#so i didnt proof read it

[axolotlclown]

Would you happen to have some studies to back up the "more than one coffee means you're addicted" thing, please? Pretty sure I've seen that disproven as a lens to understand addiction through at all

~ 🪴

Hey! So sorry I never saw this anon. It never appeared in my notifs and I'm really bad about checking my askbox.

You have asked a question that falls in line with a field I am very passionate about! I found some interesting articles in my school library. I'm going to go ahead and write this response, but I'm still waiting on access to a few journals. I'll have to convert those ones to PDFs as they are likely behind paywalls.

Anyway, here's my long post where I intend to rant about a lot of different barely related topics. Caffeine addiction is one of those really controversial but historically significant subjects in psychology!

So let me start off with how to read and break down a journal. It's one of those things where if you don't go to college and specifically major in a research related field, no one ever teaches you how to do it. That sucks.

So when you're looking at a journal, the first thing you want to do is background check the author. What school did they go to? What degrees do they have? (For research, they should have a Ph.D. no matter what.) What is their current place of employment?

Often companies, or other private businesses, will commission someone to do some research and fudge the results to make that company look better. We saw this recently in regards to gender affirming care. The United States House of Representatives had proposed legislation to restrict gender affirming care for transgender youth. The Republican sponsor of the bill had presented a single piece of research that he claimed was significant. The research found that transition regret rates were somewhere in the 30% range. (I don't remember exactly and I know that I could quickly look it up, but I just spent the past two hours reading addiction research. I'll find it tomorrow.) Upon looking into the author and the sponsors of this research, psychologists found that the journal the congressman presented was commissioned by a conversation therapy center in Florida. The research held obvious bias, poor peer review, and inconclusive results. The bill didn't pass. I'm not sure they even voted on it, actually.

Anyway, this is why we need to be critical of the research we read. Chocolate, wine, caffeine, gender dysphoria, and autism are notorious subjects that require more scrutiny before reading.

So, caffeine addiction. This is a subject that more than one field is interested in. Before you read an article, you need to be sure what question you are asking. Psychologists are concerned with a more scientific or factual approach. In this context, a psychologist would be researching the concrete effects of caffeine on mood, sleep, and other psychological disorders. Sociologists are more concerned with the overall social consequences of caffeine addiction. They would be asking how mood and sleep affected family, work, and personal welfare. For your question, we're going to look into the psychological aspect. Also, I'm studying psychology, not sociology, so I would feel like an idiot answering those types of questions.

This distinction matters. When I opened my school's EBSCOHost database, I simply typed in "caffeine addiction" to start. I was bombarded with sociological articles and journals about the affects of caffeine addiction on productivity at work and on mood. Strange overlap with psychology. Two problems: some of the top articles had researchers with ties to coffee companies, and all "caffeine addicts" were self-reported. For the latter, this meant that there was no standard for how much caffeine was consumed. Rather than being a concrete article about caffeine consumption, it was more of a survey of public opinion. You want to avoid those unless you specifically want to know about the public opinion. Even psychologists run surveys all the time (they're cheap and easy), but people often lie on surveys, even if they're anonymous.

So I typed in more specific key words and came up with these articles. I'll talk about some without leaving a link, but that's because I had to request the PDFs for sharing. I'll come back to this post and link them. (Let me know if the ones I do link are broken.)

Okay, so I'm going to start off with a journal that interested me, personally. This study actually observed the effects of caffeine on psychiatric patients. This is an important reminder that different drugs influence different brains. Someone with ADHD experiences caffeine differently for a neurotypical person. Caffeine is a stimulant, and ADHD medications are stimulants. Cool. What about other disorders?

Here's the Sparknotes of the study, "Caffeine intoxication was more prevalent in psychiatric patients than in healthy subjects. The amount of caffeine intake was shown to be associated positively with the severity of pathology and inversely with sleep quality."

The study goes more into depth about the different psychological disorders that different patients had. There were 401 patients participating in this study (150 healthy individuals). Overall, continuous caffeine intake showed a decline in sleep quality and a general increase in severity of other mental illnesses.

So what causes that? What is caffeine? Here's an article that looks into studies about caffeine consumption and performance, as well as what the causes of an addiction could be and what constitutes an addiction. This is one I recommend giving a read, as it helps to illuminate a common problem with researching intoxicants.

Here's the big take away: "Although caffeine is widely perceived to have beneficial psychostimulant effects, appropriately controlled studies show that its apparent beneficial effects on performance and mood are almost wholly attributed to reversal of the withdrawal effects that occur after fairly short periods of abstinence (e.g. overnight)."

In habitual coffee users, the increase of mood and performance after consumption of caffeine is caused by the removal of withdrawal symptoms. Grouchy mood and lack of coordination are symptoms of caffeine withdrawal. Where one may perceive positive reinforcement for initial consumption, for habitual consumers, withdrawal symptoms become a negative reinforcement.

So, for people that drink coffee everyday, it's less about getting the positive effects of caffeine, but rather avoiding the negative effects of withdrawal. This can be classified as an addiction. There is now a reliance on this substance.

Something this article also points out is that caffeine is not just found in coffee. It's found in chocolate and most medications these days as well. Therefore, complete stone cold abstinence from caffeine can be next to impossible, making control groups difficult to find. This leads to the varying research and controversy between psychologists.

Okay, but coffee can't be as bad as alcohol or anything right? Caffeine is practically harmless! Let's take a look into an article discussing the health impacts of caffeine. (I'll provide the full text to this one tomorrow.)

In Dr. Saimaiti's article titled, "Dietary Sources, Health Benefits, and Risks of Caffeine," she explores the benefits of occasional consumption of caffeine and weighs them against habitual overconsumption of caffeine.

While occasional consumption can actually improve mood and cognitive ability, these benefits are lost with daily consumption.

Few people drink their coffee black. For those that put creamer, milk (especially oat), or straight sugar or syrups in their coffees daily, they may be overconsuming sugar. This is especially hard on an empty stomach. This is part of the reason you "crash" later in the day. The sugar raises your blood sugar. For most healthy people, this may not be the biggest deal in the world. For others, it could be a key factor in developing diabetes later in life. In general, don't drink coffee on an empty stomach. Have it with a meal. It's also easier on your liver.

Speaking of liver, what does your body do with the caffeine after you drink it? Caffeine follows the same principle as alcohol. Occasional consumption of red wine can help thin your blood and lower your hemoglobin (something that women may be more concerned about as they get older). However, daily consumption of wine can cause stress on the liver and potentially lead to dementia later in life (I say potentially because there has been a correlation, but no solid research as to why. While correlation does not always mean causation, it's important to acknowledge them in the meantime.)

Caffeine behaves in the same way. Continuous consumption of caffeine can put some real stress on your liver over time.

Caffeine is dangerous for those with cardiovascular problems. While this seems like a "duh!" point, many people don't know that they may be prone to cardiovascular issues until an event happens. This sounds like fear mongering, but it's something to take into account.

The article discusses pregnant women as well, but I would hope that's intuitive? Maybe not? If you're pregnant you should avoid intoxication in all forms.

I'll drop this quote from the conclusion of the article for now (I felt weird quoting text that you can't access yet, so I'll come back with more quotes when I can give you the PDF): "the long-term or over-consumption of caffeine can lead to addiction, insomnia, migraine, and other side effects."

The point is, caffeine consumption can be more dangerous to some than others in general, but excessive consumption with lack of knowledge can lead to long-term damage to one's health.

Okay, that study talks about a relatively small niche. Let's get broad. Let's talk about sleep and cognitive performance. (Another study I'll have the PDF for tomorrow.)

In Dr. Gottselig's article titled, "Random Number Generation During Sleep Deprivation: Effects of Caffeine on Response Maintenance and Stereotypy," she looks at the effects caffeine has on cognitive performance during sleep deprivation.

The conclusions of this research makes a very important point: "caffeine preserves simple aspects of cognitive performance during sleep deprivation, whereas caffeine may not prevent detrimental effects of sleep deprivation on some complex cognitive functions."

This article particularly found that while small cognitive functions such as motor ability improved with caffeine, complex cognitive functions such as problem solving and memory declined.

While a college student could read this and understand that pulling an all nighter and drinking 10 Red Bulls probably won't help them pass their test, there's something much more to be said about these findings.

One sleep deprived night won't kill you, and certainly drinking a cup of coffee to get you through the day won't either. But caffeine cannot prevent the damage that regular sleep deprivation does. Sleep deprivation leads to memory loss, worsening symptoms of depression/anxiety/ADHD, increased chances of developing dementia early (this one is real), and a decline in overall cognitive ability.

Rough. But it is a trap. If you have insomnia, caffeine may feel like your only choice to be somewhat functioning throughout the day. Caffeine promotes symptoms of insomnia. It's a vicious cycle if you can't afford proper treatment, and one, that I hope, that will be addressed with time.

So if you have the ability, it's better to prioritize a good night's sleep. I'll come back to this.

For now, why is caffeine addiction so controversial then? Well, it may not be for long. While there was a push to add "caffeine" to the list of diagnosable addiction in the DSM since the 1980's, the inconsistent and inconclusive research has led to a standstill. As we say with Dr. Jame's article, it is difficult to get a control group for caffeine. However, as research for alcohol and marijuana progresses, our knowledge of how to properly study intoxicants does as well.

The long-term health side effects of caffeine are still being studied as well. While this aspect isn't unique to caffeine at all (marijuana, for example, is just now getting approved for research, where before it was illegal), it's still worth acknowledging what we do know, for now at least.

So, coming back to the DSM. There's a new one coming out pretty soon. It's the talk of the town among psychologists right now. Everyone is arguing about what should be in the DSM-6. It'll be crazy when it does come out. Autism, OCD, Gender Dysphoria, Borderline Personality Disorder, and Facial Dysmorphia are just a few examples of disorders that will likely be completely recategorized.

(Unrelated, but Autism Spectrum Disorder is a big one because a lot of psychologists are arguing that it shouldn't be classified as a disorder at all. The reason being is that Autism is so common, that psychologists are theorizing that the majority of the population falls on the spectrum somewhere. Either way, the diagnosis is about to completely change because of this fact.) (Well, all of them are big ones. I could make a whole separate post about it.)

Anyway, the push to make caffeine diagnosable is becoming a promising endeavor as research continues to come out.

One psychiatrist pushing for this is Ronald Griffiths. In his opinion piece, Griffiths recalls his patients experiencing caffeine withdrawal symptoms that led to a decline in the quality of life. One of his patients was diagnosed with breast cancer and needed to stop drinking coffee immediately. This patient struggled with severe withdrawal symptoms that were difficult to manage while on cancer treatment.

Griffiths explains how difficult it was to treat this patient because it wasn't something he could easily diagnose with the DSM-5, something insurance companies use to decide whether they're going to pay for care or not. Add on the bills for cancer treatment, and you rapidly have a distressing situation on your hands.

Joseph DeRupo, spokesman for the National Coffee Association in the U.S. as quoted in this article states, "What we have here is really the opinion of one scientist who is a lone voice against the accepted view of the scientific community."

Lone voice? In barely an hour I was able to find 5 credible articles, all backed by credible researchers, supporting the understanding that American society consumes too much caffeine. You can take a General Psych class in college and the textbook would spend half a chapter going over caffeine addiction and the controversial research around it. Coffee companies piss me off. And most companies use slave labor to harvest their beans and lobby to prevent legislation to prevent it. Guillotine.

Griffiths also claims that "[e]ven people who consume as little as 100 milligrams of caffeine a day—the equivalent of one small cup of coffee—can become physically dependent."

So this ask is pretty old, but I'm guessing it was in response to me saying that you should only drink one cup of a random beverage a day and the rest be water. This keeps you hydrated and helps cut out where the majority of your sugar intake is. I called it the "desert beverage" and that "coffee counts."

It really does. In the morning, one feels tired, foggy, and grouchy. "Don't talk to me until I've had my morning coffee." They would make their coffee out of habit, barely minding the taste of it—drinking to medicate the headache they've already caused.

Life is worth celebrating, and if we can find little things in our day to celebrate, we should! When coffee becomes a habit, it's just a habit. That's sad.

I worked as a barista for a while at a coffee shop that hired people with intellectual disabilities. That experience is what made me switch my major to psychology in the first place. But I saw the joys coffee could bring, and the damage it can do, too. I had a coworker who would come in and throw a tantrum if we didn't immediately stop what we were doing and make him a coffee—and again in two hours before the end of his shift. It's upsetting.

I do remember the joys, too. Our manager would show us a new niche coffee drink from a random country. We would make cubanos like they would in Haiti and talk about the different names they had in different countries around the world. It ruled.

I don't drink coffee every day anymore. But it's always a wonderful thing when I do. You don't need to have an "excuse" to drink a cup of coffee—you don't need to celebrate anything at all. Coffee, tea, wine, soda, and juice should be celebrated as they are. Drinking them out of habit destroys joy. Intentional habits create stable foundations in life. Unintentional habits create monotony and boredom.

Anyway, the sleep thing I said I'd come back to. So if you're having trouble sleeping, here's the hot tip: avoid screens 30 minutes before going to bed. That sounds easy, but how many of us scroll our phones, watch TV, or play a video game right before bed? It's not worth it.

Instead, do something away from your phone that you enjoy. I like to read, but you can draw, journal, listen to some music, practice an instrument, or write something. Doesn't matter, just don't use your phone or laptop. Set a 30 minute timer for time.

If you're still struggling to sleep, you may find meditation useful. Meditation uses techniques that make your brain send beta waves which relaxes you and is the first step to falling asleep. But! If you try to learn some meditation, you'll have to commit to practicing it every night for it to be useful. It's a skill that requires practice.

Anyway, I could make a whole separate post about evening/morning/afternoon routines as that is another one of my passions, but yeah.

TLDR; An occasional cup of coffee is actually great and wonderful, but you really shouldn't drink it every day, especially more than once a day.

