was in cargo pants and a loose top - she was beautiful

- "hey," you smiled sheepishly. "come in"

- she entered your home. "sorry im here a bit early. there's gonna be traffic soon so i thought that i should come here a bit earlier"

- "that's okay," you nodded. "i just need to get my bag and then we can go"

- as you went to get your bag you couldn't help but smile to yourself. you were so excited !!

- the two of you eventually left and drove over to the coffee shop. you learned some things about the girl

- she was the same age as you, her favorite color is blue, she's been playing guitar for a few years now

- you also told her some facts about yourself, it was nice

- the both of you talked and had some coffee, laughing at all the stupid and cheesy jokes that saebyeok told you

- she complimented you a few times too, and you couldn't help but blush because of that

- "you're really pretty" "you really light up the room" "your laugh is pretty too"

- the hangout didn't end after that because the two of you then went to the pet store

- you practically dragged saebyeok over to the section where the cats were, squealing over the little animals

- "this one is so cute i want to adopt them all"

- "that would be a lot of cat food"

- "but it's worth it!"

- saebyeok was more interested in the birds and frogs - she thought they were cool

- "these little guys would be great companions, don't you think?" "they are really cute. netflix frog!"

- "you're adorable"

- after that you would go to a video game store (this was for saebyeok as she played games on her days off)

- "what games do you like?" you asked her

- "i like survival games. i played one recently called the forest, you should play it with me one day"

- "that would be fun"

- saebyeok ended up buying a copy of minecraft for one of her consoles after you said you played that game often

- the day would soon end and saebyeok would bring you home. she made you stay a bit longer because the sunset was nice (others would argue she just wanted to spend more time with you)

- you would take a picture of the sunset before turning to saebyeok. "we should take a picture in front of the sunset, what do you say?"

- "of course"

- the two of you would huddle close and take a picture - saebyeok was stunning as she was drawn out by the sunlight

- saebyeok would walk you to your door and smile at you. "did you have fun?"

- "that was the most fun ive had in a while, thank you"

- "would you wanna do it again?" she asked, putting her hands in her pockets

- "if you have ideas on where to go, and if you plan to get me that cat, then yes" you teased

- she grinned and nodded. "alright, y/n. i don't know if i can get you that cat, though"

- you rolled your eyes playfully. "i'll see you again soon, saebyeok. text me when you get home"

- "will do"

- and with that, your first hangout with saebyeok was done

- you couldn't help but feel giddy and excited over spending the whole day with her

- you couldn't wait until your next adventure