PS. I love Red Bull cream sodas more than the God that created them, I swear, but I only drink maybe one or two energy drinks a year. Energy drinks will dissolve your liver faster than hydrochloric acid can. An alcoholic drinking 5 packs of beers a day will look at your liver and be impressed. Also the Panera lemonade should be illegal. That shit is CRAZY. That bitch had more caffeine than a Bang energy drink. It literally killed a man. Wild.

[jude5bellingham]

jude is so sure that when he calls he will get sent to voicemail, which is exactly how he ends up speechless when he hears your voice on the other line. his mouth opening and closing as his mind tries to find words that make an excuse as to why he was calling you at 2am on a friday night (clearly a little (lot) bit drunk).

"i didn't think you'd pick up..." he curses himself as he walks through the crowd, hand cupped over his mouth and phone in an attempt to amplify his voice to be heard by you, heading towards the front door of the club, excusing himself to get past the wall of people in front of him.

"why'd you think that?"

"it's late? i don't know..." he says as he waits for the bouncer to unclip the retractable belt blocking his way. he mouths a 'thank you' as he walks out of the club, and takes a few steps before settling against the wall.

"what's wrong jude?"

"i guess i just wanted to hear your voice." he brings his finger up to his mouth, biting away at a hangnail as he waits for a response. he takes a deep breath in as he hears a noise that sounds like you shifting around bed on the other side.

"sorry..." he cuts you off, or at least he imagines he does, apologizing for putting you in this situation. he imagines that you were in your nightly ritual of doom scrolling your social media of choice, and that this call had interuppted your nightly routine.

"for?"

"nothing? maybe everything?" he feels the corners of his lips turning up into a smile, he knows that you're not upset with him but he feels sorry for some reason. he shakes his head, shaking the silly unwarranted guilty feeling he's experiencing with it.

"jude?"

"yeah?"

"can you hear it?"

jude thinks for a second, his face still radiating heat from the drinks he had inside earlier, closing his eyes tightly as if that would help with his ability to concentrate.

"what?"

"i think i love you..."

he can hear the nervousness in your voice, bubbling up and coming out as a small huff of air best described as an attempted giggle.

"okay! anyways goodnight jude! get home safe! i've already texted trent to make sure you get home!"

he laughs as you rush to blurt everything out so quickly that he is unable to manage to get a word in before you hang up so quickly that if he didn't know you any better, he might've mistaken your embarrassment for regret.

[merverelli]

"you just feel yourself let go."

still thinking about this episode. man. 💪💥

[cyberghouleo]

Any Tim content pls pls 🙏🙏

Maybe a sweet innocent reader 🫶🫶🫶

Would make jokes and innuendos that you don’t understand, he likes watching you stare back at him puzzled as you try to put it together.

SUPER protective over you. He knows others will see your kindness as a weakness and knows he has to be on guard when the two of you are around the others, proving that you are off limits. 

Will wrap an arm around your shoulder and bring you close to him while around others. Also will occasionally press a quick kiss into your hair when others aren’t looking, that’s as much pda as he’s willing to do. 

If you try to hold hands together around others, at first he moves his hand away. He thinks it’s too vulnerable and the other guys won’t take him as seriously as a leader. But if you are persistent with it, he will slowly start allowing it to happen and won’t inch away, wrapping his hand around yours. Then it turns into his hand slowly inching over to yours first, trying to subtly hold hands under a table. 

While your kindness is a big contrast from his brashness, he actually likes how kind you are. It reminds him of a part of his old self, the type of person he was before the Operator got involved with his life.

Deep down he wishes he could protect you from the life and job he has, but he knows he can’t. He’s too far under the Operator’s control to do so, and he finds himself resenting it when he watches you sleep peacefully next to him. You make him realize just how fragile normal life is, and he wishes he could have met you under different circumstances, before he lost his former life. 

NSFW

To him, it’s a turn on how innocent you are. He’s into corruption so it’s his goal to turn you from innocent into his personal whore. Also gives him an advantage in power over you, something he won’t complain about. At first you are shy, covering yourself up with your hands and hiding your face while he’s deep inside you. But slowly you start opening up to him, to the point you are laying down and spreading your legs wide open for him. He’s going to make you a complete slut for him sooner or later. 

He loves making you tell him what you want while he’s fucking you, stopping his thrusts until you tell him how badly you want him to fuck you. He’s obsessed with how sweet and innocent you are to everyone else and how pathetic you get as you beg him to fuck you senselessly. 

“Tell me exactly what you want” He will say as he bottoms out inside you, completely stopping his thrusting.

“I want you to fuck me,” you say sheepishly, hiding your face behind your hands.

He grabs your wrist, pinning them down to the bed before speaking. “Say it the way I taught you, baby”

If you're inexperienced it makes him fall ten times harder, he loves the idea of being the only one to have you and his dick being the only one you know. He will make you grind down onto his fingers, enjoying how embarrassed you are and how clumsy your movements are. He finds it hot to be able to teach you exactly how to touch yourself and watching you try to stuff all of him into your mouth. 

Uses your innocence and sweetness against you while degrading you, using fake pity against you whenever you act embarrassed. “Aw, can the poor baby not take it? Don’t tell me you’re fucked out already, hmm?”

[r3starttt]

can you doooooo something with reader x sub!ellie? creative freedom is yours :3

SUB! ELLIE

CW: sub! e. thigh riding. finger sucking. fingering.

Through her lips passed a soft plead before pressing a gentle kiss on your neck. her flushed face hid in the crook of your neck.

"please what, babe?," your tone gentle against her ear. her legs straddling yours, hips guided by your hands gripping at the flesh of her almost uncovered thighs.

your fingers travelled to the waistband of her shorts, toying with it until she spoke back "need you," you hummed, grabbing her chin to force her look back at you. she looked so desperate already, and you knew she was damped just by the smallest friction she'd got from riding your thighs for the past few minutes.

"Yeah?" you basically murmured against her lips. the tips of her fingers graced against your cheeks, down your shoulders. her pretty lips quivering into a sheepish smile, nodding.

the soft flesh of your lips pressed against her. she reciprocated with tipsy lips following yours. spit mixing. saliva glistening your lips once you decided it was enough.

"open" you spit. her messed lips following your orders immediately, sticking her tongue for you. the pads of your fingers press against it, not even needing to speak as she takes them, sucking.

her eyes struggled to look back at you, but she mamanged to. a puppy-like look on her face. gentle furrowed eyebrows, freckles covered in a brush of red. she looked so pretty like this.

it didn't took long for her to let out whines, feeling her arousal grow at the aggressiveness of your moves inside her mouth. fingers almost making her gag at one point "enough baby, let go" she hesitated a bit.

both your middle and index finger made their way down her boxers, rubbing circles around her needy clit. it elicted the most delicious pleasure on her, feeling overwhelming at how long she'd been waiting for the slightest friction.

the wetness on her boxers making you moan on her skin, feeling your own arousal grow knowing how desperate she was.

"like that? yeah?," she couldn't even speak, not bothering in letting out more than muffled whines against your lips, against your cheeks. "bet it does -fuck- you're so wet already" your mocking replied by her gentle fingers toying with the hem of your shirt.

your digits massaging her clit slowly. taking your time before scissoring her folds, feeling the wet mess you've made on her.

bubbly words swelling into your ears as you abused her swollen folds. teasing her creamy hole doing vertical movements with your fingers.

"Come on, just -mhm," her words seem interrupted by her own pleasure. you coo soothingly against her ear "Shhh, be patient" too focused on the feeling of her wet pussy you've missed those pretty eyes closed, her tongue kissing her lips in a weak attempt to keep herself quiet.

"take it off" your lips crashed against hers, tongues meeting as her hands abandoned your body, meeting her own clothes to do as you ordered.

taking use of the space between your faces as she got rid of her hoodie, you met her uncovered breasts, eyes hungrily admiring them, digging your face in between in a matter of seconds.

small wet kisses adorning her aereloas until you met her nipples, sucking and lapping at them until your fingers finally made contact with her drenched walls, slapping her pussy just like she needed.

quiet hiccups and blabers hitting your ears. you knew she wouldn't last long.

your hand lingers on the mound of her pussy, cupping it at each thrust. sticky arousal connecting your hand to her cunt, hitting and rubbing her clit coincidentally.

her lips opening wide, teasing your cupids bow. her unstable breath hitting your lips.

"mhm, s'pretty" the edges of your lips quivering into a sheepish smile, too focused on making her last long to even give in the temptation of her redish lips.

delicious sounds filling the space shared between your bodies. your fingers sucked in by her sliky hole. faster and faster until your name brushed her lips like a repeated plead.

her walls clenched around you, proudly leaving a kiss on her forehead feeling your hand drenched on her juices.

"there you go -shhhh- s' okay babe" you coo, meeting those half-lided eyes, a lost look on them.

her heavy acute panting brushing the skin of your chin. "did so food f'me"

[nighttimeclassics]

so im just thinking about the Orpheus and Eurydice metaphor in Dead Boy Detectives again...

so i really cant get over the symbolism in the show's comparison between Edwin and Charles and Orpheus and Eurydice. I'm sure someone else more succinct than me has already talked about it but man i just have to because as a classicist it has been consuming my brain since it happened... this is going to be a shitty ramble, but we vibe

so in the show, it is Edwin who first realises his feelings for Charles, and is the first to to truthful about them. Given that, in most translations of the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, Orpheus' devotion to his wife is seen as the "stronger love" between the pair. highlighted in later adaptations such as Hadestown, as Eurydice makes the active choice to go to the underworld and leave her husband rather than their wedding being overshadowed by issues "worse than any omens". therefore, Edwin could initially be seen as the Orpheus parallel. particularly when you consider that Edwin 'guided Charles from the darkness' when he was dying of hypothermia with the lantern

however, unsurprisingly, given that is it Edwin who escaped from Hell, and is returned to it, Charles appears as the Orpheus parallel, with Edwin being his Eurydice. this is obviously then made super explicit in the show with it being Charles rescuing/ leading Edwin out of Hell. but even then it is not that simple

In Ovid's Metamorphoses, when pleading with Hades and Persephone, Orpheus states "my wife is the cause of my journey. A viper [...] robbed her of her best years. I longed to be able to accept it, and I do not say I have not tried: Love won." and obviously at the core of both of these relationships, is a deep deep love between them, regardless of how that manifests. Something i think is a massive parallel that i haven't seen anyone talk about yet is the willingness to remain in the Underworld/Hell for their respective partners.

going back to Metamorphoses, when Orpheus is requesting Eurydice's return to the mortal world, he gives Hades and Persephone an alternative solution of sorts. he says "if the fates refuse my wife this kindness [of returning to life], I am determined not to return {to the mortal realm]: you can delight in both our deaths." now is this not effectively the same thing Charles says to the Night Nurse when bargaining with her to open a door to Hell??? Charles says "then open up a door and I'll go get him, then we're stuck in Hell and you know where we are, or, I bring him back and we're all yours. It's a win-win." tell me that these aren't the same. you cant.

But i do think the most interesting parallel is when Charles and Edwin are running up the spiral staircase. i am not mentioning the times when escaping Hell, Edwin overtook Charles running, because let's be honest, we all know he is the faster sprinter of the two given the 70 years he spent practising. so I am disregarding that. but what I do find fascinating is this - and why I said it was more complicated earlier; in the metamorphoses Orpheus is obviously given the stipulation that he must not look at Eurydice when guiding her out of the underworld, or the agreement "would be null and void". and its here that we see another reversal. during the majority of the run up the staircase, Charles is behind Edwin, because like we have established, he's speedy. but in this key moment, Charles takes the lead in their escape, walking in front of Edwin whilst making it clear that they need to keep moving. just like in the tale, Charles, fulfilling Orpheus' role, "Afraid [they] was no longer there, and eager to see [them], the lover turned his eyes", turns to look back at Edwin, delivering the ridiculously romantic, 'sorry, no version of this where I didn't come get you is there?'. however, after this he refocuses on continuing up the staircase, which is where Edwin steps in:

as you can see in the gif, currently, Edwin is in, what I'm going to call the 'Eurydice position', following the lover out of the afterlife. and it is Edwin, as Eurydice, who basically chooses to condemn himself to the underworld/ hell, allowing the demon to catch up with them just to 'see [his] lover' and ensure Charles knows that '[he] had been loved'. t

im just going to put the section where Orpheus looks back at Eurydice in here because I think its all relevant:

"Afraid she was no longer there, and eager to see her, the lover turned his eyes. In an instant she dropped back, and he, unhappy man, stretching out his arms to hold her and be held, clutched at nothing but the receding air. Dying a second time, now, there was no complaint to her husband (what, then, could she complain of, except that she had been loved?). She spoke a last ‘farewell’ that, now, scarcely reached his ears, and turned again towards that same place"

by forcing Charles to turn around and face him, Edwin is fulfilling the roles of both Eurydice and Orpheus. in this instance, he is the one 'stretching out his arms' to hold Charles, but he is also the one that could be sent/ dragged back to the afterlife for this, but he just had to make sure Charles was aware of his feelings for him, to know that he was 'loved'. and I think Edwin was potentially prepared to return to the Doll House, or at least believed he would be able to find it more bearable knowing that he had been able to bear his soul to Charles, eve if that meant Charles couldn't come back again and try to rescue him for a second time, which Orpheus tried to do in the Metamorphoses, "Orpheus wished and prayed, in vain, to cross the Styx again, but the ferryman fended him off" and I feel like we all know Charles would have also kept trying if he lost Edwin again.

i guess, what im trying to say, in the most long-winded way, is that Charles and Edwin don't fill binary roles of one of them being Orpheus and the other being Eurydice, they are both of those things to one another throughout the show and I think that's really beautiful and I have to give massive credit to whoever did episode seven because I really feel like they did their homework. even after all the ramble I have written I still feel like I haven't fully made the point I was trying to make, but I definitely got some of the way there I think

[ghetto-omega]

‎❀‎✿❀Pup headcanons❀✿❀

One thing about me is if I can make it animalistic, I will. With that being said...

This post was supposed to take me an hour max. Tell me why I started working on this at like 9pm and it is currently 130am and I'm still not done yet 😐👎🏾

this took too long

Here's your warning 🌸well formatted long post incoming 🌸

‎‧₊˚✿General✿˚₊‧

It's considered inhumane to separate a pup from their family before they can scent other people as well as be scented

Pups need a lot more protein than adults do

Normally a litter contains 2-3 pups, but having more or less isn't uncommon, I will say having more than 5 is practically unheard of

As pups grow older they lose a lot of the body language that they used as kids, they don't really need a lot of it as they progress into adulthood

That's not to say people don't keep a few of their childhood quirks though

I think pups in omegaverse tend to do a lot of developmental things earlier than actual children lol things like crawling, walking, etc

For a lot of their childhood they don't have their own scent they just smell like their parents, possibly their entire pack depending on the dynamics, so scenting them doesn't really... Stick

Since omegaverse relies so heavily on non verbal cues, body language, and noises that aren't words, it's important that pups are heavily (but gradually) socialized as early as 10 months

‎‧₊˚✿Newborns✿˚₊‧

Pups aren't born blind but they are born with anosmia (can't smell, poor thang) but overtime the ability gets stronger, and jumpstarts when they get their first heat/rut

Instinctually have body language and noises signalling they don't like something or are unhappy

Newborns sometimes learn to growl before even leaving the hospital

Smell like their parents, don't have a scent of their own

The bigger the litter the smaller the babies tend to be

‎‧₊˚✿Babies✿˚₊‧

Babies sometimes learn to bare their teeth before they smile, which is equally as cute tbh

𑁍 4-6 months

Begin to smell like their pack as well as their parents, but still don't actually have a scent of their own

They bite their parents/packs stuff frequently. Sometimes that means putting someone's favorite book in their mouths or trying their very best to take a big bite out of someone's arm

Normally start crawling by about 5-6months and walking isn't far behind

This is also about the time they start to have very small bits of solid foods, especially things containing soy, or just yogurt is a good choice

𑁍 7-9 months

Will start to get territorial. Will cry if other people are in the house for too long, or throw tantrums if that person touches their parents or a toy, might even start hiding toys from their pack if it's perceived as theirs

Should be somewhat competent at walking by the time 9 months hits, may also start biting and tearing at furniture at this time

This is also a great time to introduce bite sized soft meats

Socializing pups has started to become crucial to development here, meeting people outside of their pack is now becoming important

𑁍 10-12 months

Teething is a pretty bad experience for pups. Sharp teeth piercing gums hurts a lot. Don't be surprised if they already have a couple teeth by this time

Teething may also set back pups from speaking for a while, most people aren't much inclined to talk (or learn how to talk) when their mouth hurts

By this time they probably have a favorite scent or smell. Don't be surprised if it's a food or a perfume that someone in their pack wears. They still can't really smell the scents of the people around them, but scents and pheromones have a lot of sway a pups development

Are yipping and yowling by 12 months, as well as engaging in healthy rough and tumble

Separation anxiety is also to be expected

‎‧₊˚✿Toddlers✿˚₊‧

𑁍 1-3 years

Toddlers sometimes talk later than they should and speak almost exclusively through body language and a few open mouthed sounds so their teeth don't click together

They're probably gonna have over exaggerated body language. Instead of just tilting their head to the side to show curiosity they might practically bend at the waist or throw themselves to the ground entirely

Their nails harden and begin becoming claws, will soon begin to scratch on harder things to experiment with a different type of cause and effect, as well sensory experiences

Beginning playdates with pups around the same age is recommended, as well as giving them a security object of their choice that's heavily scented by their pack

By 3 is using those new claws to dig into whatever possible and climb as high as they can. Pup proofing is a must.

May crouch onto all fours when they run, and may have trouble losing momentum when they go too fast resulting in a lot of falls

Teething should be basically done by now and speaking should be back on track or jumpstarted in a couple months

Territorialness should be calming down. They should stop outwardly objecting to foreign people and objects being in their space

𑁍 4-5 years

Should begin to use more vocal communication beside their spoken and body language (like yipping, yowling, chuffing, and in some instances barking or howling)

Will also repeat sounds or actions that typically belong to omegas, betas, alphas, or all three despite not having matured yet

They should also start copying the motions to scent people, and it is advised to correct them when they do the motions in inappropriate situations

‎‧₊˚✿Children✿˚₊‧

𑁍 6-8 years

So much yipping. When they play. When they're sad. When they're bored. When they're hurt. Especially if they're particularly vocal.

Nose is finally sensitive enough to pick up on natural scents and pheromones. Might start telling you that someone stinks in inappropriate settings

Is just barely beginning to develop their own scent by 7, and is able to scent and be scented by 8

It's very common for pups to play too rough. Playdates ending with a little blood isn't anything to worry about unless it's actually excessive

Pups lick everything and anything possible, especially if it has an odd smell, they should basically be grown out of it by about middle school age tho

‎‧₊˚✿Preteen✿˚₊‧

𑁍 9-12 years

Should start to present somewhere in this time frame.

Their scent should be fully developed by 12.

Should understand scenting and begin to understand the difference between their primary and secondary gender

Physical insecurities are beginning to pop up

Pheromones become more active and passive discussions about scent blockers should begin soon

They'll probably be pretty active, and easily become stir crazy

They should start using words more than vocalisation and purposeful body language

Pups who develop early may get their heats/ruts at this time

Some may begin to start branching away from the pack and subconsciously looking to start another one

‎‧₊˚✿Teenager✿˚₊‧

𑁍 13-18 years

First heat/ruts tend to occur around 13-15 years old

Omegas tend to mature first

Litter mates tend to mature one after the other, sometimes with only days between each other

By this point scent glands and sense of smell should be fully developed

Minor vocalisation will progress into adulthood and any purposefully telegraphed body language should become second nature to them

Many pups display highly aggressive behavior or displeased scents for many of their teen years. Without proper stress relief moodiness and build up in their scent glands is common

this was not meant to be this long but thanks for reading y'all :3 if you see spelling/grammar mistakes uhm.... no you didn't </3

[jaylleoo14]

ARGHHHHHH STOPPPPPPP

FLOYD GIVES OFF SUCH CLINGLY DOG VIBES AND JADE GIVES OFF SUCH MISCHEVIOUS CAT VIBES IM GONNA KICK HIM OUT!!!!

Azul is like my little hamster. OMG WAIT NO A BUNNY, BC LIKE SEA BUNNY UKNOW????!?!?! HE"D BE A BUNNY FS (also cus fluffy and pudgy and cute :3) and plus i find it cute imaging Azul with bunny ears being a little sassy and having that strong commanding tone of voice hehehe. Wait but he could also pass as a hamster too.... Its okay either one works but im leaning more towards bunnies because I like bunnies more if I had to pick between the two. But imagine Azul's cheeks stuffed full like a chipmunks hehehe

heavily suggestive + bonus drawing:

Kicking Jade out because i'm not trying to have him spill coffee all over my laptop

I think i'd kick Floyd out too because he'd probably be a rowdy menace and mess up my furniture because he's going to be gnawing on my chair legs and table legs. Azul you are the only tame one.... for now.

Seriously, in the end of the day though I'd let them cuddle me 😔

Jade would probably try to get your attention and when he does he'd probably hit your vase and it shatters and you'd give him the most "are you kidding me?" look ever while he has his hand over his mouth looking at you so innocently, though a look of slight malice in his eyes. That little..... Then all of a sudden once you're done cleaning up your vase Jade comes over to cuddle with you because surely you'd forgive him right? I mean just look at how cute he is being, rubbing his cheek against yours. I'm imagining that they can turn into the animals and then poof back up into a human with their animalistic attributes. Still having the tails and ears like beastmen you know? Just like Jacks unique magic basically.

Floyd is your little energetic big dog who just loves giving you attention. When he's a dog he's just running around playing around with his toys and occasionally fighting with Jade. Azul is hopping around trying to find solace from the fights because he's so much tinier and more feeble in this form that he doesn't want to get dragged into it. I feel like when they do get into fights, thats when Azul turns back into his human form and just watches alongside with you. Yea, just watching. Pretty sure you wouldn't want to interfere with their fights either. But when Floyd turns back into his human form hes all over you! He's so heavy too its such a pain to move him >_< (heheh but i wouldn't mind) Ahem, but i feel like out of the three he makes it the most prominent that he wants your attention. Jade is more roundabout about it but when you usually are the first one to initiate then he's suddenly so attached to you. Once that is the case he's having you all to himself, no sharing until he's done monopolizing your space and time; leaving Azul and Floyd annoyed and ticked off as he gives them a smug look. Sometimes I feel like Azul would just be a bit shy to do or say anything to initiate. But until he warms up to you he'd also be quite clingy and needy, honestly so much so then Floyd and suddenly does get more bolder. Floyd, again, just makes it more clear much more often.

I feel like Cat Jade would be so sneaky at times too, like imagine trying to bathe but then suddenly out of nowhere Jade just appears. You're screaming your lungs out because how the hell did he get in when you closed the door and locked it?

"Fufufu, no need to fear. I was simply minding my time here is all."

A groan can be heard right behind Jade and up comes Azul as he rubs his ass, seeming to be in slight pain. "Argh 'minding my time' is a complete lie. To think i'd find you where I was planning on hiding as well."

"You guys were hiding?! Wha- get out!" Of course Azul would also be here too. As you tell them off they let out a disappointed and sad sigh, and as they proceed to open the door to leave Floyd bursts into the bathroom. "What! You guys snuck in the bathroom without me?!"

What a red face you have, they all wanted to see and be there with you while you bathed. So suddenly Floyd just goes on ahead and quickly undresses at the doorway and you bring the shower curtain over to hide your face. "Floyd! What are you doing!?" The sound of clothes being dropped on the floor can be heard every second until you hear quick stomps. Pulling the curtains back, Floyd quickly gets in the tub sitting behind you. "Scoot scoot hehe." A sharp gasped emits from your mouth and you feel his bare body against yours. A playful giggle escapes his lips and Jade and Azul just look at each other blankly. For only a moment though, until they look back at the both of you and Jade has a playful smirk on his face. Azul has a slight frown as he begins to undress himself. Floyd wraps his arms around your waist, pulling you in closer against him as he spoons you between his legs. You go stiff, a little squeal escaping your mouth as you go on to cover your face from how flustered you were getting. "Heyyyy you guys go bathe somewhere else. Me and shrimpy are already in the tub." Jade lets out a chuckle as he also quickly went ahead to take off his pieces of clothing.

"There's enough space for me to sit, dont hog (y/n) to yourself Floyd." Azul sharply quips, a huff escaping his lips. Clothes now being on the tile floor, you only start to wonder how long this was going to take.

"I think it's only fair if we were to join you in a little bathing session as well."

"Nah-uh, ya snuck in here without me."

"Thats because you're rather big to fit in the cabinet. Me and Jade barely fit in there in our animal forms."

Peeking out between your fingers you can see from the waist above looking at Azul and Jade as they seem to be having their own little competition on who'd get to the bath first. Their little competition was pretty funny to watch however, a little giggle ushering from your lips. Floyd lets out a little hum, content that he got the best seat in the house because he was able to hold you. Azul finished first because he was quick and swift with it, hurriedly coming over to get in. At the same time Jade quickly hurried his way over and as they make their way in the water splashes and spills over the edge. Azul sits behind Jade because Jade forced his way to sit in front of you, a groan ushered out of him as he is practically getting squished from behind.

"Why do I have to be in the back?! You're bigger than me!"

"I think (Y/n) would like that better then, it does hit all the good spots after all."

"Jade!" God they were going to be the death of you. To think Jade would say something so shameless as that. Though the situation was already not helping. Splashing water at him, he flinches back as he gets wet, though still chuckling from your reaction. Azul's brow twitches in annoyance and Jade can only let out a smug look. You let out a sigh as you bury you face in your hands. The tub was so cramped you couldn't even move, just sitting in the tub was all you four did. Though Floyd didn't seem to mind at all, especially when you're in his arms.

To retaliate against Jade though, Azul turns to a bunny and quickly hops on over in front. Pushing him back as he squeezes his way in to fit the tight cramped space, Azul turns back to lean in front of you now. "Its really cramped in here. Did you guys really think we could even properly bathe like this..."

"Of course not. I'd be flabbergasted if you really thought so."

"Hmmm, how about we wash you up instead shrimpy? More hands the better hehe~"

"Oh Floyd that sounds like a wonderful idea."

The water is never still, constantly sloshing and swaying as Azul, Jade, and Floyd continue to readjust themselves more comfortably. The yellow lighting in the bathroom gives off a vintage feeling and the temperature felt warmer than usual because of the tight space full of warm radiating bodies. The feeling of Floyds arms around you loosen up, making it easier to navigate around your body. Azul follows along suite and leans in close to you while Jade grabs hold of your hand and kisses it.

"After we have our fun of course. I'm sure our little caretaker would appreciate it if we were the ones cleaning them this time." Jades voice was low and smooth, your hand against his lips as he lightly nips at your skin.

"Mmmh yes, agreed. Wouldn't you like that dear?" The feeling of Azuls voice vibrates through the base of your neck as he kisses it tenderly, a low gasp escaping out of you as he hits a sensitive spot.

"I love how you feel Shrimpy, so warm and squishy~" Strong hands sway smoothly under the tight space like a slithering eel, making their way to the fats on your body. His sultry voice makes you shiver as you feel him slightly bow down to kiss the back of your neck, a satisfied hum escaping him.

This definitely was going to be a loooonnggg bathing session. But i'm sure you'll enjoy it. Afterall, they'll ensure to clean every dip and crevice of you to ensure you'd be thoroughly clean :) Plus the many kissing and intimate touches you'll share <333

Honestly why have one when you can have all three? They would definitely share you for sure hehehehe >:3

[oozeandgoo-art]

Stubbornness.

[beelmons]

Dr. Reid's Lonely Hearts Club

Genre: smut, light fluff at the end Pairing: spencer x hotch x fem!BAU!reader word count: 6,650 cw: threesome, vaginal penetration, facefucking, light bondage, slight degradation, alcohol consumption A/N: this is just absolutely pure filth and I'm both sorry and not sorry. Happy Valentine's to all singles out there surviving on self insert smut fics! Summary: When everyone gets the evening off, only three people remain in the office, the lonely hearts come together to not feel so alone on the most romantic day of the year. Tag list: @ssamorganhotchner @hotchxreid @cassiemartzz @supercriminalbean @evee87

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tick, tock, tick, tock. Tap, tap, tap, tap.

“Jesus, Reid! Can you stop that?!” Emily yelled towards the young genius, and he ended up jumping in fear on his own chair. The poor guy was simply tapping his pen against the surface of the desk while he pondered over some details of the case they had just wrapped up. “Sorry.” Emily said again once he noticed both Morgan and Hotch coming out of their offices to oversee the ruckus on the bullpen “Sorry, Spencer, I’m just a little antsy, I have a date tonight and I’m really hoping I don’t need to cancel it. Sorry, everyone.” She said again looking apologetically at the rest of the coworkers.

“Alright, enough is enough.” Hotch mentioned from the handrail outside his door “It’s 5p.m., we’re clearly not getting a new case tonight, and any paperwork left can be finished tomorrow. Anyone with Valentine’s Day plans can go home. Have a lovely evening.” your boss waved his hand dismissingly, and you watched as almost every person bolted out of their seats and towards the elevator. You waved goodbye at your girlfriends shouting ‘bye!’ and ‘have a great night!’ with bright smiles on their way out.

Hotch went back into his office, and only Spencer and you remained by your desks, exchanging equally disappointed looks. “No plans?” you asked.

“Have I ever had plans?” Reid answered with a slightly embarrassed smile. You offered him one of your own and a nod in agreement before going back to the files on the wooden surface. You reached to grab a couple from Emily’s desk, if you were going to spend your night like that, might as well help your friends out; you would be able to check that favor in some other time. Spencer smiled at your actions and did the same with some of the files from JJ’s desk.

Aaron was shut inside his private workplace, devouring file after file of piled up work for what felt like two or three hours. With his eyes strained, he decided to take a walk to the kitchen and get some extra coffee to burn the midnight oil. When he stepped outside the door, however, he stopped right on his tracks. “What are you two doing?” he asked as he stared at Reid’s desk.

You had dragged your chair to be sitting on the other side of your friend’s table, the surface covered in different Chinese dishes still in their take-out containers, behind them a bottle of rum that was clearly drank from, and some Hershey’s kisses wrappers scattered around, you were laughing soundly together, talking about random Valentine’s Day experiences.

“Hey! Look who's finally out of the man cave!” you said with a smile, raising your hands in the air victoriously “We’re having ourselves a little Valentine’s Day dinner, courtesy of Dr. Reid’s Lonely Hearts Club, if you got a partner, you are not invited. Care to join us?” you added. Spencer was looking at him expectantly, and Hotch let out a defeated sigh before heading downstairs and pulling a chair to sit in front of the two of you. You handed him a container with a pair of chopsticks on top. “Pekin duck. I know you like it.” you mentioned.

“I don’t think the rum is a good idea.” he replied, grabbing the food from you.

“Come on, it’s after 8.” you complained.

“It is morally questionable, but since we’re off the clock we’re technically not breaking any rules. Not any that we can be reprimanded for, at least.” Reid added. “Plus, we got you scotch in case you didn’t want rum.” he continued, bending his body to pick up a bottle of acceptable whiskey from the floor.

“Relax, Hotch, no boss scolding, no dad speeches, just friends making each other company on the loneliest night for single people.” as you spoke, you were opening the bottle of his preferred liquor and pouring a glass, or rather a coffee mug, with a couple ice cubes. After having served a considerable amount, you handed him the mug and your hand squeezed his thigh in a friendly manner, however a little bit higher than you usually would. He scoffed at the comment and took a sip out of the container.

“How come you don’t have any plans tonight?” your boss asked.

“I usually spend Valentine’s Day with my mom, but I couldn’t get a ticket without making sure we would be in town.” Spencer said absentmindedly while he rummaged through his food. Both of you looked at him questioningly, and he responded with a confused stare.

Hotch gave up without even trying to explain that the question wasn’t, obviously, directed at him, instead his head turned towards you “and how come you don’t have plans tonight?” he asked once again.

“Nuh-uh” you answered with a sarcastic tone “If we’re drinking, I’m not answering anything unless we play a game.”

“A game? What, are we 15?” Hotch asked.

“I was thinking a little bit more like 20, you know, r-rated questions might be included” you answered.

“So, we’re not horny teenagers, we’re horny college kids.” your boss reiterated, and you nodded along “and you’re okay with this?”  he turned to Spencer to double check.

“I never really got to play drinking games in college, so this should be interesting” his head wobbled excitedly.

“That’s because you were fourteen, Reid,” you joked, earning a chuckle from Hotch in the process “Okay fellas, since it’s Valentine’s let’s go with a spicy game, so we have ‘Never have I ever’, ‘Strip poker’, or ‘Truth or Dare’. Spencer, since it’s your first time, why don’t you choose first?”

Your partner fiddled with the chopsticks in his hands, lips pursed pretending to ever consider it “Strip poker.” he stated with an innocent and hopeful smile. You and Aaron broke into a surprised and nervous laugh, you exchanged looks for a second and decided that, well, even if stripping in your office wasn’t on your bucket-list, it would still make an interesting anecdote.

Big mistake. You forgot two very important facts: one, doctor Reid was banned from every casino in Las Vegas, and two, when men play this game with a woman involved, they tend to team up with a very clear purpose in mind. After just ten minutes of playing, your bra was on full display, blazer, blouse and shoes long gone, yet managing to keep your lower clothing intact. Hotch remained with his white button-up shirt and pants, and Reid only having lost as much as his sweater vest.

“Full house.” Aaron said as he opened his cards, clearly beating Reid’s straight. He turned to look at you, eyeing your last garment, but a pleading expression appeared on your face and caused him to chuckle. “Alright, I’m using my winning privileges to change the game. Let’s do Never Haver I ever.” you put your hands together thankfully, and Spencer huffed his cheeks in disappointment.

You took a moment to top everyone’s drink up, and after you had taken a sip, you began to talk “Never have I ever had a sexual fantasy with someone from the office.” you said and watched with amusement how both of your friends sipped at their drinks, regardless of you being the question host, you would be lying if you said you hadn’t, so you had to take a sip was well.

“Never have I ever gotten a lap dance.” was Spencer’s turn to speak, and both your boss and you had to drink. He appeared to be embarrassed at the fact of being the only one left out, and you chuckled at his cute expression.

“Never have I ever…” Hotch began “…had a threesome.” there was a bit of an awkward silence as you stared at each other intently, noticing how none of you would bring the mug to your lips.

“Never have I ever wanted a threesome.” you dared to ask during your turn, and in perfect unison the three of you downed a bit of your beverages. There was an exchange of looks afterwards, and your brains all seemed to be working in the same direction.

“Never have I ever felt sexual attraction for a person in this room.” Reid asked, and yet again the entire group drank up.

Hotch’s throat cleared up, and being the voice of reason, aware that you were still in an FBI building, he decided to take the questioning in another direction. “Never have I ever done a body shot.” he said.

“Taken off of me? Or me taking it from someone else’s body?” you asked trying to clarify the question “Actually, you know what? Doesn’t matter, just remembered I’ve done both.” you answered yourself nonchalantly and proceeded to take the corresponding liquid; to your surprise, however, you saw how both of your companions remained still. “Wait, for real?” you asked, taking turns to look at both of them.

Spencer simply shook his head, lips pursed, and Hotch shrugged it off “I wasn’t really a frat party guy.” the older man admitted.

“Come on. Unacceptable.” you stood up and grabbed the bottle of rum in your hands. You looked around, Spencer’s desk was a mess, so you decided to move over to Emily’s ‘she will understand’ you told yourself. The two men followed you with puzzled expressions. You laid down on top of your friend’s workspace, still shirtless, and pointed in the direction of your boss “Let’s go old school for you.” you said with a smirk as you bent the bottle over your stomach, letting some of the liquid fall and spill over your belly button.

Hotch cocked an eyebrow, but curiosity got the best of him. He unbuttoned the top part of his shirt, a clear attempt to not mess it up, and took a step closer. You could feel his lips land on your stomach, and the way his tongue dug in the concave area caused a slight moan to come out of your mouth, your hand lowering to land on the nape of his neck, keeping his head in place. After he was done sucking the liquid, he pressed a couple of open mouthed kisses higher up your stomach, and stopped himself right before your chest.

“I can see the appeal of that.” he muttered while wiping his mouth to get rid of some of the dripping liquor. He turned to look at Reid, who was watching the situation with a flustered face, and signaled for him to take his turn. Startled, the blond man hurried to your side, but before he let the fluid down your body, you darted up to be sitting instead.

“Hold on, I have something else in mind for the doctor.” you stopped him, a mischievous smile on your face. You fixed your position and tilted your head to expose the right side of your neck, your finger pointed at the base, indicating that he should put his mouth there. He complied to your instructions, positioning his head at the base with an open mouth, he proceeded to tilt the bottle letting the rum slide down the side of your neck directly into it. Once he had enough of the drink, he laid the bottle back onto the desk, his hands instinctively gripped the sides of your hips to keep you still as he licked the trail of wetness the alcohol had left on your neck; he mimicked Aaron’s actions and sneaked a couple of nibbles to the sides of your neck. In the heat of the moment, and with his blood rushing everywhere, he lifted his head and attempted to capture your lips in a kiss.

Your reflexes were fast, and before he could land them on you, your hand came in between. “Ah, ah!” you exclaimed with provocation in your voice “If you want to go there, then we’re going to have to change the game.” you pushed him slightly by his chest and he retracted his hands, stepping back with a slight hint of embarrassment in his face, at which Hotch smirked; he found fascinating how you had him on his toes since the very first moment. “That leaves us with Truth or Dare, doesn’t it?” you clarified “Since it’s my turn, I’ll go first. Say, Reid, Truth or dare?” you turned to face the slender figure in front of you.

“Truth.” he said convincedly, his hands undoing a couple of his buttons to allow for the cool air to enter.

“Out of every girl in the office, who would you like to fuck the most?” you batted your eyes at him, your legs swinging as they hung from the desk you were still sitting on.

He took a second and licked his lips before he answered, apparently unwavering “You.” he let out after some thought.

Next to you, you could hear Aaron scoff “Playboy.” he muttered “We know it’s JJ.” he added.

“A liar, just like any other man” you joked, but instead a frown formed on the doctor’s face.

“Alright, enough.” he fixed his eyes on yours “Truth or dare?” he asked.

“Dare” you said with a cocky smile.

“Take off those pants.” Spencer commanded. Hotch raised his eyebrows, intrigued by the proposal.

“You’ve been waiting for that since strip poker, haven’t you?” you snarked at him “Okay, pretty boy, but I get to help you strike one of your ‘never have I ever’ experiences.” Without further explanation, you hopped off the surface and took his hand to pull him along as you walked to your chairs. The second you were in front of them, you pushed him back until his legs hit the edge of the seat, forcing him to fall onto it. Before Spencer could understand what was happening, your back was already facing him, and your ass was grinding on his lap.

Hotch had taken his seat as well, legs spread open with his hand dangerously close to his own crotch, simply admiring the way you moved on top of the youngest. Your body rolled as you danced teasingly over Reid, your pants slowly coming further down until your ass was on full display, only covered by the panties you had chosen for that day. You turned yet again to lay your knees on each side of the seat, straddling his front, your eyes lustfully staring into his as your fingers worked to undo the rest of the buttons on his shirt. “And to prove you I’m a good sport, I’m going to throw in something extra.” you smiled at him and shortly your lips were onto his, from the beginning, the kiss was sloppy and open-mouthed, your tongues tangling together as they moved hungrily.

His hands, out of habit, lifted to land on your ass, and you swatted at them with a disapproving sound. “I didn’t say you could touch.” he winced in protest at your words, and you knew he wouldn’t be able to keep them to himself. Instead, you reached out for the desk in which your belongings still laid and took a hold of the handcuffs you used to carry. You distracted him with your lips once again, having him focusing only on the kiss, he didn’t notice when your hands caressed down his arms to place them behind the chair, and it wasn’t until he heard the clicking of the cuffs that he broke away from it.

“What are you doing?” he asked with startled eyes.

“Making sure you behave.” you answered, your head tilting to have your mouth on the side of his neck instead, nibbling on a spot like he had done before on yours. His eyes fluttered closed, just allowing himself to enjoy the warm sensation of your tongue on his skin, your hips occasionally rolling on his crotch, which felt tighter by the second.

“Hey, Reid” the both of you were slightly startled by Hotch’s voice coming behind you, but you kept going into providing your friend some friction; Spencer on the other hand replied with a questioning hum “Truth or dare?” Aaron asked.

“D-Dare” he barely managed to stutter out. The second he got his answer, the boss stood up from his seat, his hands working on undoing the pieces of clothing that were holding his member captive. Once his underwear was moved aside, his cock slapped against his stomach, slightly pink from the way he was rubbing it over his pants during your little lap dance.

He walked in your direction and landed a hand on your ass gently, giving it a light squeeze to enjoy the sensation of your soft skin, then they travelled up to grab the hem of your panties, pulling them down to your thigh level. He gripped at your hips to draw them up, causing your ass to perk up and your clothed chest to be pressed further against Reid’s. His fingers curiously travelled in between your legs, and you could feel his thumb press flat against your slippery slick.

Your lips had moved back to Spencer’s, and a moan got caught up on your throat at Aaron’s touch. You broke the kiss to look back with surprise in your eyes. You watched him bring the fluid-covered thumb to his mouth and taste you with utter excitement.

“I dare you to watch me fuck her first.” he stated with his eyes completely fixed on yours as he finished removing the shirt that still covered his torso. You couldn’t really process what he had just said, and what was even more puzzling was, now that you had gotten a good look at his dick, how were you going to take all of him?

He didn’t give you much time to keep thinking before you could feel him entering you. His hand pumping the base of his own member until it was covered by your pussy, however, he allowed a couple of seconds for you to get used to his size. As you felt him slide into you, your hands traveled up to tangle on Spencer’s hair, clutching on it for dear life, your head laid on his shoulder and you let out a loud, high pitched moan, at the feeling of being full of your boss.

You could hear Spencer wiggle beneath you, trying to get rid of the cuffs that were holding him back. He exchanged a look with Hotch, an almost offended one, and the older man answered with pressing his index finger to his lips, indicating the younger to keep quiet “Watch and learn.” with those words, his hips began to move. He was slow and gentle at first, causing you to be panting against your friend’s neck softly, but not long after his pace began to pick up.

The entire office was quiet not being for the loud smacks of Aaron’s balls against your skin. His cock hitting your deepest sides over and over again. You held onto Reid for balance, your hands gripping tightly onto his shoulders to prop yourself up. You face was right in front of him, your mouth slightly parted open letting the noises flow, your forehead laid on top of his, and you stared into his eyes, showing you just how good your boss was fucking you.

You let out a cry after a particularly rough thrust that Hotch hit you with, and Spencer took the advantage to lean up and press his lips back onto yours, nibbling and twisting his tongue around like his life depended on it. He didn’t like feeling left out, so he was trying his best to shower every bit of the skin he had access to with sloppy and wet kisses.

Perhaps Hotch was going too hard on him, his dick still pounding against you at a steady pace, and having his subordinate confined to a chair, fucking the girl he clearly liked. With a rough tug, he ripped the safety pins of your bra open, and from the movement of having your hips repeatedly pummeled, they bounced off the garment on their own. You leaned forward so they would be dangling over Spencer’s face, the new angle not only allowing your dark-haired partner to access new angles, but also gave the doctor chance to catch one of your nipples into his mouth.

He was sloppy, but never carless, his tongue moved around your breast, hungrily, the noises of sucking and popping filling your ears along with Aaron’s growls that, you noticed, had began to be much deeper. A wave of confidence hit you at the desperation that you were making him feel, and with Spencer busy with your chest, you turned your head around, a smug, shitty smirk on your face. “Truth or dare, Aaron?” you asked.

“Dare.” he said without flinching, his eyes fixed on you, his hips keeping the steady, although slightly erratic pace.

“I dare you to make me cum before you do. Bet you can’t do it with how close you are.” your tone was not only daring, buck even mocking.

One thing about Aaron Hotchner, he liked abiding by the law, but he did not enjoy being told what to do, or being challenged in any way, it hurt his ego, and it brought out the worst in him. Without warning, he landed a loud smack on your ass, same one that caused a loud wince out of your mouth “Shit, Aaron!” you were about to turn around and complain at the surprising, yet not unwelcome, roughness, but the slight pain of your hair being pulled shut you up. He grabbed you by the head to pull you upwards and away from Reid’s lap; you stumbled a bit as you got back on your feet, and he made sure to wrap his arm around your waist to keep you from falling down, or his dick from slipping out. In a quick motion, you removed the bra that kept dangling from your arms and ended up kicking down the panties that had slipped down to your knees, leaving you bare naked in front of Spencer who was staring from his restricted seat. Aaron’s hand moved from your hair to your chin, turning your face in his direction to be able to attack your mouth with his, his tongue forced it’s way in and you almost choked at the lack of air. The hand around your waist kept you secured as he kept thrusting into you, your moans coming out from your throat directly into his mouth; said hand slipped further down, making its way in between your legs to have his index finger rub around your clit.

His hips snapped faster each time, but the circles drawn around your sensitive nub remained to a steady, slightly slow pace. Your knees began to give in, and he was holding you up by the mere use of his hand against your pussy. Spencer could only observe from a few steps away, how another man, your boss nonetheless, was causing you so much bliss. His dick began to twitch inside his pants, and his hips rolled trying to get friction, any source of friction, from them.

One of your hands clung from Aaron’s neck, while the other tried to keep balance by gripping onto the desk. You began to clench around Hotch, who was already struggling to keep his noises at bay, releasing them right into your mouth. “Aaron…” you moaned against his lips, letting him know that you were close. His finger quickened its pace on your clit, you began to clench repeatedly, and your stomach began to tighten, and just before you could feel the sweet release of your climax, Aaron Hotchner pulled out of you, his hand leaving your sensitive area, and his lips breaking away.

You yelled a curse in his direction, and he grabbed you by the wrist in response, his face visibly annoyed since, for the sake of his teasing, he had accidentally denied his own orgasm. He tugged on your hand before you could protest any longer and directed you to Reid, making a sign with his hand for you to kneel down, and you obeyed. Without much as a word, and Spencer dumbfoundedly looking down at you, he walked around the chair with the cuff keys that he took from the desk, kneeled, and freed Reid’s hands from their confinement; the youngster took a second to rub at his hands that had gone slightly numb and observed the actions of your boss. Hotch walked behind you and reached for your arms, pulling both behind your back, you also didn’t quite comprehend what was going on, but you were so focused on Spencer’s pretty face, his swollen lips from the kissing, and the uncomfortable shuffle he made to try and satisfy his need for attention down there that you didn’t care about whatever Aaron was doing to you.

“You created this little club to not spend Valentine’s alone, didn’t you, Reid?” he said in the blond man’s direction “And yet, you’re the only one unattended. That doesn’t seem fair, does it? She went around parading another man fucking her, with only a couple of kisses to keep you going.” he shook his head disapprovingly, his hand then moved to the back of your head, and gently pushed it forward, allowing your cheek to rest on Spencer’s bulge. “He even paid for the food, time to pay him back, treat him nicely.” he commanded.

Your eyes had locked with Reid’s the entire time. You were more than pleased to be of service to him, he deserved to be praised, and treated, like nothing but a king, and you intended to do so. You wiggled your body to be further in between his legs and tilted your head up, staring at him as you opened your mouth, showing him that you were ready to take him in. His heart felt like jumping off his chest, and he used his newly-freed hands to cup your face, bend down, and land a passionate kiss on your lips. He was softer compared to Hotch, tender even, as he had been waiting his entire life to do that, even if he had done it minutes before.

After he was satisfied, he pulled back to fiddle with his pants. Once he moved his boxers aside, his member darted out, accidentally landing right across your face. You heard him mutter a quiet ‘sorry’ and you could see the red tint adorning his face again. You giggled to yourself and tilted your head to finally have his tip inside your mouth. You took a tentative, gentle suck at it, and the high pitched moan that he let out was all the encouragement you needed to keep going. You began to bob up and down, making sure to take more of him each time. His own head was thrown back, eyes closed as he let himself be pleasured.

In the meantime, Aaron kneeled right behind you. He double checked that the cuffs weren’t too tight, the intention was never to hurt you, and once he got confirmation, he positioned his still hard dick at the height of your hands still forced together. His fingers guided yours gently to wrap around his shaft, and he began to thrust slowly into it. You could feel his tip hit your back time and again as he fucked your tied-up hands slow enough to keep his erection, but not so fast to make himself come.

Spencer’s moans were a higher pitch and came out more repeatedly. His hands had moved your hair and he was helping you move your head back and forth. The excitement kept running through your veins, you could barely move, your knees hurting a little bit from being on the floor, but there was nothing you could do about it, and the mere feeling of being bound to provide these men with pleasure was keeping you on the edge, still unable to release.

Reid’s grip tightened around your hair, and you could feel how he kept you still. You braced yourself for the thrusts that were about to come, and they did not disappoint. With every jump of his hip, you could feel him hit the backside of your mouth, dangerously close to going into your throat. “You’re taking me so well, so fucking good.” the blond man praised, and your eyes traveled up in attempt to see him, his own met your sight, and he took a second to push a strand of hair behind your ear. His hips buckled up a couple more times, with your lips tightening around him. You wanted to taste him, you were eager to do so, but alas these men had entirely different plans for you.

As he felt his stomach cramping in pleasure, Spencer decided to remove himself from your mouth, to which you yet again complained. He signaled Hotch to get up, and he gently helped you stand by grabbing you around the shoulders. “I wanted to taste you!” you cried out with a huff of your cheeks, turning your head to look at Reid.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart, you will get the chance, I’m nowhere near done.” he directed you to Emily’s desk once again, poor girl will have to throw away the whole thing by the time the night ends, and he guided you as if he was transporting an unsub to a holding cell, Hotch following behind. His hand landed on your head and he forced it forward to have you bent over the wooden surface, your ass out in his direction. He positioned himself at your entrance and easily began to push in. You let out a moan of pure bliss at the sensation of being filled again, this time around with Spencer’s pinkish cock.

His thrusts were gentle compared to Aaron’s, but the pace was rather quicker and deep, he was desperate to feel you. One of his hands landed on the mark that his boss had previously left on you, squeezing it with what seemed almost like rage. The other hand tangled itself on the chain of the cuffs, using it as support to continue pulling your body against his hips. You began to whimper once again, almost like cries, from feeling so close, so fast, more intense than before.

“If you don’t mind…” Hotch’s voice snapped you out of your own mind “…I’ll be using this side” your body was positioned close to the edge, your cheek laying on the surface facing the hall; Hotch stood in front of your mouth, guiding the tip to your lips, not quite pushing in yet. The opening of your mouth was the approval he needed to finally slide his length in the slippery hole. Unlike Spencer, he wasn’t paying particular attention to how deep he went, his hips continuing to push trying to find the pleasure he had taken from himself moments before.

Down south, Spencer’s eyes were focused on your ass, it looked so magnificent, swallowing him in without protesting. He could feel you twitching, you felt heavenly to him, never did he imagine he would actually have the chance to fuck you, let alone have you whimper because of him, so desperately. He wanted to make you cum, to have you trembling in a way Hotch couldn’t do it. His fingers slid in between your thighs in a similar fashion, and his index yet again began paying attention to your sensitive bundle of nerves.

You were going on overdrive, your bottom half was getting attention everywhere, and your top could barely hold any air from the thick member using your mouth as his personal flesh light. “I’ve seen every landscape in this country,” Hotch began to say, his eyes staring tenderly down at you “and there’s no prettier sight than you like this, taking me all in.” the praise sent shockwaves all over your body, and your walls began to clench around Spencer.

He was trying to keep himself sane, not wanting to come just yet, he wanted to give you more pleasure, to have you wobbling even more. “Hey, truth or dare?” he asked in between grunts as he tapped on your back, letting you know the question was for you “If I remember correctly, it’s my turn.” he clarified. Aaron’s cock, however, was not giving you much of an opportunity to answer. You made random sounds around his length, and the vibrations gave him an extra wave of pleasure.

“She said ‘Truth’” your boss translated for him, a prideful smirk plastered all over his face, pleased with the fact that he was barely letting you speak.

“Whose dick tastes best?” Spencer shot Hotch a smug look and he replied with a shake of his head.

You pulled back, letting go of Aaron’s cock in attempt to answer the question “Yo-“ before you could even began the sentence, your boss’s hands guided your head into its previous position and thrusted his shaft back inside your mouth; you complied and continued swallowing your cheeks around it. It was Hotch’s turn to look smug, and Spencer chuckled at his actions.

The situation was becoming almost unbearable, you needed to come, you were so close, and here they were playing ‘who wore it best?’ with your mouth for a gown. Spencer seemed to notice your desperation when your eyes began to tear up. His hips changed positions, and it hit a spot so sweet you couldn’t hold back anymore. Your walls clenched around him, your mouth let go of Aaron’s dick to allow your voice to come through “Fuck, Spencer! Inside, come inside!” you begged as your release began to drip down your thigh.

Your partner obeyed your commands, and he pulled roughly on the cuffs to have his member all the way inside of you as he spilled his seed. You shut your eyes and smiled to yourself, it felt so good to be filled up, specially by someone you had wanted to fuck for so long. Light curses and a mention of your name left his lips, he gave a couple more thrusts trying to ride down his high, and finally pulled out of you.

Hotch had taken the lead on himself to let you enjoy your orgasm; he continued to jerk off at a fast pace in front of you, his tip basically rubbing the side of your face. You were about to take him back in when he moved, and you noticed he was walking towards your rear. Panic drew in your eyes, and you cried out beggingly “Aaron, please don’t, I can’t take anymore.” you whispered in his direction.

“It’ll be one second.” he said, and you braced yourself for yet another round of overstimulation. Instead, you felt how his tip slid in an out a couple of times, and he walked back to have his hips at the same level as your face. You watched in awe how his member was coated in what seemed like cum, and you looked up with surprise “If I remember correctly, you wanted to taste him” if your brain hadn’t been just freshly fucked, you would have given than man round three right there. You opened your mouth widely, and he pressed his shaft once again. He held you still by the head as he continued to thrust, considerably faster this time, and moments after he pushed deeply in, allowing his release to spill inside your mouth. He must have been pent up, because it became a little hard to hold all of it in. Your tongue rolled around, taking a second to taste both loads along with some of your own fluids.

He pulled back after he made sure everything was released, but his hand tugged at your chin to force it up and closed, not permitting that anything were to spill. “Truth or dare.” he asked as the final question of the game.

“Dare” you barely mumbled.

“Swallow.” was his last command, and you more than happily obliged.

Spencer stood in shock watching the scene, like whatever had taken over him had finally left his body. Hotch seemed to be the same, his stern glare softening once again to the relaxed one he had outside of work. Reid hurried to get the key and undid the bind on your hands, Hotch grabbed your shoulders and helped you straighten back up so you could be standing once again. “You okay?” he asked, tilting his head to get a better look at your face.

“I don’t think my throat is in the right place because of you, and you ask if I’m okay?” you snarked playfully. The three of you shared a laugh, and Hotch offered a sincere apology, which you shrugged off since it was not big deal, not like you didn’t enjoy it anyways. Spencer walked back to his desk to slide into his pants, suddenly self-conscious about his body being exposed, and threw his shirt loosely over his shoulders before starting to gather your clothes together.

Your boss reached for his jacket and laid it over your shoulders before he started to get dressed as well “Reid.” he said in a commanding voice, back to the boss demeanor he usually had “Help her get cleaned up and then take her home.” he turned at you instead “I don’t want you driving after that, got it?” his words made you blush slightly, he seemed like a completely different person, but you nodded in response.

“You’re not going out with us?” Spencer asked curiously.

“I need to oversee that the floor gets cleaned and Emiliy’s desk gets…” he made a pause, looking at the surface covered in sweat and other fluids “…burned down, hopefully” he joked. Both of you agreed with the statement, but before Reid could direct you to the office's bathroom, Hotch took a step forward in between the two of you “Hey,” he spoke up to get your attention, his hands laid gently on your face once it turned to him and he leaned in to place a gentle, but deep, kiss to your lips “thank you for tonight, I had a lovely evening.” he smiled as he spoke.

You tried your best to suppress a wide smile “Well,” you started “I would say ‘anytime’, but this club kind of only gets together once a year.” you joked.

“Can’t wait until next year, then.” he answered without even looking up as he revised the countless messages that he got while he was occupied. He patted Reid on the shoulder as a goodbye and headed back to his office.

After everything was clean on your body, and you didn’t look like you had just been attacked by hyenas, Spencer walked you out of the FBI building. The trip down the elevator being slightly too quiet for someone who had just moved your liver to a completely different position. Your legs began to wobble again, feeling like they were going to give in, and Spencer stepped closer to offer his body for support. “You can lean on me.” he said with a gentle smile, and you took his word “By the way, you still owe me one answer that, if I remember correctly, was cruelly taken from me.” he said as he chuckled recalling the scene.

You laughed along “Alright, rules are rules, do you want to ask the same question, or would you like to change it?”

“Actually, I think I’ll change it.” his arm darted out to surround your shoulders with it, making the position more stable for you “Would you like to do this again sometime? Minus Hotch, of course.” he diverted his gaze as he asked.

You tilted your head with surprise, yet another blush creeping at your face. “You mean, like, next Valentine’s?” you asked with genuine surprise.

“Well, that, or,” he chuckled to himself, finally daring to look back at you “next Friday? Preferably after dinner.”

There was no holding back the bright smile that appeared on your face, or the flutter in your stomach. Your head leaned on his shoulder, and you could feel his land on top of yours in a loving embrace.

“Deal.”

[safety-pin-punk]

Punk 101: A Guide To Critical Thinking

We all know that critical thinking is important, and it's something that any punk will tell you is an essential component of advocacy and pushing for societal changes. But, what exactly is critical thinking? As defined by the dictionary, it's “the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment”. And that's a good, short definition! But it can make the act of thinking critically seem a bit hard and over complicated for some people. So lets phrase it in a way that seems more manageable:

Critical Thinking is the act of taking in information, understanding it, and forming or connecting ideas because of it

Sounds easy enough, right! So then what are the steps one has to take in order to be a critical thinker? I’m glad you asked! Here's a list in no particular order:

Learn About Things - In order to fully understand information and evidence, you need to know about the topic! Whether the issue is social justice or environmental protection, you need to have a base knowledge on the topic in order to form opinions on it. Researching topics on your own or taking classes are great ways to get informed!

Recognize Bias From The Source And Prejudices From Yourself - No source of information will ever be without bias. A good example of this is how different new networks discuss the same event. One might praise it, while another says it was bad. When trying to understand the information to form your own opinions, it's important to separate the information from the biases of the source. In general, it's good to remember that a pure fact is just the information without an opinion attached to it. On a similar note, you also need to be aware of your own bias! When you form opinions, ask yourself *why* you have that opinion. Do you have a reason? If you were to have grown up with different life experiences, do you think your opinion would be different?

Go Straight To The Original Source - A good way to try and avoid bias is to go to the original source. Maybe news network A and news network B have differing opinions on a Tumblr post. Instead of trying to navigate those conflicting opinions to find the facts about the post, you can just go straight to the post itself!

How Reliable Is The Source And The Evidence - How much should you trust the source that you got the information from? Do they have a reputation of giving factual information? Can you find the information on any other sources? Or maybe someone is yelling about something online, but they’ve failed to add a link. It might make sense to trust what a well established researcher says without a source for their information, but maybe not some random person on twitter. Even if you have a primary source for where the information came from, it’s good to be cautious of the information itself. Sometimes false information is spread around on purpose or because of misunderstandings. 

What Is Being Excluded - Because biases exist, it is always possible that the source you are getting your information from is excluding more information either by accident or on purpose. To avoid missing information about a topic, it's good to check multiple sources and see if any have information that the others didn’t. A simple example of this would be two children playing on a playground. Child A pushes Child B, who gets hurt. When asked about what happened, Child A would say that Child B got hurt, but exclude the fact that it was their fault to avoid getting in trouble. Meanwhile, Child B and any bystanders would likely provide that information. 

What Is The Other Side Of The Issue And Why Does It Exist - You don’t have to agree with other sides of an argument, but it’s very important to be able to understand what they are, who thinks that way, and why they think that way. This will help you to see other points of view and counter any points they make in a discussion with understanding rather than anger or frustration. This is also important because it can expand your own opinions and judgments on a topic. Maybe the other side has points that you have never considered before, but now thinking about them has developed your own beliefs.

Avoid Black And White Thinking - Remember that the world does not exist in a good/bad duality. Everything will have problems, and the things that have problems might even have benefits. The world and its problems exist on a grayscale. To incorporate this into your thinking, try to understand *why* someone or something is doing something, the impacts it may have on multiple different communities, who it helps, and who it hinders. It's important to understand all facets of something before you form your opinion, otherwise you may be lacking very important details.

Don’t Forget To Fact Check - Never trust just one source, no matter how reliable it is! I usually recommend finding the information from at least 3 different sources before you confirm whether it's true or not!

Be Willing To Change Your Mind - Part of being a critical thinker that is often forgotten about is remembering to keep an open mind. Because critical thinking is based on the practice of learning new information, understanding it, and then forming/linking ideas, it is an opportunity to grow and change. You may start out advocating for one thing, but then through time, experience, and thinking, end up advocating for something slightly (or majorly) different. That is more than okay, and it's a sign of growth and maturity!

Resources to help learn how to think critically:

The Foundation for Critical Thinking https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/index-of-articles/1021/

The University of Tennessee https://www.utc.edu/academic-affairs/walker-center-for-teaching-and-learning/thinkachieve/critical-thinking-resources

The Element of Thought https://theelementsofthought.org/further-exploration/links/thinking/

The Better Future Program https://www.betterfutureprogram.org/liberation-library.html

My entire masterlist can be found here!!

[anemicjellyfish]

About Stella

Been thinking about her character every now and then. This post was initially 100% about how her behavior left me thinking she was a spoiled brat for most of her life. But it evolved into something else. Sorry. I do still think she's a spoiled brat, though.

In Western Energy, Striker returns and successfully kidnaps Stolas. It isn't a surprise to us, as we remember Stella hired him previously in the Harvest Moon Festival.

This is a surprise to Andrealphus, however.

What gets me is that Andrealphus coddles Stella for a portion of their conversation. He also tries leading her to make a conclusion by herself without directly telling her what to think.

He gently brings his sister to the information that's most important: that the death of her husband wouldn't necessarily leave her in a good position, just Octavia.

It's only when Stella can't seem to connect the dots that Andrealphus has a little outburst of irritation (and sibling energy, like with the "you stupid cow" line).

After that, Andrealphus goes right back to his previous tone. He once again tries to bring Stella to the point without saying it directly. And when he eventually does get around to it, he's only making it as a suggestion.

Something about the way Stella is sitting, the way Andrealphus circles behind her, and the way he is still trying to convince her through suggestions instead of beinf direct... I have a feeling Stella has had this happen to her most of her life.

As much as I don't want to "go to bat" for Stella right before I go to sleep, I do get the feeling that she's been in this type of situation before. I feel like others, even if it's just her brother, have manipulated her into doing things that they want her to do.

I really think the rest of the Goetia will have a lot of subtlety in their social circles, and that social cues could be complex to navigate. Stella is direct with both her language and her feelings. I'm curious if she's an outlier due to that. And I'm wondering if she's been kept in this mentality on purpose (again, by her brother and/or other Goetia).

I do still think she's a spoiled brat. Her behavior is immature and crude, even before Stolas cheated on her. But I wonder if the reveal of her backstory (which we are supposed to get eventually) would shed some light as to why she is this way.

[lovelykil]

─Headcanons─

kyle x reader older ver.

hc; random nsfw hcs

cw; nsfw

note; I'm back sorta I haven't been writing cause of school 😒 plus no motivation anyway 💁🏾‍♀️⤵

black reader implied (≧◡≦)

noww truth be told that there was this ONE time

heavy on the ONE

one time kyle actually was a little frisky and a horny shit at a sleepover.

WHAATT? The awkward dork who gets nervous from hand holding?

Yeah, okay. But it was only that ONE time.

Maybe something was just in the air or he drank something ordinary, not sure but the guys were all deep asleep on the ground, well hopefully.

Kenny resting on Cartman's stomach, his arms spiraled outward and legs while Cartman himself furrowed his eyebrow in his sleep from the light weight on his body.

Stan comfortably in his own spot, resting on his side as drool fell from his mouth.

Kyle looking up at the ceiling wide eyed and in a sweat with a slow growing erection on his bed next to you.

And you, on your side probably half asleep or about to actually fall asleep.

Kyle would look over at you, your curly hair out of its cap from forgetting it back at your house when you were packing a bag for the sleepover.

He saw your shoulders rise and fall slowly contemplating whether he should really bother you this late, well he didn't exactly know what time it was but he assumed it was late as fuck considering everyone was pretty much knocked out.

The more he stared at your shoulders the more his eyes just wandered down to your back and bottom, you were wearing an old shirt of his, might I say a big one.

All his shirts are big on you though, mf is tall asf ugh

Your legs were covered by the blanket but your ass wasn't.

And ohh my god surprise surprise, no shorts.

Who wears shorts with long t shirts anyway

I'm jk but you did take them off like right before crashing it was just hot in Kyle's room for some reason at that time.

His perverted gaze fell right on your slightly showing underwear.

he wanted so bad to touch you right now, his dick throbbed inside his boxers. He looked away trying to fight the urge. He was so horny right now for no reason it kinda pissed him off lmao.

He rarely ever does get like this, and at such a worst timing.. his friends?? omg

he bit his lip, his mind racing.

The ginger sat up to take a look at his friends, checking if the coast was clear. it was. Not a moving body in sight.. just sometimes obnoxiously loud ass snores from Cartman.

He laid back down with a sigh and let his urges take over after a little hesitation.

You let out a little yawn moving your legs ontop of the other in sleep so your bottom was basically there for easy grab.

Kyle had scooted close to you, his hand slowly running down your arm then rubbed your thigh. You shifted in sleep some bit from the touch, backing up into him.

Your butt rubbed against his boner, he grunted to this, sucking in his lip.

"Hey y/n.." seconds later from what you on did accident, he whispered.

You didn't respond, you were slowly getting sucked into dream land.

His arm sneaked toward your stomach he slowly pulled you closer to him, lining up his member with your clothed woman hood.

"baby.." he pleaded in a soft manner into your ear that just made you alert, someone was trying to wake you up.

You hummed a response, your eyes opening slowly now.

"mmh.. kyle?"

"yeah it's me sweetheart." He nudged his head into the back of yours causing faint tired smile to grow on your face.

"what's up.. mmh..?" Kyle fell silent, resting his chin on your head. He pondering for a moment then spoke.

"are you awake..?"

"...nah.. I'm sleepin."

"really?"

"...no kyle what you want?" you muttered, coming off a little annoyed from his question. I mean you were like half awake half not not his fault he didn't know 🙁

"sorry I'm just a little.. uhm.." He faltered again. You waited for his next word, trying not to fall asleep.

"You're what? Hungry, thirs–"

"Horny, I'm very horny right.. now baby.." a low whiney confessing slipped through his lips and into your ear. You felt something poke you from behind right after he admitted.

Your eyes open some more a little stunned, you were still tired but now much more aware of what was happening.

"The guys are down there kyle.."

"I know I know but.. fuck." He breathed, his warm breath was felt on your neck sending a shiver down your spine. Your stomach tingled when his hand reached your underwear, rubbing your pussy slowly.

"Can I baby? Will you let me?" kyle begged, softly now closer as ever.

You could just feel the warmth between you two it was making you hot..

You moaned softly as his fingers gently graced your cunt.

You didn't exactly know what to say I mean the thought of doing something like this right when his friends are in the room was kinda bizarre.. then again you weren't not.. not into this..

"mmm.. y-yeah go ahead.." You consented, giving him the green light to fulfill his urges. He smiled, kissed your cheek then brought his fingers to his mouth.

"Try to stay quiet, can you do that for me hmm?" He licked his middle and ring finger and began to go beneath your panties to rub your now wet temple.

You nodded your head with no words said, trying not to moan so much just control your breathing.

"Good job y/n." He kissed your neck ending his sentence with a smile, his fingers sliding themselves against your cunt some more. You sucked in your lips and felt your pussy begin to throb, wanting more.

He teased, rubbing your clit with a little snicker when you started to shift around, your breathing growing heavy.

"You want more baby? Tell me you do." His annoying teasing started to make you a little out of control and wanting to beg him to stop.

You weren't one to beg but shit..

"ah..mm.. kyle please.. I want more..." you trying to keep your volume down while being played with made that boner of his just grow some more into you.

"Mmmh okay since you sounded so pretty." He soon stuck his long pale fingers inside your slippery pussy. You gasped from the contact of his digits.

You always forget how fucking long they were.

"o-oh fuck.."

"You like that don't you? want me to fuck you with my fingers?" The teasing in his low voice made your cheeks warm and made you tight around him.

"mmhh agh!.. stop being such a tease.." You whined, growing flustered. He chuckled lightly, moving his fingers in and out of you slowly then picked up the pace just after a little more teasing.

always doing some shi like this 😒

"Alright Alright I'll stop, you just want me inside you don't you?" He moved his hips into your ass letting you feel his erection. Your mouth opened letting out a whine just after he moved his hips into you and slid his digits in and out fast just to hear mess up your speech on purpose.

"nngh- you.. asshole.."

"whats that? didn't hear you love." His fingers slid in and out of you more, his pace picking up soon you could hear the wet slippery noises from beneath the blanket that was half covering you.

You had to cover your mouth at this point, you were letting out to much noises as it already was,, your pussy was enjoying his fingers way to much, and he was enjoying your muffled out moans to his doing.

He wanted to fuck you so bad, he thought of just finishing you off with his fingers first then grab ahold of your hips to ram his throbbing cock inside your soaked cunt from behind and listen to you struggle to keep down your voice.

"uhh.. I need you inside me badly kyle,, mmh..!"

"Youu do? oh you're such a good girl for me sweetheart I'm going to make you finish first."

what's a short oneshot without my CLASSIC

good girl line 😫

Istg

You can't tell me he wouldn't say this he's all for praising

Whether it's during intimacy or just regular day stuff he still praises you

LIKE

"Oh you got a 90 on our math test? Good job sweetheart" 😁

AND

"oh fuck, you're such a good girl.. you're doing a good jo..job.. a-ahh.."

explodes

anyway

And so are you 😊

It was around midnight, everyone was asleep

Well your parents were

You and Kyle definitely weren't lmafo

good thing their bedroom was downstairs cause you were quite loud up in your room, your hair in a fuzzy mess, legs quaking in their spot and loud breathless moans escaping your mouth as Kyle held your legs open, his tounge venturing deep inside you. His thumb rubbed your pearl, driving you crazy and arching your back with a rush of pleasure flowing inside you.

Your hands eventually latched onto his thick hair trying to shove him away from the way his tounge licked your clit in such a way you squirmed and whined.

Even though you begged him to stop, your voice trembling, fingers stuck in curly red hair, sweat running down the sides of your dark skin literally on the verge of breaking

You actually didn't want him to stop.

It wasn't your safe word anyway and he knew, so he kept along, gripping your thighs and shoving his face like he was some dog.

"im.. I'm gonna come soon ky- oh fuck.."

You whimpered, your breath hot as well as the rest of your body. Kyle lifted up his head for a second and looked into your eyes.

"Just tell me when baby."

"o..okay.." He went right back down with a smile.

Soon you felt his tounge slide it's way back in letting out an 'aahh..' you gripped your blanket and panted heavy. You made some incoherent sentences to him in a breathless haze feeling your peak near.

"a-ah- I'm coming! coming.. f-fuck..-" Kyle rubbed your clit to satisfy you once more before you eventually came.

You felt like you just ascended, your eyes rolling back, body shaking with pleasure and your back arched soon all of it came to an end and you laid back down, trying to catch your breath.

Kyle came join you after caressing your thigh with care, he crawled his way to the side of you. He watched you pant heavily you looked over at him with a faint smile still trying to catch your breath.

He smiled back, his hand finding its way to your cheek to kiss you. As the kiss grew you slowly sat up for him and leaned into the long kiss, your tongue soon separated from his as you two panted together looking at each other.

Once your breathing was normal you giggled "I taste weird." You put a hand to your mouth. Kyle shook his head with a playing eye roll.

"You taste good." He brought your head to him so he could land a kiss to your forehead. You smiled to yourself, your cheeks getting warm.

"Thank you for that even though we were just bored." You picked up his hands to hold it with yours. He swung your hands with his a little with a smile.

"I love making you feel good, I love you– Wait did I make you feel good? Oh wait what if you just faked your orgasm?! oh my god I'm a horrible boyfr-"

"WOAH hold on- no I didn't just fake this MIND blowing orgasm you gave me it was real, you did such a great job baby remember that." You cut him off and kissed the back of his pasty white hand.

He blushed, smiling shyly at your words and watching you kiss his hand like some princess.

"Really?" He asked, wanting a little more reassurance.

"Yes really, now I need to find my sweat pants." You kissed his cheek and smiled at him then stepped off the bed.

Kyle's gaze fell on you as you stepped off the bed, a big giddy smile on his flushed face.

Reassurance was such a big thing for him plus the praising oh myyy lordd

As you took a step forward your legs immediately felt like jello and just as fast as you got up you fell on the ground with a shriek.

Kyle eyes widen in shock, he quickly rushed to your aid in a worry.

"ARE YOU OKAY.."

"I think I broke my legs or you just did I don't know I can't walk."

".. I'll go find your sweats stay in bed."

"And new underwear! I lost my underwear too."

"I- okay"

He has very noticeable scratches on his back it looks like he got attacked by a bear but in reality, it was you who did that 🙏🏾

In the locker room when he changes out of his basketball uniform the guys couldn't help but ask what the fucks up with his BACK

"Dude what the hell happened to your back? You didn't tell me you got attacked by a dog or something." Stan walked passed Kyle, his eyes fixing on his bestfriends body

Okay that sounds kinda gay but it isn't alright

Most of the guys agreed, staring at him. Kyle looked at them confused.

"What? I wasn't attacked by a dog? What's wrong with my back?"

"Go look in the mirror dude." Kyle's eyebrows rose, he set his shirt down to walk over to the mirrors.

He turned himself around to observe his lower half. To his surprise that shit was red as fuck, scratches everywhere he's not really sure how he didn't even feel the pain right now well until he touched one scratch.

He winced in pain, adjusting his shoulders back in discomfort. He looked in the mirror trying to remember how he even got those scars. Just seconds later when he looked down at his matching bracelet you got him his eyes widen.

Kyle had one day came home a little irritated from the lost of the basetball game, 20-24. Lost by four points. He blamed Kenny for getting distracted by those cheerleaders in their skirts and crop tops rooting for him.. no like literally they were just rooting for Kenny.

🧍🏾‍♀️

anyway he didn't pass the ball from his obvious attention towards the girls and the 4th quarter was just ending once the buzzer went off the crowd cried in disappointment, some teammates slapped the back of Kenny's fucking head shouting at him in frustration.

"DUDE STOP FONDING OVER THE CHEERLEADERS"

"Oh shit we lost?"

"YES"

"Oh my bad guys lmao" Clyde pushed Kenny and ran out off the court he felt tears start to form from the lost of the game. Tolkien groaned running after his friend.

"We did good guys alright? We'll get them next time." Tolkien reassured trying to be optimistic but secretly he wanted to slap Kenny in the face as he ran off to catch Clyde.

Kyle shook his head, he was too frustrated to even face Kenny right now so he walked off the court along with some other teammates, his one hand on his hip while the other pinched the root of his nose.

"Sorry I couldn't make it to the game I forgot I had an essay due literally tomorrow."

"Don't sweat it, we lost anyway." Kyle threw his bag onto the ground and laid straight on your bed with a huff.

You stopped typing and looked over at him, he was pretty bummed, pissed off even.

"Oh shit sorry, I'm sure you did your best." You rolled over to him, patting his head. He didn't say much except just stared off into the distance.

You awkwardly stopped petting him and looked around from the quietness, he didn't seem in the mood to converse.

"Okay I'm just gonna finish my es-"

"Come here." Suddenly he was brought back to reality, he reached for your hand, sitting up.

"Hm?" You looked back at him, looking into his green eyes. He paused trying to come up with something.

"Can you sit down over here.." He let go of your hand to pat a spot next to him. You looked at him then at your laptop that had your essay tap open, ready for it's finish.

You didn't think he would take long to say a few words to you so you listened to him, switching your spot to your bed.

Once you were next to him he looked at you and you could just tell..

This wasn't going to just a short talk.

"fuck, Kyle really?"

"Just for a bit.. I swear I just need to let some steam off." His hand fell on your thigh as he pleaded. You looked up at him, your eyes fixing back on your laptop set on your desk.

The clicker blinking every second.

"My parents might come home early."

"Well keep your voice down, yeah?" He started to take off his shirt. He set it down on the floor with your slippers by your bed. You watched, biting your lip down from nerves.

Though he looked so good right now, he was slightly structured his torso built well considering he does play sports he doesn't work out much but you could definitely tell he was healthy, and his waist..

oh god

You found yourself slipping off your shirt as well, taken away by your boyfriend's beauty. He went in-between your legs and cuffed your face, smashing his lips into yours with force. Your arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer to the hungry frustrated kiss you felt his fingers tug lightly on your thick hair, causing a low moan to escape from your mouth.

He bit your bottom lip with a smirk, pulling away for a second. He looked down at you, huffing. You stared back trying to hold back from tugging on his sweats.

"What?" You asked, as he kept staring into your soft eyes. He laughed shaking his head.

"Nothing it's just I felt a heartbeat from you. You want me don't you Y/n?" The teen cooed, inching toward your neck. Your eyes looked up in embarrassment, feeling your face heat up.

How'd he even know?

this boy is full of surprises one day he's a little angry cute nerd next thing you know he's a horny spaz, wanting to cum in you and bare his children despite being so young.

"Well I mean yeah, it's kinda hot when you're forceful."

"Oh really?"

"mhm-mh.." He backed away and examined your face.

Your eyes kept traveling down to his sweats growing a bit impatient, your body temperature was rising every second he looked at you.

He very quickly took notice, grinning. He tugged on the strings of his sweats, undoing the tie.

"Why don't you help me take them off so I can finally fuck you baby?" He whispered, his tone sensually and playful.

"oh fuck" you muttered, already starting to feel your climax by the sound of his voice.

You reached out and helped him undo the tie, he watched with a smirk his erection was already poking through the sweats.

"oh, you good girl.."

Soon later your nails were digging into his skin, his cock ramming into your cunt fast, too fast you couldn't think much at the pace he was going your brain was practically mush, your moans grew louder with every rough thrust he did, grunting right by your ear.

Your hair bounced along with his, some of his curls would slowly fall in his face as he thrusted himself into you. You sometimes giggle and move away the curl to crash your lips into his then pull away whenever he slid himself in and out fast, feeling his dick roughly ruin your insides.

Your nails just clawed the fuck out of him when he did that, the twitching sensation from his dick inside you as he hit your womb made you scream his name and gasp for air.

He'd whisper you lovely words in a sweat, next to your ear or above you.

'lovely words' being

"Oh yeah you like that don't you? Taking in my cock like the pretty girl you are."

"I'm going to fucking cum in you so hard baby, make you such a gre..great mommy."

"ohh shit you feel so fuck..ing good around my dick, I can't.. even uhh.. fuck.."

:3

And that's when Kyle's flashback ended, his face was red as fuck his thought process coming to an abrupt stop. He rushed back to his locker, shoving his clothes in there.

"You saw them?"

"Y-Yeah.. I uhm." He put on his sweater then closed his locker. The guys looked at him expecting an explanation from what they were all wondering about. Kyle just stared at all of them, gulping.

"I-yeah a dog.. attacked me. Whoops."

"There's barely dogs running around south park though." Craig looked over.

"You know what mind your business." He huffed, his face still red as he began to leave the locker room. Everyone watched him storm out, shocked.

Kenny came walking in with a towel wrapped around his waist.

"Those scratches are from his girlfriend, idiots." Kenny snickered, walking to his locker. Stan looked at Tolkien, Tolkien looked over at Clyde and Clyde looked at Criag, most of them confused.

"Is she like abusing him or something? Holy shi–"

"Ohh that makes sense now.." Craig connected the dots, sitting up from the bench. Tolkien looked away thinking.. then it hit him.

"Ohhh. Damn."

"What?" Clyde eagerly waited for someone to explain though no one would. Stan went to call Kyle to tease him about it the rest of the boys started to get dress while Clyde still wondered why the hell his back was fucked up.

"GUYS c'mon!"

"Dude how do you not get it."

"I just DONT? MAYBE EXPLAIN"

"My god you're a faggot."

"WHAT"

"Shut up Clyde"

Now alot of people say he has a breeding kink 🤔

which I meannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

makes sense he is big on family when he gets older which just makes it really difficult to just say fuck it all and get you pregnant now.

well we have birth control for a reason I guess 💁🏾‍♀️

There's always that loud thought in his head as he's just close to his end, gripping onto your hips with a flushed expression. Going in and out fast trying to cum as he whines.

'come inside her, she'll look so pretty with your baby in her'

'fucking shit just breed her already, you know you wanna'

'you'll have little mixed cute babies with her.'

okay call me crazy but it's so rare I've ever seen a ginger black person 😭 anyway

He's soo tempted to do it, just one more thrust and he's fucked.

"Y/n are you on.. birth control?!!!! Hurry fu..fuck.." He leaned down, his arms pinning you. Your thoughts were all mush so it took a bit to answer his question.

"huh.?? Oh I think so.. why?"

"Can I cum inside you please, I cant.. hold it.. in anymore." Your pussy throbbed from the thought of his warm seed filling you up, your cunt tightening around his member getting Kyle to whimper.

You nodded vigorously, "yes yes come inside me.. that's kinda hot to think about yeah?" You chuckled with a pant, feeling him move inside you.

He nodded his head, smiling himself.

"no yeah thats.. really fucking hot to think.. oh shit I'm com..ing.."

In matters of seconds you felt his thick gooey fluid flood your insides, the both of you moaned together, his thrusts started to slow down, his dick rubbing against your walls filled with his seed grew sloppy he finally reached his end with you.

"My god one day when we have our own house and are older im going to get you actually pregnant.." He pulled out his cock, breathing heavy. You breathed yourself, your hands went to cuff his face.

"That's cute, if you get me pregnant now I swear to god I'll cut your dick off." You innocently smiled, leaning up to kiss his nose. His eyes widen, his laughter growing nervous.

"I'm gonna go get a towel for you now.. alright?"

"Alright." You watched as he leaned off you but came to a quick pause.

"Are you being serious?" He awkwardly asked, a little fear in his eyes.

You sat up to look at him, you covered up your laugh.

"No, I would never."

"Oh thank god, okay."

"Or I maybe I would."

"huh" 😧

flabbergasted

[steveshairychest]

I wouldn't be mad if we got evil kas Eddie in season 5. Just imagine him waking up with no memory of who he was or how he got there and only knowing what Vecna tells him, 'you're my puppet' 'your friends left you' 'they don't even mourn you'

There's moments where he sees flashes of Dustin, of Erica and Steve, of fighting against something together, but the images are cloudy and their voices are distorted. There's a part of him that's desperately trying to tell him that the people he is fighting are his friends but he won't listen to it. He covers his ears like a child and screams for the voices to stop, to stop confusing him.

The people in front of him hold weapons and call him a name he has no memory of. "Eddie! No!" They shout and scream at him as he holds the curly haired boy by his throat. They don't dare come any closer because every time they try to take a step, he grips the boys throat just a little bit tighter. "Eddie, we're your friends- "

"I am not Eddie! Stop! Stop calling me that!" He screams at them, at the voice in his own head. His voice cracks for a reason unknown to him as he says, "I am Kas. You are not my friends." The words almost refused to leave his lips, he had to spit them out at the people who stood in front of him.

He doesn't want to look at the boy he held because every time his eyes fell on the boy's panicked face, a part of him screamed to let him go, to shove him away to safety, to protect him. "Consider this a taste of what is to come." He says before tightening his grip on the pleading boy's throat.

He doesn't get long to revel in their screams of fear and panic because something thuds against the back of his head causing him to stumble and release the boy. He whips around with a snarl and the last thing he sees is the boy in the denim vest swinging an oar right at his head.

[slavhew]

Hello!

If you're not too busy, would you mind listing some of the things you think count as death flags for Mr. Spender?

There's the obvious fact that he's the "old" mentor to group of young protagonists, but what else do you think would count?

OHH BOY ok so I'd think I'm a crackpot for this but since we're talking about Zack "Foreshadowing" Morrison. I have some thoughts

No harm in leading with the (chronologically) first thing that jumped out at me:

This one IMMEDIATELY made me antsy whenever I came back to it after my initial read, and considering Zack has referred to it on twitter in the past as one of their favorite jokes it's definitely not been forgotten about.

Second, the sheer amounts of near-misses, jokey or not, of Spender narrowly avoiding specifically lightning

Again, not much, but it's weird that it happened thrice, latter two of which had real gravitas rather than an one-off joke.

And third, Spender himself. He's repeatedly shown himself to be kind of a self sacrificing idiot, as well as prideful to a fault. Granted, it's both him and Mina trying to take on all the responsibility of saving Mayview and its inhabitants from their fate.. But Spender is exactly that right measure of doesn't-value-himself-enough (chest footprint aftercare or lack thereof), having an obscene amount of power (enables his loner act + pride) and poor judgement that has the capacity to put him at great risk. And it has!

Spender has not only shown low enough self-esteem to view himself as the de-facto scapegoat for the safety of the town, but also prideful enough to make very bad calls that end up in people, often himself, hurt (COUGH FORGE INCIDENT COUGH)

This is all conjecture, but it's definitely enough to make me worried about him :') Even if all this doesn't mean he'll necessarily die he's definitely getting (even more) seriously injured at some point. I love the guy but he's so far doing a horrible job of convincing me he wants to live bad enough to circumvent at least that

[jaylleoo14]

An Octopus First Impression II

part I

His first proper introduction and your "first" impression

>GN!ReaderxAzul

A/N: This is starting off right where it was finished so please check out part I first to get better context ^3^ And yes, this one is much longer

[disclaimer] A certain someone can't take a damn genuine compliment 🙄 (okay but understandable)

[characters] Azul & a little of a jesting Jade

In all honesty, you knew who Azul was. Who didn't know the dorm leaders when they are the most prominent leading representational figures in each dorm? You've met some of them personally, getting to talk and spend time with them on not so irregular occasions. Sure you see them more than often compared to the others, but it differs and varies. It's usually expected for students to at least show some respect for the dorm leaders, I mean they are dorm leaders for a reason. Yet there really are some arrogant nobodies from time to time and it's only then the wrath of the dorm leader's power and authority gets put into action, reminding everyone just who they are messing with.

Azul was no exception. In your mind, he is a dorm leader, automatically making him more powerful than the average students here and has qualities fitting for this role.

There you sat with the poised man, sitting aside from you on your left as he sat with his back perfectly straight. His posture made you a bit self conscious so you fixed yourself up properly once you realized that your posture wasn't the best against the wooden back of the chair. Just by the way he was sitting and talking, the way he gestured and pointed, everything about him seemed to just radiate professionalism. The way he would explain terms or the events leading up to the main wars, what magic played into what part and so on.

How kind of Azul

Your thoughts are only interrupted for a moment when you think to yourself how kind Azul is, his willingness to help you with your studies. Once that thought is processed in your brain, it then goes back to listening and following along with Azul.

You nod along with his explanations, following where his pointer finger would end up on the pages and his little personal opinions of why things are the way they are.

"Hey Azul? How about we take a break? I feel like I kinda need it" A hand props up on your cheek as your posture goes back into a relaxed curve and your elbow propped on the table and you let out a little sigh. He continues to keep up with his prim sense of etiquette, pushing up the frames of his glasses.

"Why of course. I'm sure going over the material for about almost an hour straight must be daunting and draining for someone such as yourself. Though we'll get back into the lesson once 20 minutes has passed." He flashes a smile your way, a stark contrast to your more drained self.

Perhaps it was because this is the first time you and Azul have ever interacted with one another, but one of your first thoughts is rather if you'd prefer his tutoring or Riddles. As you consider it some more you think as of right now you'd rather stick with Azul because you're pretty sure Riddle is a bit fed up with you right now and you don't want to feel the pricks of the thorns from the rose.

"Hey Azul? Thanks so much for taking the time to help me out. I appreciate it" Clasping your hands as you stretch yourself out, he lets out an affirmation that it was no trouble at all.

There are a diverse set of students here at Night Raven College. To brute strength guys to the most pretty silver tongue guys out there. If it weren't for your careful judgment in knowing when and where to proceed you probably wouldn't have made it this far with your companion Grim by now. Pomifiore is known for its elegance, the dorm based on the tenacity of the Fairest Queen. The students residing there you'll see are full of fair skinned and perfect silky haired individuals, looking as if they are from the richest medieval fairytale books you'd read in dark romance.

You've never got the chance to properly look at Azul, the whole session's main focus being the studying part. So when you come to take in his features, you can't help but to take a moment and stare in awe at how handsome and dashing he was in an unobtrusive manner.

He's so pretty

The way his lips looked plush and prettily pink, is that his natural color? His eyes looked calculative and thinking, yet looking so enchanting. The mole diagonal under his lips, giving it a nice accent. Sure you've seen some fairly good looking people who don't belong in Pomifiore, but his fair clean and glistening skin and his perfect features could fool anyone into believing he was a part of that dorm if he were to wear the uniform. Vil will always be the fairest of them all, but something about Azul enraptured one's heart just as well. The tentacles pull at the heartstrings as it lays there beating in the grotto. His look almost humbling despite his beckoning alluringness, as if it could draw me into the depth of deep waters like a siren calling in passerby sailors.

"Prefect, may I ask why you were watching me during flight class?"

"What?" In real time, despite all these thoughts running in your head you could say that it lasted for only about a minute - which is long enough for him to be aware that you were clearly staring even if you were trying to be discreet about it.

You feel your cheeks turning a warm red, embarrassed by such a blunder. "Oh well, I mean I can't take flying classes so you know, whenever flight class is in session I'm usually in the back doing exercises. And during one of our joint sessions way back I saw a glimpse of you then"

"I see, what a terrible time to see me truly"

"haha, what do you mean? It was pretty f- ahem. I mean, I think despite not being the all time best at wielding the broom, your skills prove enough to pass the class"

"Don't think that I didn't catch what you were going to say '' A little scowl forms on his face and I cant help but to laugh a little instead of feeling intimidated.

"Sorry sorry. But at least you guys can ride the brooms, it looks fun." Your voice sounds a little left behind as you recall the memory. "Being magicless isn't all that great when everyone is in the air and you're the only one on the ground doing sit-ups"

A shiver runs up your spine just thinking back to Vargas impeccable-muscle brained shouts.

"As the kind hearted person I am I can say that I can sympathize with your situation prefect, i'm sure being magicless in an a magic-filled school has it's risks." Azul twists his upper body to face me, sharing indulgence in our conversation. "And as the benevolent man I am, my doors are always open thus you need any sort of assistance, I'd gladly like to help in any way possible"

He places those gloved hands of his on his chest to give off a welcoming presence, a charming smile to top it off.

How generous he is

"Has anyone ever told you how pretty you are Azul?"

Now it was Azul's turn to stumble. "What? Are you trying to ma-"

"Look I didn't mean to get you off guard like that, but I think you should just know that. Take my compliment as a thank you for your generosity."

Azul can only give you a suspicious look, as if you had some hidden intent or meaning to those words. His piercing gaze shooting you like a triton. It was a rather sudden change in topic, he cant help but assume something was up.

"You don't have to believe me, I'm just saying you're pretty jeez. Take a compliment will you? It's not everyday you get one"

Clearing his throat he straightened his posture which he didn't even realize faltered.

"Why then, thank you for the compliment, Prefect." Just barely a light hue of peachy pink can be seen on his ears, and you were right. It's not every day he gets compliments. Weird, why wouldn't he? He's so pretty.

Because this is an all boys school full of cocky bastards who can't compliment others genuinely for shit y/n. Of course, an inner sigh comes out.

"Why are you suddenly so awkward now?" A mirthful laughter springing passed my lips.

"I'm not being awkward in the slightest, perhaps you should be better at reading others before deducting a conclusion"

"Someone sounds defensive" You divert your eyes to look up to tone it as indirectness, leaning against the creaking wooden chair. 

“And someone thinks they are being rather cheeky”

“Haha, no way! It was just a simple compliment. Did you want me to start teasing you instead and genuinely not mean it?”

“If you think someone such as yourself could tease me then you’d be terribly mistaken. I’d say you’re acting rather comfortable with me if you can so easily say such a thing.” Tilting his head up as an artful smirk paints his face, perhaps to better describe it better; a machiavellian one as his lips pursue to open to speak. “Comfortable enough to even shamelessly stare at me. But I am pleased to know my physical appearance is to your liking, Prefect.”

“I think it's normal to stare at pretty things though.” A lighthearted chuckle fills the air around me and I share a similar smirk to his, only this one was painted as amusement and playfulness. “Were you thinking you had something on your face instead? That would be a little entertaining to see you freak over that, if I were to say.” 

He doesn't reciprocate the playfulness however and just shoots back a more stern face. “I see you are feeling rejuvenated enough to want to fool around now, I think that’s enough break time for you.” Readjusting his position he turns to flip the textbook page over and you can’t help but laugh a little.

He’s kinda funny

He’s smart

Almost endearing even

With a slight pout and a feigned whine you scoot up your chair to prop yourself better against the material laid table and lean in to ready yourself to listen and follow along with Azul. With your eye going back to their attentiveness on the book, darting back and forth to write and scribble in your notes, next to you a small smile creeps on Azuls lips. His cheeks slightly a little red; it’s shade comparable to one of a watered down crimson sunset sitting on the edge of the sea. 

Pretty is what they think of me

You can say this study session went well as you both now exit the library, feeling not only drained but confident and pleased to have more self confidence in yourself now. It was not only productive, but you get the impression that your personalities interact with one another well. 

Azul sees you off, insisting he were to personally escort you back to your dorm but you firmly decline. You deemed that it was already enough that he used up at least 4 hours of his time to use it to tutor you.

“I was born with legs, but not a brain big enough as yours to comprehend all of that material in one go or two. Have a pleasant evening Azul, I greatly appreciate your help,” hugging your textbook and notebook stuffed with writings and notes. You wave him goodbye as you walk off.

They have a better image of me now, good

Azul walks back likewise, in a better mood and his mind more at ease. Not only can he use that study session to pull out some favors from you but he was able to wash away that pathetic self of himself on the broom from your head. Killing two birds with one stone, how easy it was. 

‘Has anyone ever told you how pretty you are Azul?’ your words echo like a ripple in his head. On the walk back he can only smile to himself remembering your words of what can be assumed of honesty from the heart and not some simple lip service to butter him up. 

They are rather interesting. We got along better than I expected

Being able to make the Prefect indebted to him is a big score today, the reason why he’s in such a good mood - is what he’s telling himself. But the overly pleased and delighted air around him tells Jade that there is more to it when Azul begins to share the success of today, arriving back at the chic and sea-themed office.

“You seem to have enjoyed your time with the Prefect, Azul. Perhaps if you continue to accompany them they may drown you out with compliments and poke holes in your heart.” 

Purposely saying that in a way which could be taken in two ways, selectively picking and choosing his words, Jade can only teasingly comment.

“I assure you it was all in my own self interest and benefit Jade. I don't let such words to affect me in such ways,” Azul combats his jesting with a serious look in his eyes. Jade can only chuckle a little, going along with Azul’s words to assure him that he meant no harm and it's back to work after spending so much time neglecting them. 

“Of course. It would take some time to poke holes in three hearts instead of one after all”

There you were, lazing on your striped cushioned couch back at the shabby dorm which you can respectively say is your dwelling and your little companions, alongside the ghost who you’ve managed to coexist with dwelling there before you. Your notes are put away and neatly tucked in. Residing in the corner of your history notes, a little ‘he’s kinda cute’ is scribbled on a random page.

Not like he'll ever know though, right?